Regression: Huawei E173 no longer recognized as a modem

[Kaarel]

My Huawei E173 modem is not recognized as a modem anymore after installing Ubuntu 15.04 and Mainline kernel 4.0 RC6. It worked out of the box with Ubuntu 14.10.

I tried various guides (editing /etc/modules and /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules) but none of them worked. I finally stumbled upon a script (https://gist.github.com/rehno-lindeque/4500517) that made the modem usable (recognized by Network Manager), which does:

usb_modeswitch -v 0x12d1 -p 0x1446 -M 55534243000000000000000000000011060000000000000000000000000000 -V 0x12d1 -P 0x1436 -s 50 -m 0x01

The downside is, I have to run the script every time i plug the modem in, would like a permanent solution.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Darek (darekx2)]

Hi i have same situation. On my 14.04 LTS it's working greate. I just plug in and works. On 15.04 it's behave similar to your description.

[TJ (tj)]

This may be caused by upstream changes to the Huawei device handling:

Version 2.2.0, 2014/05/29
    Introduction of parameter "HuaweiNewMode", wrapping the standard bulk
    message for all newer Huawei devices; support for generic fall-back
    config files, combined with OS switch (per vendor ID), implementation
    to use a specific switching command on Android for all Huawei devices
    (see README of data package for details); this change was suggested
    by Huawei

See: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/vivid/usb-modeswitch/vivid/view/head:/ChangeLog

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

don't set to incomplete without actually asking a question or requesting missing information.

[Kaarel (krlk89)]

I am no longer using this device and can't help with debugging. Sorry.

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

Currently usb-modeswitch 2.2.3 version in Wily (and older 2.2.0) has regressions with lots of Huawei modems - I've tested on several devices, like Vodafone (Huawei) K4510 and Huawei E303 - it seems udev or upstart simply doesn't run usb_modeswitch command, because I don't see any activity in /var/log/syslog after installing new usb-modeswitch 2.2.0+repack0-2 or 2.2.3, see https://launchpad.net/trusty-backports/+bug/1407429/comments/2

The latest upstream version of usb-modeswitch is 2.2.5, this version is packaged in Debian (unstable and testing) since July 2015, maybe this release doesn't have regressions with Huawei 3G/4G modems?

I've reported FFe bug #1498805 (Please merge usb-modeswitch 2.2.5+repack0-1 from Debian unstable/testing - current 2.2.3 version in Wily has regressions with lots of Huawei modems)

http://draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/ChangeLog

Version 2.2.5, 2015/07/16
    Fixed bug in configuration check, possibly leading to segfault (thanks, Leonid Lisovskiy); fixed Pantech commandline parameter evaluation (was not working at all); added driver unbind step via sysfs in wrapper,
    getting rid of the USB subsystem complaint "interface 0 claimed by usb-storage while 'usb_modeswitch' <does this and that>"
Version 2.2.4, 2015/07/14
    Fixed buggy check of USB configuration selection (possibly leading to segfault), tested with Alcatel X602D; removed call to 'libusb_strerror' from libusb initialization - not available in earlier libusb1 versions