I had big issues with my Huawei E173s and mobile Internet using Ubuntu. This USB stick saves me many times when I’m at some Coffice and if there is a problem with Internet connection or the coffee doesn’t have wireless at all. The strange thing is that with my old laptop with Ubuntu 12.04 I haven’t those problems, but in 13.04 (most likely) they broke something. Anyway, I did some research and I found the solution.
Firstly plug the USB device and in the terminal type lsusb I got this result:
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 12d1:1c0b Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E173s 3G broadband stick (modem off)
Now we have several steps to do:
1) create file /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1c0b:
sudo gedit /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1c0b
and paste this:
######################################################## # Huawei E173s DefaultVendor= 0x12d1 DefaultProduct= 0x1c0b TargetVendor= 0x12d1 TargetProduct= 0x1c05 CheckSuccess=20 MessageEndpoint= 0x0f MessageContent= "55534243123456780000000000000011062000000100000000000000000000"
2) add corresponding lines to /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules
sudo gedit /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules
# Huawei E173s ATTRS{idVendor}=="12d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1c0b", RUN+="/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch -c /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1c0b"
After that:
gksudo gedit /etc/modules
Add this:
# add by metodiew usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0x1c0b
Unplug and plug the USB device again and in terminal type lsusb. Not you should have similar result:
Bus 003 Device 008: ID 12d1:1c05 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E173s 3G broadband stick (modem on)
Now you should have properly working Huawei E173s on your Ubuntu.
If you are like me, at this point it wasn’t ready yet 😀
For some reason I couldn’t connect to the Internet even though I followed all of those steps. I assume the problem was because of my Wireless card and the problems with it, but cant tell for sure.
I continued to research and I found the solution here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/381970/huawei-e173s-3g-usb-dongle-wont-switch-into-modem-mode/384712#384712
If you haven’t Synaptic Package Manager, you have to install it. In terminal:
sudo apt-get install synaptic
I assume you already downloaded modemmanager deb file. If yes, follow those instructions:
Open Synaptic Package Manager type in your password when required, search for the package named modemmanager when you find it, hit the right click on it and hit on Mark for complete removal and close the Synaptic Package Manager.
Look for the file you downloaded before and execute it (it will may be open on the Ubuntu Software Center), install it and close the Ubuntu Software Center.
Now open one more time the Synaptic Package Manager and search for the package named modemmanager again, when you find it click on it and go to the upper menu option Package, hit on Lock Version until you see a checkmark next to that option and a locker next to the package name.
Restart your system and let us now if that worked.
Here is the link from my Public Dropbox folder, from where you can download: modemmanager_0.5.2.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb
Now, if everything went well, when you plug-in your Huawei device, after that you should have been asked for PIN (in case the device has this option) and after that you have to adjust your Network provider settings. If everything went well you should have a properly working Internet connection 🙂
Updates:
This should be working and tested on Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 14.40, Ubuntu 15.04 and Ubuntu 16.04
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