Risotto's weblog

I recently got myself an Asus eeePC 4G. I wasn’t that impressed with the pre-installed Xandros linux, so I went on installing a brand new Ubuntu 8.04. I also got myself a Novatel Ovation MC950D USB HSUPA modem, which allows me to connect to my local 3G carrier, Sunrise T@ke Away, Switzerland. I had no problems running the card with Ubuntu, since it was detected and auto-loaded immediately without any problems and allowed me to access the modem through the serial device /dev/ttyUSB0.

After a while though, I got a little bored with Ubuntu, especially by the fact that it took about two minutes to boot, compared to a mere 10 seconds that the original Xandros distribution required. So I decided to go back to the original Asus distribution and give it another try.

I then realized, that I wasn’t able to load the kernel module for my modem anymore and that the built in connection manager wouldn’t allow me to choose my Novatel modem for a GSM connection.

I know that the Huawei E220 would load without any problems and since the Novatel modem is just another USB serial device, I started tinkering with the usb-serial kernel module. After a while I found out, that loading the “option” module would load the device driver correctly. The only problem was to tell the driver, which device to connect to. The vendor and product ID for the Novatel modem is 0×1410 (vendorId) and 0×4400 (productId). I read on a forum post, that these settings could be supplied after the module had been loaded. So I went on and added the following two lines to my /etc/rc.local file, after opening a terminal with ctrl-alt-t:

sudo vi /etc/rc.local

Add these two lines before “exit 0″:

/sbin/modprobe option
echo "0x1410 0x4400" > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/option1/new_id

For those not proficient in VI, just hit “ESC :wq” and the file saves and closes. Now, enable the execution of rc.local at boot time:

sudo echo "rc.local" > /etc/fastservices

Save the file and reboot your machine. You could also supply these two lines manually on the shell every time you restarted your machine. Now you’re able to select the Novatel USB modem in your connection manager and setup up a new 3G/GSM/HSDPA connection.

If you have another modem which uses the same option module, you can simply exchange the vendor and product id by your device’s ids. To find out your device’s id just look at this file:

less /proc/bus/usb/devices

Locate your device and use the vendor and product id that you find there. This should work for most Novatel devices, such as EVDO and 3G modems. Novatel devices should always have 0×1410 as their vendor id, so look for a device with that denomination.

After successfully installing the modem you can move on and configure your network connection. HINT: You might want to disable the PIN code on your SIM card before trying to establish a connection. I think the configuration wizard will not prompt you for the PIN, though I might be wrong.

The following pictures show you how this looks like (German version of the eeePC OS):

1. Select the appropriate connection type:

2. The modem is now showing up:

3. Scanning for GSM networks:

4. Select GSM network:

5. Select your provider’s network settings:

6. Name your connection:

7. Summary of your new connection:

8. Finally, the connection is set up and running smoothly. We’re online :

Thanks to “neilmc” to pointing out the option module behavior in his post on http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=940241&r=15131419#r15131419 .