# running a mobile broadband 'stick', two questions [SOLVED]

## mounty1

Hello, what's the simplest method of using a mobile broadband stick with kde on a ppc (G5) machine ?  I'm asking here rather than the gentoo-ppc forum as I think the question is fairly architecture neutral.  I'd rather have a simple command line solution as I hope and expect that knetworkmanager will be released for ppc soon, so I don't want to install a load of gnome stuff that I then have to remove.  I've nothing against gnome but I use kde.

The second question is related ... how do you make a mobile broadband stick work on x86 ?  This is an '3' prepaid stick in Australia.  It does work on my x86 laptop in Ubuntu (dual boot on the same machine) so I thought I could just copy the settings from the Ubuntu dialog:  Number (*99#), Username (a), Password (*), APN (3services) and Type (3G (UMTS/HSPA).  However, when I plug the device in and choose it from the knetworkmanager menu, it just fails immediately.  I can't find any messages logged in .xsessionerrors or /var/log/messages.  Of course, it might be that I've hit a knetworkmanager limit (I did have to unmask it) but I wonder if there's something I missed.

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## chithanh

 *mounty1 wrote:*   

> it just fails immediately

 Can you be more specific than that? Some USB devices need to be switched from mass storage to serial mode with sys-apps/usb_modeswitch. From the command line you can use Gentoo net scripts (create /etc/{conf,init}.d/net.ppp0 and proceed as described in net.example ppp, replacing the initialization part with commands appropriate for your USB stick) or wvdial.

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## pa4wdh

Hi,

Maybe my GPRS howto is of use for you. It provides simple commandline solutions with wvdial and pppd. If also has some tips and tricks for specific devices.

It's located here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ernstagn/GPRS-HOWTO

If your device is still in mass storage mode, an eject on the provided CD-ROM device may also do the trick.

Best regards,

pa4wdh

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## mounty1

 *chithanh wrote:*   

> Can you be more specific than that? Some USB devices need to be switched from mass storage to serial mode with sys-apps/usb_modeswitch.

 Thanks, yes, I'd forgotten about that dual-personality USB device thing.  usb_modeswitch handles my broadband stick flawlessly.  Thanks very much.

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## mounty1

Thanks also to pa4wdh.  It turns out that pppd crashes (well, locks up the entire machine actually) on this 'ere G5, so I'm bringing the investigation to a halt for the time being.

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