O2 mobile broadband dongle does not show up in NM applet; adding "ipcp-accept-local" option fixes it

[Mark Shuttleworth]

Binary package hint: network-manager

I inserted an O2 dongle and didn't see any prompt from NM to configure 3G networking. lsusb shows a Sierra Wireless dongle ID 1199:6880 and HAL appears to see it just fine too (there are seven serial devices created, ttyUSB0 through ttyUSB6). However, NM does not show a first-time configuration, nor does it show an entry in its dropdown list.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
Package: network-manager 0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1.8.10.1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: network-manager
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-11-generic i686

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Mark commented separately that this seems to work in Jaunty, but perhaps he could confirm here.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Unfortunately it's not working with NetworkManager in Jaunty.

There has been some improvement - inserting the USB dongle does trigger the wizard to configure mobile broadband. I've tried all the O2 variants, though, and none work.

There is a workaround, using ppp and a chatscript. The key for me was to try each of the different ttyUSBn devices sequentially. Using pppd directly, and using ttyUSB3, worked. I will attach a copy of lsusb output, and the relevant pppd peer configuration and chatscript which work reliably, but don't know how to turn that into a working NetworkManager config.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Here is the pppd peers configuration that works:

connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -t3 -f /etc/chatscripts/o2"
/dev/ttyUSB3
115200
noipdefault
usepeerdns
defaultroute
persist
noauth
debug

And this is the corresponding chatscript giving modem initialization:

'' AT
TIMEOUT 15
OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","mobile.o2.co.uk",""
CONNECT ''

As you can see there are no username / password authentication requirements, just the correct initialization and serial line.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

If you still see this problem with what we have in jaunty, let us know.

 - Alexander

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Here's the status. In the final Jaunty release, the dongle shows up.
However, it never established a connection.

This weekend I played with various options in /etc/ppp/options and I
found that setting "ipcp-accept-local" in that options file solved the
problem.

It seems that ipcp-accept-local is a reasonable default for client
systems, because it allows the GSM service to say "this is your IP
address". I also played with variations on ipcp-accept-remote and
noremoteip (the latter requires manually adding a special default route
via the ppp0 device because there is no ip address for the remote).

Alexander, I think it would be worth a review of our default ppp
options. I suspect this is at the heart of many of the 3G issues that
remain.

Mark

[steve801 (steveisnt)]

iv just bought a new 02 dongle and it dont work! tried manulay with wireless wizard and still nothing! pleas ehelp

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Steve, can you look into /etc/ppp/options and try making sure that:

 - you have noauth instead of auth
 - you have uncommented ipcp-accept-remote and ipcp-accept-local

Does that address the issue for you?

Mark

[azarandouz (radioactive-nipples)]

Hey, Mark.

I have the exact same problem as Steve, but I've only recently been introduced to Linux (Ubuntu) and in all honesty can't rectify the problem given your instructions (No doubt due to my ignorance).

I accessed the etc/ppp/options folder, how do I make the changes to ' - you have noauth instead of auth
 - you have uncommented ipcp-accept-remote and ipcp-accept-local'

I also tried saving the same page but apparently I didn't have any permissions to do so. I'm a newbie who's very familiar with Windows, not Linux. Bare with me :(