A quick howto on using the built in Ericsson 3507g wwan card in an x200 running RHEL 5.3. I created this guide form a miriad of sources so do not take this as an original or all encompassing guide
Note: I purchased a SIM card from the AT&T store which was activated at the store. If you do not purchase the SIM from AT&T, but have it included with your laptop on purchase I am not sure how to activate it on Linux (the included software is for Windows). I have read on some forums that people have placed the SIM into another device and powered on the device to get a non-activated SIM registered, but this is beyond the scope of this post.
This document assumes the 3507g card is installed (just under the number pad when you remove the keyboard) and the SIM is also installed (located under the battery).
1. Be sure to enable the wireless wan (WWAN) and Wimax radios in the BIOS
2. After booting check to make the cdc_acm driver has loaded.
# dmesg |grep -i acm
cdc_acm 2-4:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
cdc_acm 2-4:1.3: ttyACM1: USB ACM device
cdc_acm 2-4:1.9: ttyACM2: USB ACM device
usbcore: registered new driver cdc_acm
drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c: v0.25:USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters
3. Notice there are three ACM devices. We will use ttyACM1 as it is associated with the data connection. Also, notice that although the cdc_acm driver is loaded and the WWAN and Wimax radios have been enabled in the BIOS the WWAN indicator light (located to the right of Bluetooth icon) just under the display is not illuminated. This is because the modem has not been initialized. In order to do initialize the modem and make sure your SIM is active you can use minicom or another terminal emulator.
# minicom -s
minicom: WARNING: configuration file not found, using default
┌─────[configuration]──────┐
│ Filenames and paths │
│ File transfer protocols │
│ Serial port setup │
│ Modem and dialing │
│ Screen and keyboard │
│ Save setup as dfl │
│ Save setup as.. │
│ Exit │
│ Exit from Minicom │
└──────────────────────────┘
4. Select Serial port setup.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ A - Serial Device : /dev/modem │
│ B - Lockfile Location : /var/lock │
│ C - Callin Program : │
│ D - Callout Program : │
│ E - Bps/Par/Bits : 38400 8N1 │
│ F - Hardware Flow Control : Yes │
│ G - Software Flow Control : No │
│ │
│ Change which setting? │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│ Screen and keyboard │
│ Save setup as dfl │
│ Save setup as.. │
│ Exit │
│ Exit from Minicom │
└──────────────────────────┘
5. Select Serial Device (Shift + A). Set the serial device to /dev/ttyACM1 and press Enter several times to get to the main menu. Then press escape to have the modem initialized.
┌───────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Initializing Modem │
│ │
└───────────────────────┘
Welcome to minicom 2.1
OPTIONS: History Buffer, F-key Macros, Search History Buffer, I18n
Compiled on Jul 26 2006, 06:38:09.
Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys
AT S7=45 S0=0 L1 V1 X4 &c1 E1 Q0
OK
6. Check whenever the SIM is protected by PIN by sending AT+CPIN? If the answer is +CPIN: READY then the SIM is unlocked.
AT+CPIN?
+CPIN: READY
OK
7. If the answer is +CPIN: SIM PIN you need first to unlock it by sending AT+CPIN=”YOUR-PIN”.
8. Now the card can be turned on by sending AT+CFUN=1.
AT+CFUN=1
OK
*EMWI: 1,0
+PACSP0
*ESTKRSH: 1,7F206F31
9. Notice the green indicator light for WWAN is now on. Also, it’s important to not that you can force the GSM-only connection by sending AT+CFUN=5 and force WCDMA-only by sending AT+CFUN=6.
10. To turn the card off you can send AT+CFUN= and energy saving mode is AT+CFUN=4.
AT+CFUN=
OK
11. Exit Minicom (ctrl + a + z – then x). Now that we know the WWAN hardware is working, let’s configure wvdial, ppp, and vpnc. It’s important to note that NetworkManager tends to screw up the wvdial configuration. I stopped it completely and just the command line for managing all network connections.
# service NetworkManager stop
# chkconfig --levels 345 NetworkManager off
12. Start Network Configuration to create the device and the ppp interface
# system-config-network
13. I’ve attached screenshots of how the connection should be configured, but the important things are:
* Setup a generic modem under the hardware tab with device: /dev/ttyACM1 , Baud Rate: 460800 , Flow Control: Hardware.
* Setup a new modem connection under the devices tab with phone number: *99# , Provider Name: att , Username: * , Password, *
* Once the modem connection is created edit the device and select the compression tab. Check all the boxes under that tab.
14. The actions in step 13 will have changed the contents of the /etc/wvdial.conf and of the /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial files. That is great, but for some reason the init strings for AT&T don’t work. So we need to edit /etc/wvdial.conf.
# vi /etc/wvdial.conf
Make sure your file looks like this:
[Modem0]
Modem = /dev/ttyACM1
Baud = 460800
SetVolume = 0
[Dialer att]
Username = *
Password = *
Phone = *99#
Stupid Mode = 1
Init1 = AT+CFUN=1
Init2 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","isp.cingular"
Inherits = Modem0
15. So we now have wvdial and ppp created. Lets go ahead and take a break and add the modem lights item to our panel so we can easily monitor the activity on our att interface. Right click on your panel, select Add to Panel and then select the Modem Lights item. Once it is added right click on the Modem Lights item and select preferences. Under the General tab make sure connection command is set to /sbin/ifup att and disconecction command is set to /sbin/ifdown att. In the Advanced tab change Lock file to /var/lock/LCK..ttyACM1.
16. Now you should be able to bring up the interface by clicking on the modem lights button. If that doesn’t work bring up a shell as root and run wvdial att to see more specific reasons for the failure.
17. Once you have this complete it’s just a matter of running vpnc to open the vpn. You can put your connection preferences in /etc/vpnc/default.conf to make the process easier.
[root@mensa ~]# vpnc
Enter username for vpnX.company.com: user
Enter password for user@vpnX.company.com:
Connect Banner:
| ==============================
| Unauthorized access prohibited
| Violators will be prosecuted
| ==============================
VPNC started in background (pid: 4985)...
18. Please feel free to comment with any corrections or further tips!
