# Using NetworkManager for 3G dongle automatically

## Kobboi

I'm having some issues running NetworkManager and the Gnome applet. I have seen something like three or four different ( ! ) dialogs asking me for pin codes and keyring passwords when I plug in my 3G dongle, but have yet to see a ppp daemon running over the serial-over-USB interface.

But the GUI part is not really what I am interested in. I would be equally (and maybe even more) satisfied if I could let NetworkManager (modemmanager) do everything for me when I plug in the dongle (e.g. pin code), without user intervention. Can I do that? How?

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## BradN

I can see how that would be a nice way to do it, but if that doesn't work out, you can probably manually configure pppd without too much trouble (assuming your phone works anything like the ttyACM using one I had) - I think there is some utility to help setting up the configuration, and then starting/stopping your connection would be as easy as running scripts to do so.  Maybe networkmanager can be tied into those more easily?

Anyway it's just an idea.  I can probably dig up the settings later if you want as I still have the machine I did this on.

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## Kobboi

For some reason, I keep failing at that, although I know it should work. Most people seem to use wvdial, but I can't really do it. If people could give me useful input, the dongle is a Huawei that is recognized by usb_modeswitch, so the modeswitch itself works fine.

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## Kobboi

Some breakthrough. Examining the AT command set and manually sending AT commands, I can get a PDP context (type IP) up and running (meaning my dongle has an IP, which I can see).

Now the pppd daemon should connect to the dongle and retrieve the IP. I'm still failing at this step. pppd does not seem to get replies from the dongle, and dialling "ATD*99***2# (for PDP context 2) leads to "NO CARRIER"

Edited: It said #2 before, which was wrong. I now get the CONNECT message. Still have to figure out why the dongle does not reply to my LCP Configure-Requests though. The standard says PPP should be in HDLC framing. Is it, when I simply run pppd over the serial-over-USB?Last edited by Kobboi on Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:31 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## NeddySeagoon

Kobboi,

Can yuo make it work with wvdial ?

Then its a matter of transcribing the wvdial settings into the NetworkManager Gnome applet

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## Kobboi

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> Kobboi,
> 
> Can yuo make it work with wvdial ?
> 
> Then its a matter of transcribing the wvdial settings into the NetworkManager Gnome applet

 

Not that I can remember. Also, in wvdial, you specify a modem as one serial port, whereas with these dongles, AT commands are sent over one serial-over-USB interface and the ppp is setup over another?

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## NeddySeagoon

Kobboi,

Not on my one.  One serial port is used for the AT commands and PPP, the other for reporting status data, like signal strength.

The behave in all respects like a real baseband modem, except the data rate is a little faster.

Mine is a K3565. I don't know of any Linux apps to read the status data from the second serial port.

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## Kobboi

Neddy,

I managed to get it working with wvdial and was able to see the pppd options it uses from the process list. That's what I needed. Thanks for the support

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