Comment 8 for bug 311581

The problem wasn't the 3G device. The problem was quite simply that I couldn't instruct NetworkManager to start a ppp session with a serial (in this case, usb-serial) modem. It doesn't matter what the underlying tech of the modem was -- the initial bug report and the "me too" that I chipped in were due to the issue of not being able to configure a good old pppd session for a serial device, which wouldn't have been a problem if there was just something as simple as a dialog which asks for the device, dial number and user info. Do you understand the source of the frustration? It's no biggie if *I* can configure via /etc/network/interfaces, but my technophobe sister or mother wouldn't be able to do that. An interface like that of gnome-ppp would have been great since NetworkManager seemed to promise to be able to configure ALL network interfaces and then just failed to deliver.

And, to be quite honest, for most people with 3G modems, /etc/network/interfaces _is_still_the_only_way_to_configure_pppd_for_that_interface_.

"NetworkManager will just ignore devices set in /etc/network/interfaces and assume they are UP"
Not when I used it. Hence my chipping in. Everything which was supposedly NM-aware was convinced that I was offline: pidgin, empathy, firefox.
FAIL.