Missing support for Samsung GT-B3730 LTE USB modem

[Marius B. Kotsbak]

Binary package hint: network-manager

The modem is not recognized by network manager, even after applying the patch in bug #710226. See the discussions about it here:

http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/bb/viewtopic.php?t=465&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

We must find out what AT commands to send to the modem to initialize and enable LTE mode, and which protocol it uses for the virtual USB ethernet connection (rndis?), and either get ndiswrapper to work with the windows drivers or find/develop a Linux driver for it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: network-manager 0.8.1+git.20100810t184654.ab580f4-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-25.43-generic 2.6.35.10
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-25-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] Ingen slik fil eller filkatalog
Date: Sun Jan 30 17:31:54 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100427.1)
InterestingModules: ndiswrapper
IpRoute:
 10.0.0.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.0.2 metric 1
 192.168.32.0/24 dev vmnet8 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.32.1
 192.168.66.0/24 dev vmnet1 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.66.1
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 default via 10.0.0.138 dev eth0 proto static
Keyfiles: Error: [Errno 2] Ingen slik fil eller filkatalog
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=nb_NO:nb:no_NO:no:nn_NO:nn:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=nb_NO.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

The modem is currently being distributed at least by NetCom, Telia and Sonera in Norway, Sweden and Finland for their LTE (4G) network.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

From the logs I'm under the impression there is a race between modemmanager and usb-modeswitch to use the modem; this will need some further checking and testing, but I'll tackle the modeswitch part first.

Are you saying that this modem would export an ethernet port? It's not traditionally the case.

To further advance testing for this issue, would it be possible for you to try using this dongle from a Live CD session of the current development release?

Thanks in advance.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

What in the logs makes you think that? Well, this is one of the first available LTE modems, so it is not traditional in that LTE is a different technology not using PPP (more directly connecting to ethernet/IP) and archives much better ping times (ca. 30 ms) as far as I have read.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

The important log file is WifiSyslog attached to the bug report.

I think you might want to report this upstream for NetworkManager a bug or message on the NetworkManager mailing list (see http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager) as well.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Well maybe, but I opened this bug mostly as a tracking place and for people searching. I am working on the drivers and it is not yet working manually without NetworkManager, so that is a later problem to solve.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for network-manager (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

I'm working on this. Kernel module almost ready, and I'm investigating writing a NM module.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

My work is available here:

https://github.com/mkotsbak/ModemManager-Samsung-LTE

but does not work yet.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

The solution for this is in modemmanager, not NM, as well as a kernel module available here:

https://github.com/mkotsbak/Samsung-GT-B3730-linux-driver

and soon to be submitted upstream (which will also need to be backported to solve this bug).

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

The option patches now seems to be in natty-proposed, so they should soon be available. kalmia.ko module, just submitted upstream needs to be backported.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Your patch has been included upstream in kernel 3.0-rc4.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Japp, and the option patches are in the 2.6.38.x that is in Natty proposed. This means for the next Ubuntu we just need a Modemmanager plugin since the device is so quirky.

For the current Ubuntu, a backport of commit d40261236e8e278cb1936cb5e934262971692b10 is required additionaly. For the LTS, the last of the option module patches are also required to be backported.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

> For the LTS, the last of the option module patches are also required to be backported.

Is this it? It's currently in Lucid-proposed:

USB: option: Added support for Samsung GT-B3730/GT-B3710 LTE USB modem.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Unfortunately, this one is required as well: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=15b2f3204a5c878c32939094775fb7349f707263

[madbiologist (me-again)]

The first patch (the one I mentioned in comment #14) is now also upstream in kernel 2.6.35.13.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Okay, but it does not help much without the others. But Ubuntu 11.10 probably gets kernel 3.0 with all of them, so if we target that one the main missing part is the modemmanager module, which I have done some work on. Also need that work to be included when finished.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

My network operator (NetCom) is phasing out this modem for a ZTE MF820D (which I hope has less quirky firmware) so I will not need this, nor be able to work anymore on the drivers.