UMTS Card Dell DW5550 (identical to Ericsson F5521gw) no longer works after upgrade to 12.2 (64bit)

[wolfgangcr]

Ok, tried that, but it still does not ask for any PIN nor does it allow to enable the mobile broadband. This must be deeper, at the driver level - and it is frustrating to know that it worked with opensuse 12.1 just fine...

Any more suggestions?

[wolfgangcr]

As I am still searching for a solution, I first verified that the opensuse 12.1 live system CD still gives me a working connection, and it so does. So now I am looking for workarounds, or other things to try, and I can think of two which - at my skill level - will take some time and also involve some risks. Hence, before trying, I would like to have advice on
- installing 12.1 somewhere as an alternative boot option (after all, I don't need the broadband all the time) -> but I am unsure about how to do that
- trying to switch back (in 12.2) to sysvinit, as this seems to be one of the key differences -> but I am unsure whether this is promising at all, and if it is, I am not sure about the proper way of doing it, nor about the risks this poses for my system

Would any one have any suggestions about these ideas? Thanks!

[wolfgangcr]

I just noticed it works with gnome but not kde - however I don't want to switch to gnome. But would this lead anyone to suggest a possible solution?

[deano_ferrari]

Well, you could just try using the Gnome network manager in the KDE environment. If that works, I think you should then consider posting a bug report...

[wolfgangcr]

upgrading to kde 4.9 (from 4.8.5) didn't bring the card alive either, so I am wondering if falling back to 4.7 would do it - but can one do so without falling back to opensuse 12.1?

[wolfgangcr]

Well, you could just try using the Gnome network manager in the KDE environment. If that works, I think you should then consider posting a bug report...

In fact, this did the trick, thank you! And I only needed the gnome nm ONCE, in order to allow all users to access the card.

It strikes me, as an experienced-linux-user-but-no-hacker, that this is a typical linux problem: some guru must have thought, during the 12.2 upgrade, "ah, we add some security by demanding root to first authorise users to use this connection", but they found absolutely no reason to
1) tell the users about it
2) provide a straightforward way to actually fix this

So I have wasted a couple of evenings on this thing, and I just don't understand why the path to the solution was not provided by the person who built the "extra security"?

(How does one close this case now?)

[wolfgangcr]

...update...

It so turns out that the kde solution is not stable, or rather doesn't work anymore - while in gnome everything is just fine. Can anyone tell me how I would actually use the gnome networkmanager in kde then?

That would be really appreciated...

[deano_ferrari]

If you care to search, there has been a number of threads, blogs etc on this. Some will need to be adjusted for 12.2 obviously, but these should give you the idea:

GNOME NetworkManager Applet in KDE in openSUSE 11.4

How to run GNOME’s NetworkManager applet under KDE

[wolfgangcr]

If you care to search, there has been a number of threads, blogs etc on this. Some will need to be adjusted for 12.2 obviously, but these should give you the idea:

GNOME NetworkManager Applet in KDE in openSUSE 11.4

How to run GNOME’s NetworkManager applet under KDE

Thank you, I have now looked at those links, and they seem hilariously complicated to me and, most importantly, not easily reversible. I think I do not want to ruin my system trying this out.

Maybe this is a silly question, but surely someone must be maintaining the kde networkmanager and hence be able to bring back the functionality it had only one minor version step ago, in 4.8? This seems to me not like a huge and complicated thing to do?

Cheers,

[deano_ferrari]

Maybe this is a silly question, but surely someone must be maintaining the kde networkmanager and hence be able to bring back the functionality it had only one minor version step ago, in 4.8? This seems to me not like a huge and complicated thing to do?

The KDE graphical front-end is actually served by a plasmoid (plasmoid-networkmanagement package). I would recommend filing a bug report.

https://bugzilla.novell.com/index.cgi