Cinterion PLS63 not showing up as wwan0

[Dan Williams]

On Tue, 2025-01-28 at 06:20 +0000, Brendan Simon wrote:
> 
> IND.T Classification: External
> 
> 
> 
> I am using a Debian 10 Buster Linux system with ModemManager 1.10
> (yes I know it's old, and we have tried Debian 12 Bookwork with MM
> 1.20) and cannot get a Cinterion PLS63 device to connecto the
> internet.  MM seems happy enough with it.  It is detected and I can
> show status information with mmcli command.
> 
> 
> I have successfully connected over many years with this setup using a
> Quectel EC21 modem, but cannot connect with this new Cinterion PLS63
> modem.
> 
> 
> One difference is that the device seems to show up as a network
> interface  enxNNNNNN and not wwan0 , which is what the EC21 shows up
> as.
> Is this expected?

No, if the kernel drivers have the right bits.

> Is this the issue?  If so, how can I get it to show up as a
> wwan0 device?

The kernel drivers "tag" the device as a WWAN device instead of a
regular USB Ethernet device, and that's how it gets wwan0.

These patches seems relevant and were merged for the 5.11 kernel:

https://lore.kernel.org/all/20210126044245.8455-1-gciofono@gmail.com/
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20210120045650.10855-1-gciofono@gmail.com/

I think Buster has a 4.19 kernel? I'll bet your kernel doesn't have
those two patches.

Dan

> 
> 
> Some posts mention udev rules and port type hints.  Is this what I
> should be looking at and are there any example or suggested settings
> for this modem?
> 
> 
> I tried using NetworkManger to setup a connection using the
> enx interface, but thenmtui utility did not recognise it.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Brendan.