Huawei E220 problems

English Network/Internet
1

Ok, I’ve looked in the other threads, but either I lack the brain cells to follow it, or I cannot find a coherent response to my problem, probably the former…

My modem only connects 1 in 5 attempts, then after a security update dies completely, necessitating a reinstall as it’s my only connection. I get the gist that the network manager is not working correctly, but am not sure what to do about it. Deleting modem manager, someone else says you can’t, upgrading, downgrading network manager, basically if I balls this up I have no connection to come for help! I would be more than happy to connect manually, but don’t know how.

Thanks in advance for your help rotfl!

2

you should supply information about your operating system version on hardware etc…

3

Opensuse 11.1, Huawei E220 USB modem on 3.

4

I just realised why the manual connection wasn’t working with my ubuntu commands, hadn’t installed wvdial.

Now I’ve set it up but if I run wvdial Defaults nothing happens, no flashy lights to show it’s trying.

Here’s the gedit wvdial.conf:

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB1
Phone = *99#
Idle Seconds = 300
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Baud = 9600
Auto DNS = 1
Dial Command = ATDT
Ask Password = 0
ISDN = 0
; Password =
; Username =

I’ve tried Anything in username and password, no difference.

Any ideas?

5

deano ferrari seems very knowledgable about such things; hopefully he may see and advise;

if that doesn’t work, at last ditch you could post afresh with the above title!!!

In this recent posting, the last post details for a SPANISH user, how he set up his wvdial; anything of help to you?

http://forums.opensuse.org/hardware/412833-i-need-help-automate-my-internet-connection.html

6

@pdc_2: Thanks for kind words. I only know what I know because of experience with this particular device.

Hi fallenstar. I have same device but usually just connect via NetworkManager (thru knetworkmanager). No configuration required as login details etc are stored on card. However, after an update recently, NetworkManager broke and I was forced to revert to kinternet dialer (same method as for opensuse 10.X)for couple of days. It was just a matter of configuring modem via yast first (and making link /dev/modem –> /dev/ttyUSB0).

Now, I have tried wvdial occasionally to test modems (and configurations) in the past. I’ve just tried it now with my Vodafone Huawei device. I had to dial out as root, otherwise it complained about /dev/ttyUSB0 being busy. (Haven’t has time to check, but I suspect user might need to be part of uucp group as well).

linux:/home/dean # wvdial
–> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
–> Cannot get information for serial port.
–> Initializing modem.
–> Sending: ATZ
OK
–> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
–> Modem initialized.
–> Idle Seconds = 300, disabling automatic reconnect.
–> Sending: ATDT0
–> Waiting for carrier.

My /etc/wvdial.conf for reference:

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Phone = 0
Idle Seconds = 300
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Baud = 9600
Auto DNS = 1
Dial Command = ATDT
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
ISDN = 0
Password = <your login pasword>
Username = <your login username>

BTW, dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 both seem to work the same with this device. So, try running wvdial as root first. See how that works…

7

Hey wonderful Mr Dean person, I’ve been away for a while but am back, and still having issues. I’ve ran wvdial as root, and here’s the output

linux-l9b2:/home/star # wvdial
→ WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
→ Cannot get information for serial port.
→ Initializing modem.
→ Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
→ Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
→ Modem initialized.
→ Idle Seconds = 300, disabling automatic reconnect.
→ Configuration does not specify a valid login name.

I have tried writing what yours had written, leaving it blank, typing in random things but it’s not having any of it.

I promise not to leave it 2 months before dealing with it this time, I kinda dropped everything and went away.

Thanks:’(

8

I do not know if this may help you in this particular problem.
I had a similar problem with the starting string of a Huawei PCMCIA modem card. I overcame it by going to the producers Windows driver cd and going through the activation strings in the ini files. I did copy and paste substituting the original script provided via yast automatic hardware recognition. The modem then worked flawlessly.
i.e. the script substituted was:
AT Q0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

Wind: AT&FE0V1X1&D2&C1S0=0

“CGDCONT=1”, “IP”, “internet.wind”

I would expect that vodaphone usb-key modems have a similar solution (the Huawei PCMCIA modem cards are passed through the usb interface).

9

I don’t understand where to paste it in…

the modem does work with network manager, just that I have to connect a number of times.

Is that what the problem with yours was, or did it not work at all? Did you dial both manually and through network manager?

Just want to make sure we have the same problem before changing the innit strings, anything that loses my internet chases me into an internet cafe!

Cheers

10

Hi fallenstar. My ISPs SIM card does the authorisation for me. So, I only require the following in my wvdial.conf:

Password =‘’
Username =‘’

Some service providers require PIN authorisation or login details for example. Have a look at these (Ubuntu based) How To’s and see if you can determine what is required in your case:

How to Install a Huawei E220 Modem in Ubuntu Linux

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DialupModemHowto/Huawei/E220

11

hey fallenstar;

do you want to level with us what country you are in, and what you are trying to connect your system to?

deano ferrari is a bit of a gun with wvdial; I am less advanced, and my experience of the Huawei 220 with a vodafone simcard, is it is near automatic:

but we have used several Ubuntu variants for this: eg easy peasy:

insert simcard in Huawei;
right click on network manager; (TV icon on panel)
select mobile broadband;
add;
select country;
select network;
click to finish;
left-click on network manager; select option now set up;
watch connection: (3-6 secs)
now connected;

gosh, that was hard …

I confess to trying this on OpenSuse (11.0) and it not being as automated as in Ubuntu …

12

I suppose you are refering to me with your question.
First of all, you do not change initstrings ever without backing up the current one. This is done very easy, you just copy and paste the original string in a text file and write down where you did the modification, so you can recall what you did.
For me the symptoms where the follwing: allthough the huawei modem was recognized in automatic by the system, it had problems to connect via network manager. Either it did not correctly connect, or it did and then failed to reach good throughput.
The provider Wind (Italy in my case) was not helpful at all, since they “support only windows”.

The setup of a Huawei modem (in my case it was a power-card E620) was like this (I think it is the same for the usb modem:

  • you open yast
  • you go to network devices
  • you will get now a warning that network manager is activated and that some of the settings wll not work bla bla
  • the setting for /dev/modem opens
  • here you have to look how the modem was recognized. With me it was just /dev/modem (while internally it took the name ttyUSB0).
  • You insert the prefix of your provider (this is a setting your provider gave you or that they should give you)
  • you choose the first type of composition (tone) and loudspeaker activated)
  • uncheck the “wait for line signal” box
  • transmission speed should be 115200
  • you check the box: allow for control of non root users via kinternet
  • here I personally took off all the strings and pasted the string from the windows ini into string 1. Left open the other strings that proved to be neither necessary nor helpful.
  • you define the provider and the password and if there is no password you put just a * into the “user name” field and leave the rest open
  • in connection parameters you check everything but the first voice (that is connection on request) and you choose connect manually.
  • Now close everything and create a connection in network manager. It should be registered as ttyusb1
  • you choose new connection with ttyusb0 and put in the phone number indicated by the provider
  • you go on then and find the page connection speed
  • settings are 115200, 8bits, no parity, blocked bit 1, delay 0

You go on up to the name of connection. Everything should be ok now.

Don’t forget to backup the initstrings before making modifications (so you are sure that in any case you will not finish in the internetcafé (still there you could meet new people lol! )

Ps. if your problem is just that after a while the line drops, it could be that you do not have a flat but a “time dependent” subscription. When the contractual conditions are like that, often the provider counts for every reconnection 15 minutes of connection time… Therefore they could have a commercial interest in having a connect that drops from time to time…

13

ok i’m a dingbat, there were ; in front of username and password. Now goes through and has a new error message, here goes:

linux-l9b2:/home/star # wvdial
–> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
–> Cannot get information for serial port.
–> Initializing modem.
–> Sending: ATZ
OK
–> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
–> Modem initialized.
–> Idle Seconds = 300, disabling automatic reconnect.
–> Sending: ATDT99#
–> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT99#
CONNECT
–> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately.
–> Starting pppd at Sat Jul 4 15:24:52 2009
–> Pid of pppd: 4216
–> Using interface ppp0
–> pppd: �/[01]�8�[06][08](�[06][08]
–> pppd: �/[01]�8�[06][08](�[06][08]

–> Disconnecting at Sat Jul 4 15:26:53 2009
–> The PPP daemon has died: A modem hung up the phone (exit code = 16)
–> man pppd explains pppd error codes in more detail.
–> Try again and look into /var/log/messages and the wvdial and pppd man pages for more information.

man pppd’s highly useful explaining of the error code:
16 The link was terminated by the modem hanging up.
/var/log/messages:
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Plugin passwordfd.so loaded.
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 kernel: PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Using interface ppp0
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Connect: ppp0 <–> /dev/ttyUSB1
Jul 4 15:26:07 linux-l9b2 kernel: [drm:i915_getparam] ERROR Unknown parameter 5
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Connection terminated.
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Receive serial link is not 8-bit clean:
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Problem: all had bit 7 set to 0
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Modem hangup
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Exit.

Trying with wvdial Defaults:

linux-l9b2:/home/star # wvdial Defaults
–> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
–> Cannot get information for serial port.
–> Initializing modem.
–> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
–> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
–> Modem initialized.
–> Idle Seconds = 300, disabling automatic reconnect.
–> Sending: ATDT99#
–> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT99#
^BOOT:34502031,0,0,0,6
^CCaught signal 2: Attempting to exit gracefully…
–> Disconnecting at Sat Jul 4 15:43:20 2009

/var/log/messages
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Plugin passwordfd.so loaded.
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 kernel: PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Using interface ppp0
Jul 4 15:24:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Connect: ppp0 <–> /dev/ttyUSB1
Jul 4 15:26:07 linux-l9b2 kernel: [drm:i915_getparam] ERROR Unknown parameter 5
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Connection terminated.
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Receive serial link is not 8-bit clean:
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Problem: all had bit 7 set to 0
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Modem hangup
Jul 4 15:26:52 linux-l9b2 pppd[4216]: Exit.

Then my internet died through network manager, I had already backed up the rpms, so downgraded network manager, didn’t work, upgraded it, worked again.

I just want to be able to connect manually so no matter what I do trying to fix the network manager issue, I still have internet.

Cheers

14

Hey

I’m in Scotland, my provider is 3, now I get what you meant by Wind. I will go to the huwawei site and seek alternative innit strings, I got no CD with it.

I am using the modem now, it has full connectivity via network manager, today it connected on the first attempt, but can take up to 5 tries to get it connected. It doesn’t hang up that much anymore, but periodically network manager dies completely to the point that I have to reinstall suse. Hence in this thread I’m looking for 2 solutions, one to connect manually, another to fix network manager.

Cheers, wish me luck

15

Greetings to Scottland.
A compromised Networkmanager should not compromise a whole installation.
In your case you could also use an alternative to the network manager.
In this case you would use kinternet to set up the connect. In case you just use all the time the usb modem and do not switch often to Lan then this could be a good solution. There are also programms to handle wlan instead of Networkmanager. Networkmanager is very “sexy” but if it does not work, then get rid of it (up to december when there will be a better version).
Good luck.
P.s. Try to google for the init string of your modem. Maybe someone published it.

16

I installed kinternet, but get this error message. My internet was not connected at the time.

Connection to local and remote server
refused. Maybe smpppd is not running
or you are not member of the group “dialout”.
Also check the server settings in
the dialog “Various Settings”.

The settings don’t give me an option to choose a device to connect with, nor to put the *99# number in. If it’s any relevance I have gnome.

17

If you use KInternet (like I did way back with suse 10.0, then you’ll need to configure the modem via YaST first. You can also check whether you’re a member of dialout group by typing ‘groups’ in a user console. If necessary add via YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management.

18

In addition to what deano ferrari wrote:
Try to open also:
Yast - System - Runlevel editor. Now check please if smppd is in the list and if it is activated. If not, you select the smppd line with the mouse and press then the “activate” button below.
You should see a “ok activated” message. You close with OK. From now on Smppd should run.

19

smppd wasn’t on but is now, and it has changed kinternet’s options. I was already a member of dialout. Setting it up thro yast, I think I must have dropped a dangler because it’s still not working. However, the innit string it has is the one I changed it to, so it has obviously got it out of wvdial, and that’s where there’s something going amiss.??

it’s got 3 written as the provider, which I typed in. No dial prefix, tone dialing. 3 is a custom provider I created in great britain, phone number *99#, username and password both “anything” (works normally). Not dial on command, and that’s pretty much all the settings.

wvdial still doesn’t run in terminal, even with smppd turned on. same error messages. Running wvdial Defaults kills network manager so it has to be reinstalled.

20

fallenstar wrote:
> stakanov;2010658 Wrote:
>> In addition to what deano ferrari wrote:
>> Try to open also:
>> Yast - System - Runlevel editor. Now check please if smppd is in the
>> list and if it is activated. If not, you select the smppd line with the
>> mouse and press then the “activate” button below.
>> You should see a “ok activated” message. You close with OK. From now on
>> Smppd should run.
>
> smppd wasn’t on but is now, and it has changed kinternet’s options. I
> was already a member of dialout. Setting it up thro yast, I think I must
> have dropped a dangler because it’s still not working. However, the
> innit string it has is the one I changed it to, so it has obviously got
> it out of wvdial, and that’s where there’s something going amiss.??
>
> it’s got 3 written as the provider, which I typed in. No dial prefix,
> tone dialing. 3 is a custom provider I created in great britain, phone
> number *99#, username and password both “anything” (works normally). Not
> dial on command, and that’s pretty much all the settings.
>
> wvdial still doesn’t run in terminal, even with smppd turned on. same
> error messages. Running wvdial Defaults kills network manager so it has
> to be reinstalled.
>

I have E160G Modem (which gets recognised as E220) with Three Australia
and it works (very) well with openSUSE 11.0 (and Ubuntu 8.10) and
NetworkManager (both Kde3 and Gnome). I tried several installs of
openSUSE 11.1 and found it had serious issues and wiped out the last
install around the end of May (roughly six months after release).

If you don’t have any special need to use 11.1, I would recommend 11.0
and suggest you read the guide at following link:
http://en.opensuse.org/Huawei_UMTS_USB_Stick

You will need to install the additional package ‘huawei_umtsmodem’.

Lets hope that that openSUSE 11.2 works as it should with NetworkManager!

Cheers