sierra 860 aircard up and running!

[yekibud]

I was so happy about getting this running that I had to post - hope this is the right catagory...

Basically, follow the instructions at http://mycusthelp.com/sierrawireless...19&FB=23&FC=-1

to get up and running with the latest sierra card, just replacing the 775 files with the 860 files. I also had to use PAP/CHAP authentication on kppp, not simply PAP as suggested in the instructions.

Hope this helps someone trying to use a sierra GPRS card...

[yekibud]

Oh, also - use a "noauth" argument for the modem in kppp.

Now my only problem is depressingly low connection speeds. Can anyone help with this? The card is giving me a throughput of ~45Kb/sec according to 2wire.com - the kppp monitor maxes at 20Kb/sec, with an average aroudn 7Kb/sec. I assume this is all down speed.

Haven't troubleshot this on a natively installed Ubuntu 5.10 2.6.12 system yet - maybe important to know that this is all booted from an external bus powered drive...

Thanks!

[mrnicksgirl]

I have the same card, I'm running the latest update (as of a week ago)

I have this error in my messages log:

[date] localhost firmwar_helper[5638]: main: error loading '/lib/firmware/SW_7xx_SER.cis' for device '/class/firmware/0.0' with driver '(unknown)'


any insight?

[serum]

I have the same card, I'm running the latest update (as of a week ago)

I have this error in my messages log:

[date] localhost firmwar_helper[5638]: main: error loading '/lib/firmware/SW_7xx_SER.cis' for device '/class/firmware/0.0' with driver '(unknown)'


any insight?

#

Copy the firmware file and overwrite the older version 7xx into /lib/firmware:

sudo mv SW_8xx_SER.dat /lib/firmware/SW_7xx_SER.cis

[FrankIOM]

I am using the Sierra 850 Aircard for 3G
I followed all the directions
pccardctl ident
Socket 0:
product info: "Sierra Wireless", "AC850", "3G Network Adapter", "R1"
manfid: 0x0192, 0x0710
function: 2 (serial)

And I had a green light flashing, So I thought all was going well. I followed the instructions on the WIKI created the files as instructed. but after using the "pon ac850" command all I got was "Permission denied Connect script failed" I even tried adding sudo in front in case extra authority was needed. As a newbie I am not sure what else to do. I did run "wvdialconf create" on the off chance but I got the "no modem detected" as normal ! I also tried this
dmesg | grep tty
[ 31.511399] audit(1195587690.965:3): type=1503 operation="inode_permission" requested_mask="a" denied_mask="a" name="/dev/tty" pid=4842 profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd"
[ 86.332417] 0.0: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A

Any how I am hoping this feed back helps those with better knowledge than me to sort this out. Should any extra information be needed let me know

3G provider - Manx Telecom - Isle of Man
no user or password is in the windows

Frank

[achim_59]

I am using the Sierra 850 Aircard for 3G
I followed all the directions
pccardctl ident
Socket 0:
product info: "Sierra Wireless", "AC850", "3G Network Adapter", "R1"
manfid: 0x0192, 0x0710
function: 2 (serial)

And I had a green light flashing, So I thought all was going well. .....
Frank

Your problem lies in that message from pccardctl which says: "function: 2 (serial)". It should be "function: 6 (network)". It means your card is not being recognised as a network device. Sadly I've got the same problem, but no solution in sight yet.

I started my own thread before stumbling across this one.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5704390
I've kept track of the steps I've taken there. A periodical check of that thread might offer some insight into the problem.

Good Luck

Achim

A colleague has advised me that "function: 2 (serial)" is OK, since the aircard is mapped to a serial device. Sorry if this has sent anyone up a blind alley.

I keep coming back to this issue every few months (I am very, very busy with other things) but I hava few spare evenings at the moment. I am currently running karmic koala on an IBM T43... still no joy.

current problem; the 99-aircard.rules file seems to be ignored, so no /dev/umts device is mapped.

Achim

[stucki]

Here are some notes which might help you to get this card running.

I sent these notes to Sierra but unfortunately they didn't add this to their website yet...

=== cut ===
Thanks for providing at least some minimal support for Aircards on Linux. I
could successfully set it up but had a lot of problems til it worked.

Here is a list of hints which I would like you to add to the article:

- The Aircard will not work unless you disable the SIM lock (boot Windows for
this)
- In case the speed is very slow, you should try upgrading the firmware
version - I gained some speed after this.
- The manual is designed for the deprecated "pcmcia-cs" utilities, and there
were no hints on how to use it with the modern "pcmciautils" package which is
designed for the Linux kernel 2.6 series. Finally the solution is pretty
easy:

1. You don't need to edit /etc/pcmcia/config anymore.
2. You will need to install a hotplug system helper, e.g. "udev" or "hotplug".
3. Place the file SW_8xx_SER.cis in /lib/firmware/.
4. Copy, rename or symlink the file to "SW_7xx_SER.cis".

The reason for this change is that both card identify themselves as "0x0192,
0x0710", and this product ID is hardcoded in the Linux source code to load
the firmware file "SW_7xx_SER.cis". See drivers/serial/serial_cs.c in your
Linux source code.

Thanks for mentioning these hints on your website.
=== cut ===

[errolsiegel]

You wrote:

"- The Aircard will not work unless you disable the SIM lock (boot Windows for this)"

Would you elaborate on this? The only software that came with my card is the Cingular Communication Manager. I looked through all the menus but did not find any settings for SIM lock.

Thanks,
Errol

[stucki]

Hi Errol,

You wrote:

"- The Aircard will not work unless you disable the SIM lock (boot Windows for this)"

Would you elaborate on this? The only software that came with my card is the Cingular Communication Manager. I looked through all the menus but did not find any settings for SIM lock.

Thanks,
Errol

I'm using a different software "Watcher" which was shipped with my card. Maybe you will have to contact the Sierra support for more information?

- michael

[Makyver]

I can't get my card up and running .. the lights on it turn green and I have followed all the steps but can't find what /dev/"node" it is being mapped or not mapped as ... I am using Dapper with all the updates but still no go ... any one know how to find out what if any dev node it's being mapped as

Thanks Guys/Girls for the help on this. Oh yeah and has anyone used GPRS Easy Connect it looks cool but with out the node it's being mapped as I can't use it either ... Dmesg doesn't show the tty or node for it either.

UPDATE
Ok so I found my first Problem and got the card to come up as ttyS2 and wvdail to initialize it but can't get GPRS Easy Connect to work with it.. So I'm going to try and use several other dialers ...

UPDATE II
Ok so I got it working with KPPP but can't use GPRS Easy Connect and the speed is so slow I might as well be using a couple of tin cans and a string and having a freind read the web to me ...