After finding some issues with Kubuntu 11.10 on my netbook I installed OpenSuse 11.4. My mobile broadband dongles aren’t being detected so i can’t proceed any further just yet with updates etc.
One of these dongles is a ZTE K3570-z and the other is a Huawei E173.
My wireless card wasn’t on at first and so I did my kludgy trick of booting an Ubuntu live CD, making sure it was on there and then booting back into Suse, which worked (maybe it was off just prior to installing Suse). But now my Fn and F2 keys do not turn the wireless on and off. (I only infrequently can use a wireless connection when at a relative’s home.)
Thanks for any help. Maybe 12.1 would put these issues behind me but I won’t have the opportunity to get it for a while and maybe 12.1 will only bring the Kubuntu 11.10 issues back anyway…
One of these dongles is a ZTE K3570-z and the other is a Huawei E173.
Follow glistwan’s advice first. It will soon be apparent as to whether these devices are being recognised by the network manager. If not, proceed as follows:
Plug in a device, then open a terminal window and type this command
dmesg|tail
What is reported?
Do the same again with the other device. It is quire possible that you will need ‘usb_modeswitch’ installed (to assist with the activation of these devices).
FWIW, here’s a thread concerning openSUSE 11.3 and an E173: