problem with huawei e355 with xubuntu 14.04 and modemmanager 1.0.0

[Dan Williams]

On Tue, 2014-04-22 at 09:04 +0200, Aleksander Morgado wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 8:16 AM, som <drsoumalya-mm at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
> > i am using xubuntu 14.04 with modemmanager 1.0.0 version and i am having a
> > problem with huawei E355 modem [1]. in (x)ubuntu 12.04.3, and 13.04 , this
> > device used to work by default; just a plug and play device. both of them
> > used to have linux 3.8 kernel series.
> >
> > huawei E355 is a device with 1xethernet-over-usb connection and 5xwifi
> > connection creator.
> >
> > ideally, after plugging the device into a desktop/laptop, the network
> > manager applet should show two connections- one under the "wired connection"
> > heading and the other under the "wireless connection" heading. both
> > (x)ubuntu 12.04.3 and 13.04 performed as expected.
> > unfortunately, that is not happening with post 3.8 kernel series; ie,
> > (x)ubuntu 13.10 onwards. only the "wireless connection" option is visible;
> > but not the "wired connection" part. ethernet-over-usb is not working-
> > neither in xubuntu 13.10 nor in in 14.04, LTS.
> >
> > possible reason: cdc_ncm part of the kernel was changed beyond 3.8 series
> > but the changes were  not represented in the modem manager.
> >
> > reasons for thinking so:
> > in a german user forum[2], it was suggested first. they recompiled the 3.11
> > kernel and deactivated the changes made in cdc_ncm after 3.8 kernel series.
> > and, suddenly the "wired connection" option is visible again in xubuntu
> > 13.10.
> > unfortunately, this is not a permanent solution; and anyway its not working
> > in xubuntu 14.04 LTS. how to solve this problem permanently and in the LTS
> > version in particular?
> >
> > any help will really be appreciated.
> >
> > links:
> > [1] -> http://www.huaweidevice.co.in/Products/MobileBroadband/E355.php
> > [2] ->
> > http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/huawei-e355-als-kabelnetzwerk-einbinden-wwan0-/
> > launchpad bug:
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/modemmanager/+bug/1309054
> 
> 
> commit 1f84eab4ad73bcb7d779cba65291fe62909e373f
> Author: Bjørn Mork <bjorn at mork.no>
> Date:   Wed Feb 27 03:08:58 2013 +0000
> 
>     net: cdc_ncm: tag Huawei devices (e.g. E5331) with FLAG_WWAN
> 
>     Tag all Huawei NCM devices as WWAN modems, as we don't know of any which
>     are not.  This is necessary for userspace clients to know that the device
>     requires further setup on e.g. an AT-capable serial ports before
>     connectivity is available.
> 
> The device is truly a WWAN modem, but again it doesn't require any
> ModemManager setup. Dan, can we maybe update NetworkManager to
> initially ignore all WWAN flagged devices but only if ModemManager
> takes them afterwards in a modem object? In other words, if MM doesn't
> end up taking the interface (hum.. how to notify that?) then NM can
> try to expose it as a USB net interface...

So yeah, we can do this.  But I'd also like to pair it with a
ModemManager property for "detecting" that would get flipped on/off when
MM was in the process of detecting a new modem.  That would give us two
things:

1) NetworkManager would know when the process was done and could then
let the WWAN tagged device be an ethernet device

2) User Interfaces could show an indicator when MM was working, so that
where detecting the modem might take a bit of time, the user isn't left
wondering what's happening, because they plugged in the modem 10 seconds
ago and it still hasn't shown up in the menu.

What do you think?

Dan