How to do mobile broadband from command line

[Dan Williams]

On Fri, 2014-03-21 at 10:48 +0100, Yegor Yefremov wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 1:24 AM, Dan Williams <dcbw at redhat.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, 2014-03-20 at 23:21 +0100, Yegor Yefremov wrote:
> >> On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 4:41 PM, Dan Williams <dcbw at redhat.com> wrote:
> >> > On Thu, 2014-03-20 at 15:20 +0100, Yegor Yefremov wrote:
> >> >> On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 5:47 PM, Dan Williams <dcbw at redhat.com> wrote:
> >> >> > On Fri, 2014-03-14 at 11:42 +0100, Aleksander Morgado wrote:
> >> >> >> Hey Yegor,
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 11:34 AM, Yegor Yefremov
> >> >> >> <yegorslists at googlemail.com> wrote:
> >> >> >> > I have some questions regarding NetworkManager<->ModemManager integration.
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >> > 1. how do I create a connection in nm, that is later referenced by its
> >> >> >> > id in "nmcli connection up"? I saw examples with "edit" command but nm
> >> >> >> > 0.9.8.8 says: Error: 'con' command 'edit' is not valid.
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Try using nm-connection-editor (GTK+ based UI app). Don't know in
> >> >> >> which version the nmcli support for editing connections was added.
> >> >> >> Dan?
> >> >> >
> >> >> > The direct edit functionality was added to NM 0.9.9, so no, it's not
> >> >> > available in 0.9.8 and lower.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > For example, here's a minimal WWAN connection, which should go
> >> >> > into /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ and be mode 0600 and owned
> >> >> > by root:
> >> >> >
> >> >> > [connection]
> >> >> > id=wwan
> >> >> > uuid=15d742f1-2b5a-421e-9f27-fcb1fc26d72c
> >> >> > type=gsm
> >> >> > autoconnect=false
> >> >> >
> >> >> > [ipv4]
> >> >> > method=auto
> >> >> >
> >> >> > [gsm]
> >> >> > number=*99#
> >> >> > username=blahblah
> >> >> > password=blahblah
> >> >> > apn=internet
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Then you can use "nmcli con up wwan" and "nmcli con down wwan".
> >> >>
> >> >> Thanks for the info. I've managed to compile the latest git version of
> >> >> NM in Buildroot. NM provides even a small terminal based GUI, where
> >> >> you can create/edit connections. Waiting for the final version to be
> >> >> released.
> >> >>
> >> >> P.S. NM still lacks udhcpc backend.
> >> >
> >> > Yeah, it does; want to contribute one?  We'll take it!
> >>
> >> I'll try. I have looked at dhclient and it seems to be doable. Though
> >> udhcpc has quite different structure. Nevertheless it
> >> is worth implementing, especially for embedded distros, that are using Busybox.
> >
> > Definitely.  One thing to note is that both the dhclient and dhcpcd code
> > use the same environment variables in their callout scripts, so that
> > probably won't work for udhcpc.  But that's OK, since then you're free
> > to do what's most efficient.
> 
> Btw. why configure.ac is searching for dhclient at configure time? Is
> this really helpful for cross-compilation?
> 
> # Search and check the executables
> if test "$with_dhclient" = "yes"; then
>         AC_PATH_PROGS(with_dhclient, dhclient, no,
> /sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin)
>         if test "$with_dhclient" != "no"; then
>                 if ! $with_dhclient --version 2>&1 | grep -q
> "^isc-dhclient-4\."; then
>                         AC_MSG_WARN([Cannot use dhclient, version 4.x
> is required])
>                         with_dhclient=no
>                 fi
>         fi
> fi

NM only works with certain versions of dhclient and sometimes its useful
to warn a user trying to build NM on their machine that the dhclient is
not good enough.  If you're cross-compiling or someting, then you'll
want to specify:

--with-dhclient=/path/to/it
--with-dhcpcd=/path/to/it

at configure time, which bypasses the checks.  Or you can use "=no" to
turn off the support entirely.

Dan