After purchasing the Huawei E352 USB modem, I had to think hard to get it working in Ubuntu.
Some modern modems come with a virtual drive containing drivers and other «useful» utilities. When connected to a computer, the system detects the drive but not the modem itself. The modem needs to be switched to «Modem» mode.
This can be done in two ways: the first is to connect to the modem and disable disk emulation using AT commands.
The second is to use the usb-modeswitch utility for this procedure.
Install the required software:
sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch usb-modeswitch-data tcl8.3 tcl8.4 tcl8.5
Connect the modem to the computer and check how it was recognized:
lsusb
The command output did not contain an entry like «Bus 001 Device 013: ID 12d1:14ac Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.». Instead, a device with identifier 12d1:1446 was detected — this is the modem's media device, which is mounted as a CD-ROM.
Switch the device to modem mode:
sudo usb_modeswitch -c /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1446
Now, the lsusb command should recognize that a Huawei modem is connected to the computer.
Next, you can go one of two ways: either configure the modem via Network Manager, or connect in text mode using wvdial:
The configuration file for the dialer program, /etc/wvdial.conf, looks like this:
[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,»IP»,»3g.utel.ua»
Password = 0
Phone = *99#
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Stupid Mode = 1
Baud = 9600
New PPPD = yes
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
ISDN = 0
Username = 0
Auto Reconnect = on
Call the provider:
sudo wvdial