Comment 214 for bug 868034

Let me first express my thanks and appreciation to madbiologist for his #211 and #212 review and comments.
Sorry to be so slow in responding; the truth is that I lost my focus on this topic while I had access to an alternative landline broadband, but now that I'm trying to get back on my E220, I'm having to catch up.

Second, let me apologise for the negative tone of what follows, since my E220 still isn't working properly.

OK, more of my details in-line below:

[QUOTE]The fixed modemmanager 0.5-1ubuntu1.1 package from oneiric-proposed
which is described in comment #171 did make it into oneiric-updates. You
can view this at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/modemmanager
<https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/modemmanager>[/QUOTE]

  Yes, I had previously regressed to modemmanager_0.4, but
  when I check it now, it's showing as 0.5-1buntu1.1, so
  it must have updated itself at some stage without me noticing.

[QUOTE]Comment #171 also states that this fix is in modemmanager 0.5.2.
modemmanager 0.5.2.0-0ubuntu2 was released in precise and is the current
precise version -[/QUOTE]

   Some people (including myself) have remarked that Precise is
   suffering from exactly the same symptoms as Ocelot, so that
   leaves me a little skeptical about the effectiveness of these
   fixes. However the timing of these releases and whether they
   made it in time to be incorporated in Precise's Live issue,
   would be critical.

[QUOTE]Now we just have to figure out what else is preventing the device
from working normally for you. I am reluctant to take the time to provide
further information given your apparent preconception that it won't
work, but here it goes anyway. I can't fully explain why a firmware
update would work given that the E220's worked in Maverick and Natty,
other than that some of the workarounds here remind me of some of the
workarounds used in the old bugs. Feel free to ignore my suggestions if
you like.[/QUOTE]

    Many of the original complainants on this bug were seeing it
    as something new that was happening with Ocelot. Everything
    had been fine with their E220s in Maverick and Natty, so I
    have a kind of gut feeling that we could be barking up the
    wrong tree, but I don't understand enough about the actual
    fixes to be adamant about that. Reversion to modemmanager_0.4
    made it easier to connect, but it wasn't a total fix. There
    was and I believe there still is something else.
 .

[QUOTE] Regarding your question about whether the updates will automatically
replace the modemmanager_0.4+git.20110124t203624.00b6cce-2ubuntu1 which you
downgraded to, that will depend on whether or not you used apt (or it's
front-end Synaptic) to perform the downgrade or not, and whether you
have locked the version or not. If necessary you can just use apt-get
install (or Synaptic) to install the new version and then you will get
any later update from then on. See above for how to check your current
version.[/QUOTE]

    I'm not sure how or when it happened, but I'm on MM 0.5 -1ubuntu1.1
    now

[QUOTE]Obviously if you didn't have the fixed package you should try with
that before upgrading the firmware. The following steps for upgrading the
firmware are taken from comments #15 and #16 in bug #449394 </bugs/449394>
[/QUOTE]

    In early May, I was getting by on MM_0.4+git and connecting without
    difficulty so long as I booted Ocelot with my E220 plugged in.
    There was a gap from early May to mid-June when I didn't need to
    use my E220 at all. As from a couple of days ago I've become
    dependent on my E220 again and found it difficult and unreliable
    to connect.

[QUOTE] - it is highly recommended to work on a notebook or a PC with UPS,
to be protected from power failure or you may loose your E220 dongle
- on a Windows based machine, download archive from
http://www.maxis.com.my/maxisbb/download/E220SoftwareUpgrade.zip
- unpack ZIP file in a separate directory, like c:/tmp/E220
- plug-in E220 and wait about 1 minute
- close any software that may autorun when E220 is plugged
- start the exe file with Firmware inside the name and follow on-screen
instructions - upgrade will take several minutes, be patient
- unplug your E220 [/QUOTE]

   Even though I already had firmware 11.117.10.00.00 with my
   Huawei's own Mobile Broadband dashboard, I decided to
   try upgrading to 11.117.10.00.03 firmware from Maxis Broadband
   and install Maxis dashboard as well. This gave me the choice
   of using both my old Huawei dashboard and a Maxis new one.
   Both dashboards work OK on SWkin XP with my upgraded firmware.

[QUOTE] Unfortunately there is the major inconvenience of needing a Windows
or MacOS X installation/machine to perform the firmware upgrade. All of the
other people who upgraded their modem's firmware seem to have used
Windows to do so. I have looked hard on the internet for a Linux-based
update tool, but it seems that neither Huawei nor their vendors (mobile
communications companies) have released one.[/QUOTE]

   Fortunately I have a Win XP partition on my travelling netbook.
   The ongoing difficulties I've encountered with my E220 since Ocelot
   remain one of the significant reasons why I can't dispense with
   XP as a backup.

As far as I can see, my firmware upgrade seems to have made little or no difference. I'm still in the throes of doing a series of experiments to try and determine what combination of prior conditions make my connection attempts on Ocelot fail, and what combination allows them to succeed. My initial assessments on this are

1. sudo usb_modeswirch -v 0x12d1 -p 1003 -R followed by a
   USB unplug-replug, which used to get me out of trouble
   before the MM 0.5 bugfix, no longer works.

2. Doing a "hot" restart from a successful Windows initiated
   connection to boot Ocelot no longer gets me out of trouble
   either.

3. Starting with an unplugged E220 and an already booted
   Ocelot, I'm unable to successfully connect.

4. My best chance of getting a successful connection seems
   to be to boot Ocelot with my E220 already plugged in, but
   even that method doesn't seem to be reliable

5. Still speculative on my part, but I have an impression
   that the E220 can store something about a previous
   connection or attempted connection in its flash memory
   even after it's been depowered, and this "something" is
   affecting the success of my next connection attempt.

6. Once I've been lucky enough to successfully connect in the
   first place, I can close my connection and reliably
   reconnect as many times as I like, provided I don't
   unplug my E220. (There's an operational difficulty
   with this if I'm travelling and on battery because the
   E220 drains significant battery power even when not
   connected)

7. Successful connections are invariably characterised by
   an initial jerky display of my desktop's network connection
   icon, followed by the icon disappearing completely. In
   order to close a successful connection, I have to click on
   a blank black area of my desktop where the icon should have
   been.

I hope there are some clues hidden somewhere in all my above description.

I wonder if there are still other Ocelot and Precise users out there still struggling with their E220s like I am, or has everyone else adopted the ultimate fix of throwing out their E220s and replacing them with different dongles altogether?