NM frequently disconnects mobile broadband and refuses to reconnect -- Huawei E156G, E620

[Sandeep Kamath]

Binary package hint: network-manager

network manager disconnects from 3g network frequently, but does not reconnect if I select the network from nm-applet.

If I uncheck the 'Enable Mobile Broadband' option and then check it again and click the network, it attempts to connect. It also connects if I reinsert the 3g datacard

I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 Natty alpha 3, 64bit

modemmanager 0.4+git.20110124t203624.00b6cce-0ubuntu1
network-manager 0.8.4~git.20110228t143901.5cdded6-0ubuntu1
network-manager-gnome 0.8.4~git.20110228t141430.abba62f-0ubuntu1

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

The problem seems to be that the modem times out responding:
<debug> [1300375162.083126] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): <-- '<CR><LF>+CIND: 1,3,1,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0<CR><LF><CR><LF>OK<CR><LF>'
<debug> [1300375191.980676] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): --> 'AT+CIND?<CR>'
<debug> [1300375192.045069] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): <-- 'AT+CIND'
<debug> [1300375192.076325] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): <-- '?<CR>'
<debug> [1300375221.980631] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): --> 'AT+CIND?<CR>'
<debug> [1300375251.980717] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): --> 'AT+CIND?<CR>'
<debug> [1300375281.980735] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): --> 'AT+CIND?<CR>'
<debug> [1300375304.750596] [mm-serial-port.c:798] mm_serial_port_close(): (ttyACM0) device open count is 0 (close)
<info> [1300375304.805987] [mm-serial-port.c:811] mm_serial_port_close(): (ttyACM0) closing serial port...
<debug> [1300375304.839035] [mm-port.c:181] mm_port_set_connected(): (ttyACM0): port now disconnected
<info> [1300375304.872109] [mm-serial-port.c:834] mm_serial_port_close(): (ttyACM0) serial port closed
<debug> [1300375304.905221] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): <-- '<CR><LF>+CIND: 1,3,1,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0<CR><LF><CR><LF>OK<CR><LF><CR><LF>+CIEV: 2,2<CR><LF><CR><LF>+CIEV: 2,3<CR><LF>'
<info> [1300375304.939062] [mm-modem.c:761] mm_modem_set_state(): Modem /org/freedesktop/ModemManager/Modems/0: state changed (connected -> disconnecting)
<info> [1300375304.971659] [mm-modem.c:761] mm_modem_set_state(): Modem /org/freedesktop/ModemManager/Modems/0: state changed (disconnecting -> connected)
<debug> [1300375306.610641] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): <-- '<CR><LF>+CGREG: 1,"0CEC","01345890",4<CR><LF><CR><LF>+CREG: 1,"0CEC","01345890"<CR><LF>'
<debug> [1300375307.460661] [mm-at-serial-port.c:298] debug_log(): (ttyACM1): <-- '<CR><LF>+CIEV: 2,4<CR><LF>'
<debug> [1300375307.964547] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4361] simple_connect(): (ttyACM0): number => "*99#"
<debug> [1300375307.998269] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4361] simple_connect(): (ttyACM0): network_mode => 0
<debug> [1300375308.080864] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4361] simple_connect(): (ttyACM0): apn => "bsnlnet"
<debug> [1300375308.295288] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4361] simple_connect(): (ttyACM0): allowed_mode => 0
<debug> [1300375308.328472] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4250] simple_state_machine(): (ttyACM0): simple connect state 0
<debug> [1300375308.361563] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4250] simple_state_machine(): (ttyACM0): simple connect state 2
<info> [1300375308.396454] [mm-modem.c:761] mm_modem_set_state(): Modem /org/freedesktop/ModemManager/Modems/0: state changed (connected -> disconnecting)
<info> [1300375308.427854] [mm-modem.c:761] mm_modem_set_state(): Modem /org/freedesktop/ModemManager/Modems/0: state changed (disconnecting -> connected)
<debug> [1300375312.032212] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4361] simple_connect(): (ttyACM0): number => "*99#"
<debug> [1300375312.089508] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4361] simple_connect(): (ttyACM0): network_mode => 0
<debug> [1300375312.122620] [mm-generic-gsm.c:4361] simple_connect(): (ttyACM...

[Sandeep Kamath (sandeepkamath)]

I'm able to reconnect manually immediately after it disconnects (to do this I need to disable 'mobile broadband' from nm-applet and enable it again.). as for the signal, its mostly good when this happens.

On maverick it used to reconnect automatically after a disconnect.

[Vladimir Tregub (vtregub)]

Yes. Exactly the same at Maverik. Huawei E156G.
(restart network-manager also doesn't help)

[Vincent Sloan (vincentsloan)]

I'm not sure if its the same bug, but my 3G modem won't stay connected for more than a few seconds. It worked fine in 9.10, and continues to work fine in Windows, so I know its not a hardware issue.

Log attached.

[Vincent Sloan (vincentsloan)]

I should add that I'm running 11.04 64 bit, with network manager 0.8.4~git.20110319t175609.d14809b-0ubuntu3, kernel 2.6.38-8-generic

[Vincent Sloan (vincentsloan)]

Debug output from network-manager and modemmanager, as suggested here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1771723

[Vincent Sloan (vincentsloan)]

I found a solution, for my problem at least. It turns out the problem was USB autosuspend.

as root:
echo on > /sys/bus/usb/devices/2-1.6/power/level

Now it stays connected.

Certainly, everyone's usb device path will differ.

Hope this helps.

[spicykappella (spicykappella)]

I also face the same problem & this is very irritating..
(@Vincent How to find my usb devices path? )

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E620 USB Modem
  idVendor 0x12d1 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
  idProduct 0x1001 E620 USB Modem

[Vincent Sloan (vincentsloan)]

There is no direct way to find the USB device path that I know of. I followed this guide:
http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/devices-power-management/usb.php
You compare the bus# and device# from lsusb to "devnum" and "busnum" files in /sys/bus/usb/devices/*

[Gergely Máté (sportember)]

This is probably the same bug as
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/746078
and as
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/435057

[Gergely Máté (sportember)]

See also:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/438150

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

To everyone who has this problem: What modem (full name, please) do you have?

[Gergely Máté (sportember)]

Ah, sorry, but I can't tell. It was a USB driven Huawei.

You know, this was a year ago. And the problem was with the internet connection. So repairing it was needed like water in the desert.

I tried hard for about a month or two, but ultimately failed with solving it with that modem. So I switched to another connection method (DSL) at another internet provider, gave my 3G modem to a guy who used another OS, and forget about the whole problem at all.

Probably I'll try to avoid anything from Huawei in the future. They should have a few developer working on native Ubuntu support for their products, don't they? But they seem to ignore Ubuntu, so I'll seem to ignore them at all.

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

The Huawei modem models that have been mentioned so far are not listed as supported upstream.

    https://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager/MobileBroadband/

If you would like your model to be supported by NetworkManager and modem-manager, please file a request in the upstream bug tracking system

    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/browse.cgi?product=NetworkManager

To save work, we don't track such requests in Launchpad as well --- marking Invalid.

[Eduard Hasenleithner (eduard-hasenleithner)]

"Known to work" is something completely different than "supported".