Sierra Wireless MC8790 HSUPA Module not detected by NetworkManager

[Michael Hüttemann]

Binary package hint: network-manager

When left-clicking on the NetworkManager applet, the Sierra modem is not shown and cannot be used.

Not sure if this is a really a NetworkManager problem, or with linux-usb.

(0) lsb_release -rd
  Description: Ubuntu jaunty (development branch)
  Release: 9.04

(1) lsusb:
  (...)
  Bus 007 Device 002: ID 1199:683c Sierra Wireless, Inc.
  (...)

(3) lsmod | grep sierra
  sierra 19848 0

(4) ls -l /dev/ttyUSB*
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 2009-01-17 09:17 /dev/ttyUSB0
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 1 2009-01-17 09:17 /dev/ttyUSB1
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 2 2009-01-17 09:17 /dev/ttyUSB2
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 3 2009-01-17 09:17 /dev/ttyUSB3
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 4 2009-01-17 09:17 /dev/ttyUSB4
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 5 2009-01-17 09:17 /dev/ttyUSB5
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 6 2009-01-17 09:17 /dev/ttyUSB6

While searching for the USB device id 683c I found this on the linux-usb list where Dirk Nehring claims that MC8785 is wrongly assigned to this device instead of MC8790, which would be correct.

I have no knowledge to verify whether this is true with the current jaunty development branch.

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

Is the wireless card recognized when you enter "ifconfig" and "iwconfig"?

[Michael Hüttemann (michael-huettemann)]

No. Using WIFI I get:

$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet Hardware Adresse 00:17:42:f5:e3:ed
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metrik:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          Kollisionen:0 Sendewarteschlangenlänge:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Lokale Schleife
          inet Adresse:127.0.0.1 Maske:255.0.0.0
          inet6-Adresse: ::1/128 Gültigkeitsbereich:Maschine
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metrik:1
          RX packets:318 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:318 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          Kollisionen:0 Sendewarteschlangenlänge:0
          RX bytes:21124 (21.1 KB) TX bytes:21124 (21.1 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet Hardware Adresse 00:21:6a:07:d7:ae
          inet Adresse:192.168.2.118 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Maske:255.255.255.0
          inet6-Adresse: fe80::221:6aff:fe07:d7ae/64 Gültigkeitsbereich:Verbindung
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metrik:1
          RX packets:29455 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:19595 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          Kollisionen:0 Sendewarteschlangenlänge:1000
          RX bytes:31780896 (31.7 MB) TX bytes:2387312 (2.3 MB)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC Hardware Adresse 00-21-6A-07-D7-AE-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metrik:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          Kollisionen:0 Sendewarteschlangenlänge:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"myessid"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452 GHz Access Point: 00:1C:4A:4A:9E:96
          Bit Rate=48 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
          Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=97/100 Signal level:-53 dBm Noise level=-92 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

pan0 no wireless extensions.

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

There's one wireless device showing up in there (wlan0). Is that the
Sierra Wireless device you're trying to use, or do you have 2 wireless
devices total?

[Michael Hüttemann (michael-huettemann)]

Sorry for not being clear. wlan0 is the internal "Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5300 AGN" wireless card. This is working perfectly well.

$ lspci
(...)
18:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5300 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection

The not working "Sierra Wireless MC8790 HSUPA Module" is also internal. The notebook is a very recent Fujitsu-Siemens Computers "Lifebook S 6420".

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

Can you attach the output of lshal?

[Michael Hüttemann (michael-huettemann)]

Sure.

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!