I love the OpenSUSE 11.2 KDE desktop, and am making a concerted effort to migrate my Acer Aspire One to this new environment. One function on my ‘must work’ list is the ability to use my 3G mobile phone as a USB modem, and I’m struggling to get this working in OpenSUSE 11.2.
As an example of what I’m after, in Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.11, I can simply do the following to use my mobile phone as a wireless modem:
Connect my phone (a Nokia E71 on Orange UK) to my netbook via the USB cable.
Select’ PC Suite’ on the phone when prompted.
Ubuntu then recognises the modem, and offers me a wizard to select my country and mobile operator. When it completes, my phone is fully recognised, and the network automatically connects to the internet through it.
Now, when I try the same thing in OpenSUSE, the phone is recognised by the networking applet, but I get no help in connecting to the internet. It seems the only way to get a connection is to configure it manually, so I’ve manually copied all of the settings from Ubuntu into my OpenSUSE network configuration window, but I still cannot connect. The settings I have used are as follows:
APN: orangeinternet
Number to dial: *99#
Username: orange
Password: orange
All other settings are left as default, which matches the Ubuntu set-up. When I try these settings, the network manager applet gives the impression it is trying to connect, but it never does.
I’m surprised there is no obvious Wiki or manual page on-line which covers how to set-up a mobile broadband connection on OpenSUSE (or indeed, any KDE desktop) as I would have thought this would be a common activity. So, if anyone knows where I might be going wrong, or can provide a link to some documentation which might help, I will be most grateful.
I’ve just tried this with Fedora 12 Gnome and it too cannot connect to the internet via my Orange UK mobile phone. I believe it did work on Ubuntu 9.10 when I tried that a while ago, so perhaps there is a generic problem in the network software used on Fedora and Suse?
I think the user-friendliness of Ubuntu’s mobile broadband connectivity reflects the hard work of that distros developers. Now, if my understanding is correct, its HAL’s job to recognise these devices, and the list of recognised devices is located in
NetworkManager’s behaviour depends on info provided by HAL. It would be interesting to compare the Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE fdi file(s). I accept there may be more to this than what I understand though.
For what it’s worth, I’ve done a bit of experimenting with my eeePC-1000H netbook and a Huawei E220 dongle. I can report the following results with the latest Gnome and KDE versions of the four “major” distributions, booting from a Live USB in each case.
I’m not sure why the Kubuntu manual connection failed to work, and there may just have been some kind of temporary glitch, but the contrast with Ubuntu was stark. Kubuntu has always appeared to be a bit of a poor relation of Ubuntu, so the mismatch should perhaps not be surprising. But why should a similar mismatch in capability arise in openSUSE, which has always seemed to have a solid commitment to KDE? This is not the only area in which the Gnome version of 11.2 seems to be the more capable product.
Obviously, difficult 3G connections need (no longer) be a KDE problem. Perhaps we can hope for an update within 11.2, rather than having to wait for an upgrade to 11.3.
here is how I connect using a nokia 5800 in South africa on the MTN 3gnetwork without any problems.
plug in with usb cable supplied with the telephone and select “PC Suit” on the telephone screen.
go to yast select “network devices” and select “modem” option you should see the telephone listed as not configured. highlight it and select “edit” from the bottom of the frame.
accept the defaults on the screen “modem parameters” and click “next”
Select “custom providers” and select “new” and “next”
Give this connection a name under “provider Name” and the phone number to connect to, the number I use in South Africa is *99# If you have a specific username and password then put it in, again here in South Africa we use “Guest” as both username and password. unclick the option “always ask for Password” click “next”
on the “connection parameters” page just accept defaults and click “next”
that brings you back to “overview” where you should now see the new provider you have just setup listed under your phone, click “ok”
now start “kinternet” you may have to install it through yast “software Management” as it does not install by default but is included on the dvd.
when kinternet is running you will see a small two pronged plug at the bottom right of our screen. right click on this icon and select “provider” you should see the provider you have setup. If so then click “dial in”
these were the basic steps I used and can connect with my cell phone , if it still does not work check that “smpppd” is enabled under “yast>system>SystemServices(runlevel)”
You may nead to restart you computer and replugin your telephone and a bit of trial and error, you can go back to the yast>modem setup at any time and change things like telephone number and usernames ect at any time, but once it works, it works well with out any problems.