Telstra 4G Mobile Broadband Setup

[bra|10n]

I recently purchased a Telstra 4G USB device and anticipated I'd need to jump through a few hoops to get this to work on Kubuntu (12.10).
In fact getting this up and running proved quite simple...

After connecting the unit to a USB port I ran lsusb, with the following output;

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 19d2:0257 ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 064e:c21c Suyin Corp.

Using this information I went to /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules and added the following entry;

# ZTE MF821 4G LTE
ATTRS{idVendor}=="19d2", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0257", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"

As you can see all I did was copy the closest entry in description, which was

# ZTE MF820 4G LTE 
ATTRS{idVendor}=="19d2", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0166", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"

and substitute the correct values from the earlier usb scan.

I then created a file called 19d2:0257 in /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/ and put in the following,

# Telstra ZTE LTE 4g modem
#
DefaultVendor=  0x19d2
DefaultProduct= 0x0257

TargetVendor=  0x19d2
TargetProduct= 0x0257

MessageContent="55534243123456782400000080000685000000240000000000000000000000"

CheckSuccess=20

Finally, to have Network Manager automatically recognise the device I added the following line to /etc/rc.local;

modprobe usbserial vendor=0x19d2 product=0x0257

Now the device is recognised as a Mobile Broadband connection whenever it is plugged including after a reboot.

cheers

[head_victim]

Awesome work! We've been keeping a running tally of what devices do and don't work in Australia at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AustralianTe...andInformation

Would you mind spending a couple of minutes adding your information to that? Feel free to link to this post for all the how to though so you don't have to write it all out again though.

[bra|10n]

Would you mind spending a couple of minutes adding your information to that? Feel free to link to this post for all the how to though so you don't have to write it all out again though.

Done.

[bmork]

Finally, to have Network Manager automatically recognise the device I added the following line to /etc/rc.local;

modprobe usbserial vendor=0x19d2 product=0x0257

Now the device is recognised as a Mobile Broadband connection whenever it is plugged including after a reboot.

cheers

Note that the generic usbserial you are using here is intended only for testing and one-off lowspeed prototypes. It will work, but will probably severely limit the throughput of a 4G modem.

The device in question was recently added to the option serial driver and the qmi_wwan network driver. The addition to the option driver is included in all maintained stable and longterm kernel relases, except 2.6.32.y, so manually adding the device to any serial driver should be completely unnecessary.

[head_victim]

Note that the generic usbserial you are using here is intended only for testing and one-off lowspeed prototypes. It will work, but will probably severely limit the throughput of a 4G modem.

The device in question was recently added to the option serial driver and the qmi_wwan network driver. The addition to the option driver is included in all maintained stable and longterm kernel relases, except 2.6.32.y, so manually adding the device to any serial driver should be completely unnecessary.

Thanks for that information, I'd think that this device is going to be fairly common throughout Australia going forward so it will be good for anyone happening by to know.

[bra|10n]

Note that the generic usbserial you are using here is intended only for testing and one-off lowspeed prototypes. It will work, but will probably severely limit the throughput of a 4G modem.

The device in question was recently added to the option serial driver and the qmi_wwan network driver. The addition to the option driver is included in all maintained stable and longterm kernel relases, except 2.6.32.y, so manually adding the device to any serial driver should be completely unnecessary.

Thank you for your work in this area and your comments. I confirm the driver now being used is option1. With a clean install of Chakra w/. kernel 3.6.6-1 the modem is still unrecognised; i.e NetworkManager doesn't initiate the MobileBroadband option. Copying the "19d2:0257" file, (pasted above), to /usr/share/usb_modeswitch folder fixed this problem. With only this additional file the modem is recognised on startup and when removed and replugged.