HOWTO: Cricket Wireless A600 Broadband Modem

[beastrace91]

Easy Method for Installing (pre-compiled debs):

Attached are the debs and a flipflop.sh to get this working do the following -

Step 1:
Download the .deb file for your selected architecture (32bit or 64bit) && install it

Step 2:
Download the flipflop.sh (for the A600) or the cricketum185c.sh (for the UM185C),

A600 Now right click on the file and select "properties". Click over to the "permissions" tab, and check the box "allow executing file as a program". Now double click it and select "Run", enter your password. Wait a few moments and poof! Your 3g modem should now be appearing in your network manager.

UM185C Now we just need to execute the cricketum185c.sh, it is in the directory of files you extracted, by running the following:

sudo ./cricketum185c.sh

(Please note you need to first make this file executable by running

chmod +x cricketum185c.sh

Notes:

On Ubuntu 9.04 and earlier. You will need to run the .sh file every time you connect your modem. Starting with 9.10 the networkmanager auto detects when a modem that has already been attached gets connected and it takes care of "flipping" for you after the first time.

Before this guide will work for you, you do need to load the device on a Windows/Mac system and install the software for the device and activate it. (I have a Windows VM for just such occasions, it worked fine)

Installing from Source (A600 Only):
This is a quick how to, for getting the latest Cricket Wireless 3g Modem working under Ubuntu (with out first booting into Windows). I've spent the better part of 4 days trying to get this little bugger to work under Ubuntu natively, so I figured I would share my findings so other people do not have to go through the same head ache.

This has been tested under Ubuntu 8.10 32bit & 64bit as well as Jaunty(9.04) 32bit and 64bit and Karmic 32bit, how ever I do not see any reason why it should not work under any distro/version of *buntu.

Step 1:

Download the archive attached to this post and extract the contents to your preferred directory.

Step 2:

Open up terminal and use cd to change into the directory of the extracted files.

32 bit Users - Install usb_modeswitch with the following command:

sudo make install

64 bit Users - We need to recompile modeswitch to work on the 64bit platform. Run the following commands in terminal to do so

sudo apt-get install build-essential libusb-dev
rm usb_modeswitch
make
sudo make install

Step 3:

Plug in your Cricket A600 to an open USB port, wait a moment for it to be detected as a CD drive/the auto play menu to pop up. Now we just need to execute the flipflop.sh, it is in the directory of files you extracted, by running the following:

sudo ./flipflop.sh

(Please note you need to first make this file executable by running

chmod +x flipflop.sh

After running the flipflop.sh you need to wait about 12 seconds (while it works it's magic) and then poof! Your Cricket device should now appear in your network manager as a connection option.

Notes:

You will need to

sudo ./flipflop.sh

each time you attach the device for it to work.

Before this guide will work for you, you do need to load the device on a Windows/Mac system and install the software for the device and activate it. (I have a Windows VM for just such occasions, it worked fine)

I played around with udev some trying to automate this process when you play the device in, but I could not get it to work properly, if someone smarter/experienced than myself would like to figure that out I'd be more than happy to add it to this guide.

Trouble Shooting -
If this guide does not work for you try first opening up the flipflop.sh and increasing the sleep time from 10 seconds to 20 - some systems require a longer delay.



UPDATE/FYI:
I no longer have my cricket A600 and I have not tried it under 10.04 (which people seem to be having issues with) feel free to post in the thread and hopefully someone else will be of help - but for best results I suggest using Ubuntu 9.10 or older with the modem.

~Jeff Hoogland

[rotoghost]

That worked perfectly, thanks very much!

[goshock]

Hopefully someone can help me finish this upu today. I followed this guide and it all worked, but in the messages file, when I try to connect, this is the output:

May  7 15:21:58 acer pppd[12028]: Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.4/nm-pppd-plugin.so loaded.
May  7 15:21:58 acer pppd[12028]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
May  7 15:21:58 acer pppd[12028]: Removed stale lock on ttyACM0 (pid 11735)
May  7 15:21:58 acer pppd[12028]: Using interface ppp0
May  7 15:21:58 acer pppd[12028]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyACM0
May  7 15:22:02 acer pppd[12028]: No CHAP secret found for authenticating us to 
May  7 15:22:03 acer pppd[12028]: CHAP authentication succeeded
May  7 15:22:03 acer pppd[12028]: CHAP authentication succeeded
May  7 15:22:03 acer pppd[12028]: local  IP address 10.99.142.161
May  7 15:22:03 acer pppd[12028]: remote IP address 172.28.5.5
May  7 15:22:03 acer pppd[12028]: primary   DNS address 172.28.221.53
May  7 15:22:03 acer pppd[12028]: secondary DNS address 172.28.221.54
May  7 15:22:14 acer pppd[12028]: Terminating on signal 15
May  7 15:22:14 acer pppd[12028]: Connect time 0.2 minutes.
May  7 15:22:14 acer pppd[12028]: Sent 0 bytes, received 0 bytes.

I am running ubuntu 9.04 on an Acer Aspire One Netbook.
Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks beastrace91 for your help over PM.

[beastrace91]

As your issue does not pertain to making Ubuntu see the device (which is the point of this guide) maybe posting a new topic describing your issue would be a better idea and would keep this one on topic.

~Jeff

[bjacer]

Jeff,
Thank you very much for this great HOWTO.
I used it at installing SAMSUNG SGH-Z810 modem under ubuntu-9.04.

I failed with my acer notebook first time. But I found a 'solution' later. I modified your flipflop.sh. I repeated the first two lines of your flipflop.sh at the end of the script. Then I inserted another 'sleep 10' after the third line. I am still not sure if all these changes are necessary, but it WORKS for me this way!

Thanks again
Jozsef

[beastrace91]

Good to know

I wish these major companies would take the short bit of extra time themselves and make their devices detect properly on Linux in the first place as it does not need the drivers that are on the auto play USB :/

Ahh well in the mean time modeflip works just fine.

As a side note for ease of use I add an icon to my internet tab in my menu and add an exception using sudo visudo so I do not need to enter my root password to flip my device.

~Jeff

[sophieand killer]

As your issue does not pertain to making Ubuntu see the device (which is the point of this guide) maybe posting a new topic describing your issue would be a better idea and would keep this one on topic.

~Jeff

Had to go thru heck to post this. So I got the Cricket modem (the expensive one $40 a month) and after 2 days could no longer get online. Back to the full service store today. They uninstalled it and reinstalled it and now it works. Only info I can give you is I have 2 new computers both with Windows 7, I don't trust new windows stuff but that's my problem. So now it works. Their full service center is an hour away when you consider traffic so all I want to do is pass this info on. I could have done that if I had found the info online, I'm 62 or is it 63 anyhow I don't need to sit in a chair for an hour at a service center for my turn so I hope this helps someone. Where's the face of an old lady??? I want to add.

[Crafty Kisses]

Good howto, thanks!

[beastrace91]

Glad it helped

~Jeff

[kitsuneboom]

Okay, okay. I know it's been hashed over and over again.
I'm running not one but two acer aspires. One dual booting Windows XP with Sp4 and Jaunty Jackalope 9.04. The other running a straight Jackalope 9.04. Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
How?
How do caveman make glow box work?

Sorry, that's about how I feel right now. I've read over every page of this thread, and nothing...nothing has worked. Plz to halp me?

Edit: I typed 9.10. I was sure that was what it was. :/