Ubuntu 8.10 and O2 Mobile Broadband with Compass 888 modem

julio2009

Hi,

I would like get a subscription for O2 mb with compass 888 modem.

Do you know if there are any problems for using this modem with ubuntu 8.10? Eventually how to fix them? Or there are different alternatives?

Thanks,
Julio

gavinbeatty

Go here[1] on the Sierra Wireless website and you'll find all the information on the hardware side (and if that link doesn't work, search the knowledge base for "Can I use my Sierra Wireless modem on a Linux operating system"). Basically, you have to compile a tiny kernel module, load it and follow the instructions they give to configure pppd.

The problem for me has been getting the apn and auth information for pppd... O2 broadband support were less than helpful. The support person didn't understand my question and said nobody in O2 could help (at least, that nobody who could help would speak to me).

EDIT: I only just potentially found some of the info[2] I mentioned. Check out the bottom of the post where the apn, username and password are. Haven't tried it yet.

Links:

[1] http://sierrawireless.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/500/session/L3NpZC9TNjViOERxag==/sno/0
[2] http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=55949428&postcount=6

tinyurl versions:

[1] http://tinyurl.com/bvbgfo
[2] http://tinyurl.com/avzkn6

towel401

when you plug it in, does it show up in dmesg as /dev/ttyACMx? x being a number

julio2009

I tried to follow instructions from links above but nothing seems to work.

BTW I guess in Ubuntu 8.10 settings are already corrects (when I put modem inside everything is correctly set, even DNS)

so the real problem is modem 888

I tried to disable from windows request for pin, but it didn't work for me
(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=938686&page=2)

I tried to use http://www.umtsmon.org/ but no modem "catched"

Have you any news about modem 888 sierra usage for Ubuntu 8.10?

Thanks,
Julio

julio2009

maybe this could help:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=946379

Julio

corkie

From the links above the modem may need to be activate on windows, using the in built software first!

I upgrade my modem from the hauwei modem to this modem as well over the weekend!

Either the scripts from the scripts (from the old modem) or something else was blocking this from working for me!

Successfully got it to work on Ubuntu 64 (9.04 jaunty) in the end (after a reinstall, home on another partition)!

The device will also work in the latest version of Slax and the latest version of Knoppix on acer aspire one works. (note as this use (ReiserFS file system on the default install, you may need to get know to repair file system after a powerdown)

Regards,
J.

P.S. Knoppix is buggy if you install to SSD and run update. Something now blocking me from accessing the internet after installing additional packages.

corkie

The 888 modem works well if you install the right apt's.

Network-manager won't detect the modem correctly
KPPP and gnome-ppp difficult to get setup need's allot of script's etc. Plus know bugs in the current kppp from kde4.

Solution get "network selector" and "network-admin" from the repo's plus dependencies, use snyaptic and do a search for network. While getting these look out for packages that may be required to make it work. (ifup, and other networking tools).

I may get around to provide more instructions if needed later!
Regards,
J.

P.S. Slax and or Knoppix come in handy as USB stick's distro's to have at hand!

APN for O2 is: open.internet
User name and password are the same. use 3 or four different characters. (eg: gprs, none, apn have all worked for me.). Your billing is tied to your number of the sim not the user/pass

corkie

Update: Ubuntu 9.04 beta kernel 2.6.28-11 latest updates

this modem is now being recognized and works with Network Manager.

regards,
J.