Three mobile 3G USB dongle
 

Hi all

I am a newbi both to this site and linux only installed Mandrake 8.2 for the first time 3 days ago. I am trying to install my three 3G USB dongle in Mandrake it seems to see the dongle in usbview and if I lsusb form the command line. I did see some where that the driver had not been loaded, I have been trying to use setserials to set a virtual serial port to the device but as I am a windows engineer and am not sure of the process and commands need HELP... I have read that the 3G dongle can be used as a serial connection it seems other people have done this on the web, but I need help can anyone explain how to connect to a usb device as a serial ttys*. I must also point out that this dongle has a virtual CD-rom and a built in memory chip which installs the drivers in windows when it is plugged in.. what are the steps to install or shouldI upgrade to a newer version of linux. Many Thanks..

hi

you will have a bit of learning curve sorry.

1) mdk is too old....its a bit like somone going onto a ms forum and saying they are installing windows 3.1

use www.distrowatch.com to look for mandriva or other distros and download a more recent one

2) We call these dongles ...flip flops. ms sees it first as a cd disk and self extracts the drivers...then you reset it and ms sees it as a serial modem

3) There are competing softwares that can use these dongles.

However, are you an aussie?

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au

if so ask there how to do it.

I have a diff wireless dongle but this gives you an idea of how to get around flip flop
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=linux_U6T

but the settings will differ for you namely
Phone =*99***1#
Init 3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","purtona.net"

and lsusb info to get usb ids after running eject command
vendor=0x05c6 product=0x9000

------

above is usinng wvdial and an udev rule

-----

there is also umtsmon

you could google and see what others have done.

PS if you are not an aussie forgive me.
try joining a wireless forum in your country they tend to offer good free advice

Many Thanks...

I am intending to upgrade when I can but will try to get it working for now as I am keen to learn..

Thanks again.

Mandrake 8.2 is not going to work for you. It dates from 2002 and a lot has changed since then. Trust me on this one.

Get yourself a modern distro, and you'll be much happier, as Aus9 said, goto http://www.distrowatch.com/ and choose something from the top of the "most popular" list. Download it, burn it (as an iso image!), then boot from it :)

Thanks guys..

I have now orderded my new distro Mandriva 2010 should be with me in a few days.

I have also tried to set the dongle up with IPcop which I did download and have not got it working yet..

has anyone used this dongle with linux. I have been reading about flip flop and wonder if this is a problem..?

manually you can flip it....by issue one command

eject /dev/sr1....assuming sr0 is your only one optical drive.

flip flops are seen as a cd on first connect.

udev rules force the eject so that linux can see it as a modem.

You ordered it? Don't you know anyone with broadband? 40Mins later your intended distro is ready to burn ;)

If you'd like to do some early reading try this explanation of "flip/flop" http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/ and his solution (worked for me, about 3y ago, don't have dongle now).

You (or your distro) is likely to use wvdial to establish the connection, so you could read the manpage for that too (just put man wvdial into google if you like pretty formatting). Most modern distros just recognise and use 3G dongles, but it is sometimes useful to know what is going on "Under the hood".

Anyhow, let us know how you get on.

I gave my dongle away as when I was at home, I didn't need it, and when I was away, 3's coverage was woefully inadequate.

that is the funniest post i have seen in a long time ,man why dont you just install windows millenium and dual boot it with mandrake 8.2 i hear you can upgrade to mandrakesoft 10.0 discovery for $33 today haha , sorry i know its rude but i just had to
but by the way mandriva 2010 is awsome , if you are learning linux for the first time i recommend reading some of the mandriva forms to learn some simple commands in terminal , i find gnome a much better choice for stability i find the new kde awsome except there are a few bugs to be cleaned up in the next few weeks ,gnome gui much easier to get around

And your valuable contribution to LQ is ... .. . ?

The following should help.

http://www.timberwolf.ukfsn.org/debian-orange-3g.html
http://www.linux.co.uk/docs/center/h...h-3g-broadband
http://tuxmobil.org/linux_on_laptops...mts_cards.html

You do not have to use Ubuntu from the howtos. You can use any distribution. In the past I recommend Mandrake 9.0, but I can not recommend any distribution for novice users. This because any distribution right now includes additional work after it is installed compared to the past.

An easier way is using VMware Server and run Windows in a virtual machine. The virtual machine can access USB device, so you can install the drivers. Though you will then have to setup Internet sharing in Windows.

Sure you can buy a distribution if that makes it easier. If you download the ISO file your self, use md5sum or sha1sum utility to check the integrity, and write the file to a disc using the CD/DVD burning software with image mode, it will cost nothing, but these steps gives you some skills.


...amusement and disrespect. A word to state it is "bully."

Hi All

Thanks for the help, I have now received my copy of Mandiva 2010. yes I did order it on line rather that download it as my dongle is the only internet access I have and the speed of downloading is slow. I am very impressed with Mandiva 2010 looks good and sees the dongle
all is well

Thanks.

Pleased you have it working. Thanks for the follow-up.