Mobile Broadband on Ubuntu 10.04 NetworkManager Gnome-PPP Wvdial
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
I just got ubuntu 10.04 installed on a laptop and wanted to connect to internet with my Data card. Ubuntu identified my Datacard without any problem but when I tried to connect with NetworkManager, it just won’t connect. I tried to debug and went through all the logs that I can see but it just did not work and getting on the ubuntuforums seems lots of people have the same problem. However, This was a Clean install and not an upgrade. Most of the users are facing problem due to upgrade.
1) So finally, to get my data card connect to the internet instead of wasting my time with debugging and ripping off everything. I had to download Gnome-PPP and Wvdial offline on other system which has internet and moved these packages to the Ubuntu 10.04 system.
2) To install Gnome-PPP and Wvdial there are a few dependencies, most of them are already included with default Ubuntu install but the ones I had to downloaded offline are listed below: -
libwvstreams4.6-base_4.6.1-1_i386.deb
libwvstreams4.6-extras_4.6.1-1_i386.deb
libuniconf4.6_4.6.1-1_i386.deb
wvdial_1.60.3_i386.deb
gnome-ppp_0.3.23-1ubuntu2_i386.deb
I downloaded these packages from Ubuntu Lucid Online Repository http://packages.ubuntu.com .
3) Install these packages one by one in the order listed above and then start gnome-ppp with sudo, we use sudo just to make sure the connection works and we don’t get stuck again saying there is problem when our user does not have access to dialout.
4) Run command lsusb and check your if your datacard is detected and then run dmesg command and look for Modem (GSM/ CDMA). There in the dmesg you should see your datacard using ports like TTYUSB0, TTYUSB1, etc.
5) Now back to Gnome-PPP screen and go to configuration. In the Modems select TTYUSB0 and click detect modem, it should work. Once your modem is detected change the modem type to USB Modem and Speed to Max available with your card. (I might work with analog also but did not try it).
6) Now enter the details about the number to dial, your username password and then connect.
7) Once you are done connecting as root, you can run this command “adduser username dip” and add your user to dialout.
8) Close Gnome-PPP and reboot the machine and start Gnome-PPP with normal user rights and see if it works. IT Should!
9) You should have internet access by now.
I have tried reliance netconnect and TATA Photon+ and both worked well without any issues.
