Sierra CDMA card remains powered off after switching from Windoze

[Felix Lechner]

In Karmic, my built-in Sierra broadband device with USB id 1199:0220 stays powered off after switching from the VZ software under Windoze back to Ubuntu. The solution is to power on the card by issuing AT!PCSTATE=1 through kermit or minicom.

I looked at the source for modem-manager but realized that I do not understand enough about modems (or network-manager) to make a meaningful suggestion for improvement.

This message is filed just in case someone else is having a similar problem.

I rarely use Windoze and am not sure if the problem existed under Jaunty or was triggered by a new version of the VZ software, but I did have similar problems before. A few years ago I was using pppd under Debian. The solution then was to expand the scripts to power on the card, followed by a short wait. I never bothered to turn the card off but suppose that is possible, too.

You can query the state of the card by issuing AT!PCINFO

The following web page may also be helpful: http://sierrawireless.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/500

Best regards,
Felix