[NTLUG:Discuss] Novatel Wireless USB modem isn't there.

[Wayne Dahl]

I was trying to set up my Novatel broadband modem for my laptop on 
Sprint again today, here's what I found...

Following the instructions on the PDF located here.... 
http://www.sprint.com/assets/downloads/linux/pdfs/Sprint_Mobile_broadband_Setup_Guide_for_Linux.pdf

Novatel Ovation U727 USB modem
Kubuntu 8.10

 From a terminal window, the first time I tried this, I entered....

sudo modprobe -r usbserial
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=1410 product=4100    (for my modem)

I then tried....

sudo dmesg|grep -i ttyUSB

and was able to see the modem just fine...I'm doing this from memory 
because it's not responding the same way now.

I opened KPPP (which I had previously set up for this modem...it was 
working fine under Kubuntu 8.04) and on the modems tab, selected the 
Novatel Wireless modem, clicked edit, then selected the modem tab, then 
clicked on query modem, the modem responded just fine.

At that point, I was able to cancel out back to the original KPPP 
window, click on Connect and all was well.

The Sprint guide says to modify the /etc/rc.local file so you don't have 
to do this every time you want to connect, so I opened Kate using...

sudo kate /etc/rc.local

and added the following two lines, then saved it and rebooted....

/sbin/modprobe -r usbserial
/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=1410 product=4100

Upon reboot, KPP no longer sees the modem at all and I can no longer see 
it connected to ttyUSB...from the terminal....

wayne at max:~$ sudo modprobe -r usbserial
[sudo] password for wayne:
wayne at max:~$ sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=1410 product=4100
wayne at max:~$ sudo dmesg|grep -i ttyUSB
wayne at max:~$ sudo dmesg|grep -i ttyUSB
wayne at max:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 064e:a101 Suyin Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

That was before plugging in the modem....this was after plugging it in....

wayne at max:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1410:5010
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 064e:a101 Suyin Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
wayne at max:~$ sudo dmesg|grep -i ttyUSB
wayne at max:~$

So, you can see the modem as Device 002 when listing the usb 
connections, but still it's not connecting to ttyUSB...any idea why it 
would work once and then not work again?

Thanks,

-- 
Wayne Dahl
No electrons were abused in any way by any Microsoft product in the creation or sending of this email.
OS: Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on an HP DV9620US laptop