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ilpianista

Fellow developer

Registered: 2007-10-06

Posts: 568

Website

[SOLVED] Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000

Hi all,
if you want Plasma 5 official packages, or if you just wanna help, please help me to configure this crappy 3G card :-)

I can't manage to connect using NetworkManager:

$ nmcli con up id TIM
Error: Connection activation failed: Connection 'TIM' is not available on the device cdc-wdm0 at this time.

# cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/TIM
[connection]
id=TIM
uuid=b2dba0f2-eecb-4eb4-bb90-1ea034643f4c
type=gsm
autoconnect=false

[gsm]
number=*99#
password-flags=1
apn=ibox.tim.it

[ppp]
lcp-echo-failure=5
lcp-echo-interval=30

[serial]
baud=115200

[ipv4]
method=auto

$ usb-devices
T:  Bus=02 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=03 Cnt=01 Dev#=  3 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1199 ProdID=9013 Rev=00.02
S:  Manufacturer=Sierra Wireless Inc
S:  Product=Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000(TM) Module
C:  #Ifs= 4 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=500mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=qmi_wwan
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=qcserial
I:  If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=qcserial
I:  If#= 3 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=qcserial

$ mmcli -m 0

/org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/Modem/0 (device id '21bca01c270922a4b28231a782f67a5511e2a5b2')
  -------------------------
  Hardware |   manufacturer: 'Sierra Wireless Inc'
           |          model: 'Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000(TM) Module'
           |       revision: 'D3600-STSUVH-1576  1  [Nov 23 2010 16:00:00]'
           |      supported: 'cdma-evdo'
           |        current: 'cdma-evdo'
           |   equipment id: '355569040755113'
  -------------------------
  System   |         device: '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.4'
           |        drivers: 'qcserial, qmi_wwan'
           |         plugin: 'Gobi'
           |   primary port: 'cdc-wdm0'
           |          ports: 'ttyUSB0 (qcdm), ttyUSB1 (at), cdc-wdm0 (qmi), wwan0 (net)'
  -------------------------
  Numbers  |           own : '0000009194'
  -------------------------
  Status   |           lock: 'none'
           | unlock retries: 'unknown'
           |          state: 'disabled'
           |    power state: 'low'
           |    access tech: 'unknown'
           | signal quality: '0' (cached)
  -------------------------
  Modes    |      supported: 'allowed: 2g; preferred: none
           |                  allowed: 3g; preferred: none
           |                  allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: none
           |                  allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: 2g
           |                  allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: 3g'
           |        current: 'allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: none'
  -------------------------
  Bands    |      supported: 'cdma-bc0-cellular-800, cdma-bc1-pcs-1900'
           |        current: 'cdma-bc0-cellular-800, cdma-bc1-pcs-1900'
  -------------------------
  IP       |      supported: 'ipv4'
  -------------------------
  CDMA     |           meid: 'A1000004B8D501'
           |            esn: '80AAFBAA'
           |            sid: 'unknown'
           |            nid: 'unknown'
           |   registration: CDMA1x 'unknown'
           |                 EV-DO  'unknown'
           |     activation: 'not-activated'
  -------------------------
  SIM      |           path: 'none'

  -------------------------
  Bearers  |          paths: 'none'

I tried several things on the web, but none worked. Where do we start?

Also, I'd like to connect using an APN instead of the phone number, did anyone have a NM configuration for that?

Thank you in advance.

BTW, I noticed there's no SIM path in MM output. I guess this is wrong right?

Last edited by ilpianista (2015-04-23 12:34:11)

DarkCerberus

Banned

From: Holsworthy, Devon

Registered: 2011-12-31

Posts: 252

Re: [SOLVED] Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000

I know this might be a late reply since other's haven't responded to your request but doing some searches have revealed these instructions -

https://www.codeaurora.org/forum/projec … -ko-issues

&

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/ … 45510.html

Also by APN do you mean VPN? Mainly because APN searches comes up with nothing.... Also note googling might help a bit....

Edit: Plus reading the troubleshoot for 3G on the archlinux wiki could help:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/3G … _with_pppd

Last edited by DarkCerberus (2014-08-16 17:03:21)

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ilpianista

Fellow developer

Registered: 2007-10-06

Posts: 568

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000

Hi,
thank you for your help.

I already googled a LOT, but found nothing working.

First of all, NetworkManager recognize my device as CDMA device, but I've to use GSM instead. I'm not even sure I can switch between those. I need someone who exactly knows how this stuff work and setup them with NetworkManager.
CDMA uses a phone number to connect, while GSM requires an APN.

Archange

Package Maintainer (PM)

Registered: 2014-08-17

Posts: 40

Re: [SOLVED] Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000

I’ve found two thread with some informations, but not sure if you’ve already stumble accross them. BTW, it seems that you’re card is either CDMA or GSM, but not both, however, this seems to be determined by the loaded firmware.

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.n … evel/23561

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1796527

Hope this can help you.

alexcriss

Member

Registered: 2010-05-24

Posts: 121

Re: [SOLVED] Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000

Hi Andrea, sorry for the late reply.

If you are using a TIM card, your APN is probably "ibox.tim.it".

Removed the rest of the topic, I tried it and it did not work at all.

Last edited by alexcriss (2014-10-30 09:56:16)

ilpianista

Fellow developer

Registered: 2007-10-06

Posts: 568

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000

I’ve found two thread with some informations, but not sure if you’ve already stumble accross them. BTW, it seems that you’re card is either CDMA or GSM, but not both, however, this seems to be determined by the loaded firmware.

Thanks, I already read those, but no luck.

Regarding the configuration part, can you try setting it up without NetworkManager first, and then move to it when it works?

I agree that we have to setup it without NM first. I'll try your detailed steps later.
Thank you very much!

ilpianista

Fellow developer

Registered: 2007-10-06

Posts: 568

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000

After some month, yesterday I did another try and fixed this!

As explained here you need to extract the firmwares from the Sierra Wireless driver for Windows.
After that, I also downloaded the UMTS files from here because they were missing in the Windows driver.
I copied the configuration number 8 (Telecom UMTS) and the files from the UMTS.zip archive to /tmp/gobi. Then I downloaded also the gobi_loader binary and run:

# gobi_loader /dev/ttyUSB1 /tmp/gobi

After that, network manager recognized the device as a GSM device and I can finally connect to my 3G network :-)

I have followed this step in the past months, but never worked for some reason. Probably because of faulty firmwares or dunno. Thank you for any help!

BTW, it seems that the firmware configuration is "persisted" in some way into the card, because I don't need gobi_loader anymore: the device is always recognized as a GSM device now!

Last edited by ilpianista (2015-04-23 13:20:15)