Alcatel X200 HSxPA modem not working

[Papp Károly]

I'm using Ubuntu 9.04, and the Network Manager succesfully configures one of my 3G modems (T-Mobile Web'N'Walk Stick), but I've another one, Alcatel X200, which simply doesn't work. The Hungarian LoCo managed a way to make it work, but it's over gnome-ppp and with tampering config files.
It would be very nice, if this modem would work with Network Manager as "Hey dude, I've found a new 3g connection, do you want me to connect?" :) Don't you agree?

[Javier Martín (jmartinj)]

Hello, there are 3 problems with this device. Luckily all 3 problems are easily solvable.

1. This device shows up as a cd-rom drive. You need to switch it to "modem" mode using this tool: http://ftp.es.debian.org/debian/pool/main/u/usb-modeswitch/. Pick your architecture, download, install, edit /etc/usb_modeswitch.conf and uncomment the entry for Alcatel X200. If everything goes well, the device ID reported by 'lsusb' should be 1bbb:0000. If you get 1bbb:f000 here, the modem is still in CD-ROM mode.

2. The serial ports exposed by the modem are not detected by neither the usbserial nor the option drivers. The easiest solution is add the above PCI ID to the list of supported IDs in the option.c driver and recompile the kernel. This fix has already been proposed upstream.

3. If you get the above working, you should now see two instances of the X200 under the "broadband devices" list, but only one will actually work. The other will either crash the modem or do nothing (bug #392869).

If you want a quick fix for (2) and (3), just add this to your 3rd party software sources, do and apt-get update, then apt-get upgrade:

  deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/jmartinj/javi/ubuntu jaunty main
  deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/jmartinj/javi/ubuntu jaunty main

[Mark Stosberg (markstos)]

I'm removing network-manager-pptp from the list of affected packages. There is nothing in the bug report which mentions PPTP or VPN.

[Pietro Bernardi (bpietro)]

Hi Javier,

the some problem here. Successfully done step 1), now lsusb reports 1bbb:0000
Done also quick fix for (2) and (3). Still not running.

No device /dev/ttyUSB*, but I found

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1bbb:0000 T & A Mobile Phones

and
ls -1 /dev

usbdev1.5_ep00
usbdev1.5_ep01
usbdev1.5_ep02
usbdev1.5_ep03
usbdev1.5_ep04
usbdev1.5_ep81
usbdev1.5_ep82
usbdev1.5_ep83
usbdev1.5_ep84
usbdev1.5_ep85

Any suggestion? Tnx in advance

Pietro

Contacted provider of this crap of HW, italian mobile giant Wind/Infostrada: "we have no info about X200 and Linux" :(

[Javier Martín (jmartinj)]

Pietro,

I no longer maintain the PPA and I believe the kernel packages in the PPA
have been overridden by subsequent versions published by the ubuntu team.
That means you're not getting the PPA kernel even though you're adding those
lines to your apt config. There are two options:

- Upgrade to karmic. The patch to support X060/X200 was accepted upstream a
few months ago, so karmic supports these modems unpatched.
- Downgrade your kernel packages down to the PPA version: sudo apt-get
install linux-image-2.6.28-15-generic=2.6.28-15.50~javi1

Then you can "pin" that version of the kernel so that apt-get never tries to
update it again:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html#s-pin

Javier

[Papp Károly (karesz82)]

Well it's me again, using Karmic.

I've sold my modem to one of my friends with no wired net access, but I borrowed it since you wrote it's working.

Well... I disagree with you. Karmic still doesn't natively support this piece of hw, it still recognizes it for CD-ROM. I tried usbmodeswitch, but still no luck with automatic "Hey! I've found a new 3G connection, do you want me to patch you through?" question...

Any idea? (tried it yesterday on my main PC with all available official ubuntu patches, I can't check exactly the kernel now, sorry, I'm surfing with my company laptop with strictly XP on it :( )

Any recommendations?

[Jeno Meszaros (jenobence)]

I tried the kernel downgrade in Karmic; made no change to the 3G modem furthermore the system went unstable in my case...

@Papp Károly & sorry about the off topic
Since I couldn't find your public email address in launchpad; read the following;
I've found a solution which works with Jaunty flawlessly, furthermore in Karmic it wont...
http://web2.bitbaro.hu/en/2009/07/07/alcatel-x200-telepitese-ubuntura-pannon-3g-internet/

[Javier Martín (jmartinj)]

Jeno, I don't think you need to downgrade in Karmic... The stock kernel should support the modem. Mine takes a while to show up, though (about 1-2 minutes after plugging it in). Make sure you have the package 'usb-modeswitch' installed. You don't have to download it from the debian pool either, It's now included in Karmic, so just apt-get install it.

[Javier Martín (jmartinj)]

Jeno, Papp and all... It does look like the modem doesn't work properly with karmic. Sometimes it gets detected, sometimes it doesn't. But even if it does, it reports a "GSM network Disconnected" error when trying to connect. I submitted bug #479343 with further details. I hope it catches the attention of the developers.

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.
Is this bug reproducible with the latest Lucid packages ?
Tanks in advance.

[Javier Martín (jmartinj)]

Fabio,

The modem does not work with any stock ubuntu up to, and including, lucid. I
patched the modemmanager package to make it work in karmic, and the same
patched package appears to work on lucid as reported here (in spanish,
sorry):
http://felinfo.blogspot.com/2010/05/modem-alcatel-x060s-symio-en-ubuntu.html

You can find more info on what's broken on this very launchpad issue, and
the fix is in my ppa, which is also linked from my first comment above.

I do, however, not have the time to figure out another patch for lucid, but
if you need any more data, I'll be happy to help.

[Papp Károly (karesz82)]

Well I can't say anything about this bug since I've changed my modem for a
Huawei 3g Wireless Router, with which it works flawlessly... :)

But if anyone can confirm it, I'd be grateful.

Best wishes
K

2010/8/2 Javier Martín <email address hidden>

> Fabio,
>
> The modem does not work with any stock ubuntu up to, and including, lucid.
> I
> patched the modemmanager package to make it work in karmic, and the same
> patched package appears to work on lucid as reported here (in spanish,
> sorry):
>
> http://felinfo.blogspot.com/2010/05/modem-alcatel-x060s-symio-en-ubuntu.html
>
> You can find more info on what's broken on this very launchpad issue, and
> the fix is in my ppa, which is also linked from my first comment above.
>
> I do, however, not have the time to figure out another patch for lucid, but
> if you need any more data, I'll be happy to help.
>
> --
> Alcatel X200 HSxPA modem not working
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/395870
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Ubuntu: Incomplete
> Status in “network-manager-applet” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> I'm using Ubuntu 9.04, and the Network Manager succesfully configures one
> of my 3G modems (T-Mobile Web'N'Walk Stick), but I've another one, Alcatel
> X200, which simply doesn't work. The Hungarian LoCo managed a way to make it
> work, but it's over gnome-ppp and with tampering config files.
> It would be very nice, if this modem would work with Network Manager as
> "Hey dude, I've found a new 3g connection, do you want me to connect?" :)
> Don't you agree?
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/395870/+subscribe
>

[madbiologist (me-again)]

There is a patch in the upstream 3.0-rc3 kernel which may help:

commit 15badbcc8eede58b0d7e53a3acde1c90a7b6e40e
Author: Dan Williams
Date: Mon Jun 6 16:22:44 2011 -0500

    option: add Alcatel X200 to sendsetup blacklist

    This modem really wants sendsetup blacklisted for interfaces 0 and 1,
    otherwise the kernel hardlocks for about 10 seconds while waiting for
    the modem's firmware to respond, which it of course doesn't do.

    A slight complication here is that TCT (who owns the Alcatel brand) used
    the same USB IDs for the X200 as the X060s despite the devices having
    completely different firmware and AT command sets, so we end up adding
    the X060s to the blacklist at the same time. PSA to OEMs: don't use the
    same USB IDs for different devices. Really. It makes your kittens cry.

    Signed-off-by: Dan Williams
    Cc: <email address hidden>
    Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

A PPA of this kernel is available at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

[bjesus (bjesus)]

I don't know if it's the same cause, but I can easily connect to the internet using this wvdial with this modem:

[Dialer modem]
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","uinternet"
Check Def Route = 1
Modem = /dev/serial/by-id/usb-USBModem_HSPA_Data_Card_1234567890ABCDEF-if05-port0
Password = ''
Username = ''
Phone = *99#
Dial Command = ATDT

but with NM it just hangs while connecting... Any solution? Again, this used to work before.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Papp Károly, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Jaunty reached EOL on October 23, 2010.
Please see this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue in a supported release? If so, can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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