Auto connect to 3G network only works after manually enabling mobile broadband after modem inserted/bootup/resume

[Anders Feder]

NetworkManager does not connect to my 3G provider at login, even though it is configured for automatic connection.

What I expect:
- When selecting the option "connect automatically" in the network-setting for a mobile connection, it should connect automatically, like it has until Ubuntu 11.04.

What happens:
- When I plug in the modem (USB; e.g. "UMTS-Stick"), it appears as available connection, but does not connect;

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: network-manager 0.9.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-11.17-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-11-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.22.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Mon Sep 12 20:32:01 2011
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
IpRoute:
 default via 10.0.0.1 dev wlan0 proto static
 10.0.0.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.0.6
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
Keyfiles: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=da_DK.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-09-12 (0 days ago)

[Anders Feder (afeder)]

For what it is worth, this the debug output from modem-manager at startup.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (mathieu-tl)]

AFAIK, autoconnection for mobile broadband is not yet supported.

Marking Wishlist/Confirmed. Some work will be needed there.

[Anders Feder (afeder)]

Upstream bug report: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=659228

[Daniel Holm (danielholm)]

Same here but also when I resume the computer after suspend.

[Russell Faull (rfaull)]

This is a kinda annoying bug in 11.10. If my connection drops-out (fairly regular event), I can't reconnect without a reboot. I have tried sudo killall modem-manager (worked in 11.04), disable networking and sudo restart network-manager without effect. Am I missing something? Is there an easy workaround? Can I downgrade network manager or other package?

[Russell Faull (rfaull)]

I tried sudo restart modemmanager and that seems to work after waiting 30 seconds or so.

I wonder, though, if there is a dropout, why does this process not get automatically triggered if auto connection is set in network manager?

[Angelos Vlassopoulos (avlass)]

What I do is put the computer to sleep (suspend) and then when it wakes up everything is ok.

[Anders Feder (afeder)]

Russell, your issue seems unrelated to autoconnection. You may want to file a separate bug report.

[Russell Faull (rfaull)]

Anders, thanks for your help. I have filed bug report at LP#905622

[Zane Zakraisek (doublezane)]

Is this the kind of bug to get fixed in 12.04, or is this looked at as a pretty low priority? This bug is getting pretty annoying. I leave my computer on 24/7 now connected to mobile broadband. Every day the connection drops and I have to go into Netowrk Manager and disable/reenable Mobile Broadband and dial in again. PLEASE FIX THIS!!!

[Zane Zakraisek (doublezane)]

Can someone please fix this????

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

Hey yo, Bug Watcher, it's not "Invalid" upstream. The linked report is a duplicate of upstream #554538 which still has status NEW.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Updated to correct upstream bug report.

[Vladimir Dobriakov (vladimir-geekq)]

If the bug is really annoying for you and you can not wait for a proper fix, you can use a full automation workaround (bit complicated) http://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/how-auto-connect-ubuntu-1204-gsm-mobile-broadband-connection-on-boot-startup-service#version2

I decided for a less complicated workaround creating a script

    #!/bin/bash
    nmcli -t con up id "simyo"

Note: "simyo" is the name of my GSM/UMTS provider and the name of the connection in the NetworkManager. See `man nmcli` for documentation.

Then I bound that simple script to a keyboard shortcut (WindowsKey+F5).

[Miles Sharpe (msdomdonner)]

-----Original Message-----
From: Marius Kotsbak <email address hidden>
Reply-to: Bug 848164 <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 848164] Re: Autoconnect to 3G network only works after
manually enabling mobile broadband after modem inserted/bootup/resume
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:37:09 -0000

** Tags added: quantal

Hi Marius, this worked for me on 12.04. Have got to next release yet
http://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/how-auto-connect-ubuntu-1204-gsm-mobile-broadband-connection-on-boot-startup-service

Miles

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Japp, it still works as a workaround, but we should have a proper implementation of something like this.

[rpr nospam (rpr-nospam)]

On Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 1:06 PM, Marius Kotsbak wrote:
> Japp, it still works as a workaround, but we should have a proper
> implementation of something like this.

More precisely, a user friendly GUI implementation.

-- rpr.

[Shannon Black (shannon-netforge)]

nah, if it needs an extended GUI then its still a bug .. needs to work like a built in connection of the dialog needs to be adjusted.. not too sure why it worked OOTB in 10.10 but if it worked in a previous version its a regression that can be remedied? :)

[TheHobbit (the-hobbit)]

Thr attached script is a work around (tested on 12.04LTS) put into /etc/init.d as mm_monitor and execute
$ sudo uptate-rc.d mm_monitor defaults

The script run as a daemon ensuring that nmcli nm wwan on is called whenever modem manager adds a device. Beside solving the bug as described it also ensure that auto-connect system-accessible WWAN devices are connected on startup (which was my original problem)

Hoping it helps
TH

[Mark Wentland (wentland)]

The problem with 3G network support is not only in autoconnection but also in auto reconnection as described in
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1158442
Kind Regards

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

There is some code upstream that I am testing now that probably solves this problem, and possibly the reconnection issue too.

[Leonardo Borda (lborda)]

@mariusko

Hi, did you have a chance to test the upstream patch ?

Leonardo

[Rafał Rzepecki (divided-mind)]

I actually tracked it down to ModemManager initially having any modem disabled (and NetworkManager just reflects this state, and can manipulate it). `mmcli -e` enabled a modem and also causes the NetworkManager to connect, which confirms this. So the right solution would be to somehow persuade ModemManager to enable modem by default.

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Yes, upstream patch works, but for me it did not work after sleep of laptop.

[K Sriram (sriramkannan95)]

Simplest solution to this problem:

open with root permission:
sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Now add this line above exit 0

(while :; do nmcli -t nm wwan on; sleep 1; done)&

Save the file and exit.

This is the best solution i have tried, it works in all situations.

[Tamir (sugip)]

It may seem strange, but the bug persists in Ubuntu 14.04

[Cleanrock (cleanrock)]

Someone tried 0.9.8.10 to see if its fixed ?

[Art Edwards (edwardsah3-3)]

I am running 12.10 on Dell inspiron 14-z, and I'm using the novatel M760 over virgin mobile. I still have the problem that the system doesn't see the device if I remove, and re-insert it. I have tried the solution suggested in #27, and, now, the modem does autoconnect. However, it has not solved the re-insertion problem. I note the Bug Watch updater that there is a new network-manager as of 2014-05-07. Will this be back-ported to 12.10?

[Miles Sharpe (msdomdonner)]

On Wed, 2014-06-04 at 16:57 +0000, Art Edwards wrote:
> I am running 12.10 on Dell inspiron 14-z, and I'm using the novatel
> M760 over virgin mobile. I still have the problem that the system
> doesn't see the device if I remove, and re-insert it. I have tried the
> solution suggested in #27, and, now, the modem does autoconnect.
> However, it has not solved the re-insertion problem. I note the Bug
> Watch updater that there is a new network-manager as of 2014-05-07. Will
> this be back-ported to 12.10?
>

Try this. It was all that helped me get 12.04 to auto-connect.
sudo gedit /etc/init.d/mobile-broadband-connect
Copy/paste the following script in and where you see 8ta (2 places) you
have to enter your service provider. Then save and close gedit.
then
sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/mobile-broadband-connect
sudo update-rc.d mobile-broadband-connect defaults
Then reboot and lets hope it works for you too.
Good luck
Miles

#!/bin/sh
# Mobile Broadband Startup Service script v0.1 alpha by The Fan Club -
April 2012
# acts as startup service script for nmcli to fire up Mobile Broadband
Connections
# NOTE: Use the name of the Mobile Connection in the Network Manager as
the 'id'
# USAGE: start|stop|status
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: mobile-broadband-connect
# Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog
# Should-Start: $network
# Should-Stop: $network
# Default-Start: 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Autoconnect 3G GSM
### END INIT INFO

NAME="mobile-broadband-connect"
DESC="Autoconnect 3G/4G GSM USB modem at startup"

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

case "$1" in
 start)
    echo "Starting Mobile Broadband Connection."

    while true; do
        # testing...
       LC_ALL=C nmcli -t -f TYPE,STATE dev | grep -q "^gsm:disconnected
$"
       if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
          break
        else
          # no GSM modem detected yet, sleeping for a second
          sleep 1
        fi
    done

    # Once GSM modem detected, run the script
    nmcli -t con up id 8ta
 ;;
 stop)
    echo "Stopping Mobile Broadband Connection."
    nmcli -t con down id 8ta
    nmcli -t nm wwan off
 ;;
 status)
    # Check to see if the process is running with nmcli
       nmcli -p dev
 ;;

 *)
    echo "Mobile Broadband Startup Service"
    echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status}"
    exit 1
esac
exit 0

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

Version 0.9.10.0 which contains the fix is released to Debian unstable. Please update the Ubuntu package too.

[LocutusOfBorg (costamagnagianfranco)]

Hi Marius, since the ubuntu delta is quite big (didn't check, but the package has been reuploaded more than 20 times) and the package is so important I suggest you to talk directly with some ubuntu maintainer e.g. on freenode/#ubuntu-devel

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

I might try to backport it. I guess the Debian package builds for Utopic, there were some too old deps when I tried for Trusty.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Since this bug makes the connection to have to be manually reconnected each time the network goes down, it's a usability issue that doesn't limit the functionality of a core package. So of an importance of 'medium'.