NEW verizon lg vl600 4g(lte) aircard not working

[balrog-kun]

Hey wyretrip, thanks for trying it out. Turns out I had a bug in there (well.. not just one ) related to a structure change between 2.6.38 and 2.6.38-git18, I believe I now made it work for both versions. I updated the patch in the repository, would be great to know if it now works for you. If it does please also let me know if you have the upgraded firmware on your modem, that would be a good data point. My modem has the original firmware on it.

I've also fixed a couple of other things, most importantly got rid of a big ugly hack through which I faked ARP responses (which the modem/network doesn't do for itself) -- turns out there's a flag you can set which takes care of ARP completely. I've also added support for fragmented packets across various frames, which I mentioned in the earlier post, now there shouldn't be any dropped frames anymore.

Let me know if there are -- dmesg would occasionally show lines starting with "eth2: " as you browse (e.g. "eth2: Frame too short" or similar)

I've not had an occasion to try connecting from outside of 4G coverage, I hoped it would work without changes but from your report it looks like it doesn't work. Would be good to have a usb traffic log from Windows connecting to 3G -- there are some ways to capture a log using wireshark I think, or if anyone has a Qemu / KVM / Virtual box running Windows I believe you can make the VM capture usb traffic without using a hardware usb analyzer.

[wyretrip]

Hey Balrog-kun,

Looks like the usbnet.h file for ubuntu differs from your distribution for 2.6.35.28. Maybe you could take a look at the section the patch is trying to modify and make some suggestions?

The patch states..

diff --git a/include/linux/usb/usbnet.h b/include/linux/usb/usbnet.h
index 44842c8..201f222 100644
--- a/include/linux/usb/usbnet.h
+++ b/include/linux/usb/usbnet.h
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ struct driver_info {
  * Affects statistic (counters) and short packet handling.
  */
 #define FLAG_MULTI_PACKET	0x1000
+#define FLAG_RX_ASSEMBLE	0x2000	/* rx packets may span >1 frames */
 
 	/* init device ... can sleep, or cause probe() failure */
 	int	(*bind)(struct usbnet *, struct usb_interface *);

The 2.6.35.28 source for usbnet.h is as follows for the related section..

struct driver_info {
	char		*description;

	int		flags;
/* framing is CDC Ethernet, not writing ZLPs (hw issues), or optionally: */
#define FLAG_FRAMING_NC	0x0001		/* guard against device dropouts */
#define FLAG_FRAMING_GL	0x0002		/* genelink batches packets */
#define FLAG_FRAMING_Z	0x0004		/* zaurus adds a trailer */
#define FLAG_FRAMING_RN	0x0008		/* RNDIS batches, plus huge header */

#define FLAG_NO_SETINT	0x0010		/* device can't set_interface() */
#define FLAG_ETHER	0x0020		/* maybe use "eth%d" names */

#define FLAG_FRAMING_AX 0x0040		/* AX88772/178 packets */
#define FLAG_WLAN	0x0080		/* use "wlan%d" names */
#define FLAG_AVOID_UNLINK_URBS 0x0100	/* don't unlink urbs at usbnet_stop() */
#define FLAG_SEND_ZLP	0x0200		/* hw requires ZLPs are sent */
#define FLAG_WWAN	0x0400		/* use "wwan%d" names */

#define FLAG_LINK_INTR	0x0800		/* updates link (carrier) status */

	/* init device ... can sleep, or cause probe() failure */
	int	(*bind)(struct usbnet *, struct usb_interface *);

	/* cleanup device ... can sleep, but can't fail */
	void	(*unbind)(struct usbnet *, struct usb_interface *);

Thank you for any help you can provide..

wyretrip

[balrog-kun]

Patch was against 2.6.38, but it looks like the difference is minor from 2.6.35.28. So apparently the FLAG_MULTI_PACKET line and the comment above it were added after 2.6.35. You just need to add the "#define FLAG_RX_ASSEMBLE 0x2000" line (note no "+" at the beginning) anywhere in that file (usbnet.h) and it should work.

Also I'm happy to report the driver has been accepted by one of the kernel maintainers and merged into one of the upstream trees (looks like it will be the net-2.6 tree, or whatever), I'm not sure how long is the way from there to vanilla but there's a chance it'll be there by 2.6.39.

[wyretrip]

The new patch did it!



Very nice speeds using 4G.



In the sticks with 3G!

Great job!

[balrog-kun]

Cool, happy that it works in 3G too. I had slightly better throughput using one of those speed-test sites: 16.2Mbps/10.5Mbps, but I was testing at night.

I added a dummy utility for displaying the current signal strength.

[bichofnrise74]

Hi Balrog-kun,

I tried to follow your instruction and re-compiled a linux 2.6.38 with your patch and ran it on Ubuntu 10.04. The compile process worked fine and I was able to boot on it. When I run this, this is what I get.

$ uname -r
2.6.38-custom-2.6.38-verizon-lg-vl600

So, I assume that the new kernel is working fine. Now, when I tried to insert the LG aircard, I get these messages in the syslog.

usb 1-7: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
usb 1-7: device descriptor read/64, error -110
cdc_acm 1-7:1.2: ttyACM0: USB ACM device


If I run this, I get this result:
$ lsusb | grep LG

Bus 001 Device 007: ID 1004:61aa LG Electronics, Inc.

And when I try to run this script: vl600-attach.py, the system logs don't change and it is as if nothing happens.

Also, the dongle is blinking blue.

What do you think of the following?
1. Is there a way to check if I compiled the kernel 2.6.38 with your patch properly?
2. When I connect the dongle, what should I basically see in the system log? Eg. the usb_device is recognized?
3. When I run the vl600-attach.py script, is there any indication that it 'worked'.
4. What is the next steps after this, should I use the network manager to connect to this device or use wvdial to connect to verizon? If so, can you post the basic configuration that you used?

[Altusanew]

Is there any work going on to make this noob friendly? Maybe a bug report to make this all more plug and play? I am not the most advanced user but I can try to help where I can, submit some output from some commands, test a package update to see if it works, ect.

[balrog-kun]

So, I assume that the new kernel is working fine. Now, when I tried to insert the LG aircard, I get these messages in the syslog.

usb 1-7: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
usb 1-7: device descriptor read/64, error -110
cdc_acm 1-7:1.2: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

This is what I see:

usb 1-7: new high speed USB device number 7 using ehci_hcd
usb 1-7: device descriptor read/64, error -110
lg-vl600 1-1:1.0: eth1: register 'lg-vl600' at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1, LG VL600 modem, 64:99:5d:fa:66:46
cdc_acm 1-7:1.2: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
udev: renamed network interface eth1 to eth3

So it looks like you don't have USBNET compiled in. You'll need to select the following three options in "Device Drivers" -> "Network device support" -> "USB Network Adapters":

"Multi-purpose USB Networking Framework"
"CDC Ethernet support (...)"
"LG VL600 modem dongle"

Hopefully when distributions catch up with the new kernel, you will have this by default.

If I run this, I get this result:
$ lsusb | grep LG

Bus 001 Device 007: ID 1004:61aa LG Electronics, Inc.

And when I try to run this script: vl600-attach.py, the system logs don't change and it is as if nothing happens.

The logs won't indicate any change and there will be no output if everything goes fine, but the modem LED should start blinking green instead of blue. After that you just need to run dhcp, but the USBNET driver needs to be compiled in.

And to answer the questions...
1. It looks like the patch is applied ok, you just need to select the three more options.
2. See above.
3. The green blinking led and no output will be the indication.. in theory we could output some message like "Connected" but it'd need further analysing of the windows driver.
4. Just run dhclient or dhcpcd on the "ethN" interface indicated in your logs.

@Altusanew: someone recently started a thread on the NetworkManager / ModemManager mailing lists about this type of modems (there are various other devices that behave like this), maybe we'll see some progress at some point but I'm not into these projects.. I'd be more inclined to work on oFono support for it myself (www.ofono.org)

[bichofnrise74]

Hi Balrog-kun,

So, I have compiled the USBNET and my dmesg output seems better now. But still I don't get the green blinking light. See the output of the logs below.

From dmesg,

[ 563.012118] usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[ 578.124219] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[ 578.365016] lg-vl600 1-5:1.0: eth1: register 'lg-vl600' at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5, LG VL600 modem, 64:99:5d:fd:b5:80
[ 578.365861] cdc_acm 1-5:1.2: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[ 578.413016] udev: renamed network interface eth1 to eth2
[ 587.424101] eth2: no IPv6 routers present

From syslog,

Apr 22 15:27:13 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Unmanaged Device found; state CONNECTED forced. (see http://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/191889)
Apr 22 15:27:33 ubuntu kernel: [ 1167.416236] usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
Apr 22 15:27:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 1182.528188] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -110
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu kernel: [ 1182.768681] lg-vl600 1-5:1.0: eth1: register 'lg-vl600' at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5, LG VL600 modem, 64:99:5d:fd:b5:80
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu kernel: [ 1182.769612] cdc_acm 1-5:1.2: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.0/net/eth2, iface: eth2)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.0/net/eth2, iface: eth2): no ifupdown configuration found.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): carrier is OFF
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): new Ethernet device (driver: 'lg-vl600')
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/3
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): now managed
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): device state change: 1 -> 2 (reason 2)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu kernel: [ 1182.813140] udev: renamed network interface eth1 to eth2
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): bringing up device.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): preparing device.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): deactivating device (reason: 2).
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu avahi-daemon[689]: Registering new address record for fe80::6699:5dff:fefd:b580 on eth2.*.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): carrier now ON (device state 2)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): device state change: 2 -> 3 (reason 40)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) starting connection 'Auto eth2'
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): device state change: 3 -> 4 (reason 0)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): device state change: 5 -> 7 (reason 0)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Beginning DHCP transaction (timeout in 45 seconds)
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> dhclient started with pid 2114
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Beginning IP6 addrconf.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient: Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient: All rights reserved.
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient: For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient:
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> DHCP: device eth2 state changed normal exit -> preinit
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient: Listening on LPF/eth2/64:99:5d:fd:b5:80
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient: Sending on LPF/eth2/64:99:5d:fd:b5:80
Apr 22 15:27:49 ubuntu dhclient: Sending on Socket/fallback
Apr 22 15:27:50 ubuntu dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
Apr 22 15:27:53 ubuntu dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
Apr 22 15:27:58 ubuntu kernel: [ 1191.824045] eth2: no IPv6 routers present
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Device 'eth2' IP6 addrconf timed out or failed.
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 4 of 5 (IP6 Configure Timeout) scheduled...
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 4 of 5 (IP6 Configure Timeout) started...
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): device state change: 7 -> 9 (reason 5)
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Marking connection 'Auto eth2' invalid.
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) failed.
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth2) Stage 4 of 5 (IP6 Configure Timeout) complete.
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): device state change: 9 -> 3 (reason 0)
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): deactivating device (reason: 0).
Apr 22 15:27:59 ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (eth2): canceled DHCP transaction, dhcp client pid 2114

Then, I tried to run your script, then tried to run dhclient but nothing happened. I still had the blue blinking lights.

root@ubuntu:/balrog-kun-LG-VL600-utils-d4f6975# python vl600-attach.py
root@ubuntu:/balrog-kun-LG-VL600-utils-d4f6975# dhclient eth2
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth2/64:99:5d:fd:b5:80
Sending on LPF/eth2/64:99:5d:fd:b5:80
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 21
DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 21
DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

Am I missing something obvious? Is there something that I can check?
Also, you mentioned that I should just run 'dhclient' but how would the dongle know that it will connect to Verizon 4g network? Because I used to have a 3g card and I had to configure the Network Manager for the username / password for Verizon.

Also, this aircard works fine when it connects to a Windows XP.

[balrog-kun]

Hi bichofnrise74,

so it looks like the attaching is not working. I assume that you're in a place with coverage (i.e. it works under windows). So it might be that the dongle is not compatible or something.. have you upgraded the firmware on your dongle? I haven't upgraded it on mine, so maybe that's the difference. Please let us know because it'd be an important data point, has anyone got it working on the new firmware?

If it is the case that the new firmware doesn't work with the old command then, if you have a Windows machine, we could use a usb analyzer logs (software monitor is ok too) to find out the right command for those dongles.

You shouldn't need to use any username or password, I think they might be encoded on the SIM or somewhere, but either way the dongle connects automatically to whatever network is available 3g or 4g regardless.

The dhclient needs to be executed *after* the LED starts blinking green (although from your logs it looks like you have NetworkManager running, which tries to be too smart and runs dhclient automatically, so you'd probably need to kill it ("killall dhclient") when the LED start blinking green and probably NetworkManager will re-run it automatically -- I've never used it so I don't know)