[SOLVED] USB tethering to Blackberry KeyOne does not work

Jason_25 · 08-20-2022, 03:57 PM

My main phone is a Blackberry KeyOne that I am unhappy to report is not working with USB tethering with the cdc_ncm driver anymore. I have tested with a Raspberry Pi 3 and an x86-64 laptop with newer kernels with the same results.

I have an old x86 Debian live environment that does work with it so I would call this a regression. Also I have an LG Android phone of the same era that uses the cdc_ether driver which works fine on newer operating systems or older operating systems.

Using the old live environment is not a good option for security reasons and in particular because I was building an embedded router so a 3.16 kernel is not going to work well with an x86 SBC.

I can not see any good solutions here. Switching sims between the LG and Blackberry is impractical due to wear and tear. Using the live environment in isolation when needed is impractical due to increasingly older software.

Working Classic Linux

Code:

[522287.011061] usb 1-1: Product: BlackBerry
[522287.011066] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: BlackBerry
[522287.011072] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: (removed)
[522287.016397] cdc_ncm 1-1:1.0: MAC-Address: ce:fc:5f:47:f6:1f
[522287.017374] cdc_ncm 1-1:1.0 usb0: register 'cdc_ncm' at usb-0000:00:12.2-1, CDC NCM, ce:fc:5f:47:f6:1f
[522287.043503] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): usb0: link is not ready
[522287.106408] cdc_ncm 1-1:1.0 usb0: 425 mbit/s downlink 425 mbit/s uplink
[522287.170419] cdc_ncm 1-1:1.0 usb0: 425 mbit/s downlink 425 mbit/s uplink
[522287.234407] cdc_ncm 1-1:1.0 usb0: network connection: connected
[522287.234494] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): usb0: link becomes ready

Linux debian 3.16.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt11-1+deb8u3 (2015-08-04) i686 GNU/Linux

Failed New Linux

Code:

[4738859.545900] usb 8-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0fca, idProduct=8035, bcdDevice= 3.18
[4738859.545911] usb 8-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[4738859.545916] usb 8-1: Product: BlackBerry
[4738859.545921] usb 8-1: Manufacturer: BlackBerry
[4738859.545925] usb 8-1: SerialNumber: (removed)
[4738859.603207] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ether
[4738859.628943] cdc_ncm 8-1:1.0: bind() failure
[4738859.628981] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ncm
[4738859.633847] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_wdm
[4738859.636869] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_mbim

Linux DEIMOS 5.10.0-10-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.84-1 (2021-12-08) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Further references
https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=144491
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=204299
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...an-4175681947/

Jason_25 · 08-22-2022, 11:38 AM

Someone keeps telling me to post a new thread instead of editing the old ones so I will do that.

Anyway the Raspberry Pi has come to the rescue. There is an extensive archive of old software for the Raspberry Pi unlike what you will see with other ARM single board computers. There is more available for the Pi from 2015 than there is for some current single board computers. I copied the entire boot folder and the corresponding /lib/modules folders for both kernel.img and kernel7.img kernels to replace the newer Devuan boot folder and modules.

Unfortunately I had to use one of my Pi 2 models instead of the Pi 3 because it is not supported by this old kernel. The Pi 2 version 1.1 is probably the best version of the Pi thinking back on it anyway. There is a big jump in speed between Pi 1 and 2 and with the 1.1 model there is no upgraded 64 bit core like in Pi 3 that uses so much more power. It is funny that the best Pi is not in production any more.

The original bug is still there but I have marked the problem as solved because this is acceptable for now.