Verizon EVDO Update
This is an update to my previous post on using high speed cellular cards in Linux.
Today while I was waiting for Harry Potter 7, I decided the two hours away from home was too long to be disconnected. Being the geek I am, I of course had my laptop and EVDO card with me. However, when I went to call out, I received this error:
~# pppd call 1xevdo
pppd: In file /etc/ppp/peers/1xevdo: unrecognized option 'ttyACM0'
Hmm.. At first I thought /etc/modules got overwritten, so I reloaded all the modules and tried again to no avail. Then I thought perhaps I installed a kernel update that broke it and so rebooted to my previous build.. no luck. Then I thought the worst and maybe I burned out my PCMCIA slot.
I took out the card and checked the device differences to make sure the card showed up:
~# cat /proc/bus/usb/devices > devices
~# diff /proc/bus/usb/devices devices | grep Vendor
< P: Vendor=106c ProdID=3701 Rev= 0.00
So far so good… which turned out to be 40 or so minutes of me scratching my head over why the hell this didn’t work anymore (I did not have internet access, so looking up the problem was not an option).
Finally, I tailed /var/log/messages to find something interesting:
~# tail -f /var/log/messages
Jul 20 23:11:16 takochi kernel: [ 461.768000] hub 7-0:1.0: USB hub found
Jul 20 23:11:16 takochi kernel: [ 461.768000] hub 7-0:1.0: 1 port detected
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.148000] usb 6-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.360000] usb 6-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.360000] usbserial_generic 6-1:1.0: generic converter detected
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.360000] usbserial_generic: probe of 6-1:1.0 failed with error -5
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.360000] usbserial_generic 6-1:1.1: generic converter detected
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.360000] usb 6-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.364000] usbserial_generic 6-1:1.2: generic converter detected
Jul 20 23:11:17 takochi kernel: [ 463.364000] usb 6-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB1
usbserial is the module configured and loaded for the EVDO card, and as far as I know, has no other use on my system (since I added it to /etc/modules when I installed the EVDO card). There seems to be some error when attaching to a device, although when I updated the device in /etc/ppp/peers/1xevdo to USB1 (the device the message says usb is attached to), the connection couldn’t be established. So I tried USB0, which ended up working.
The moral of the story: If some of you Kubuntu users out there suddenly have problems connecting with your EVDO card, try checking your messages and replacing ttyACM0 with the correct device in /etc/ppp/peers/1xevdo.
If any of you out there know how or why this would happen, I’d love to know so I can figure it out sooner next time it happens :)
seele :: Jul.20.2007 :: General, Open Source :: 3 Comments »
[…] Link to Article verizon Verizon EVDO Update » Posted at obso1337.org on Friday, July 20, 2007 […]
You may want to look into writing your own udev rules. Then you can have the card always show up as /dev/evdo. You will not need to try ttyUSB1 followed by ttyUSB0. There is a good tutorial here. http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html
I noticed that you’re using usbserial. If you’re on Feisty, you may want to try using the “airprime” or “option” driver instead of usbserial–they can be much faster. The usbserial driver artificially caps you at 60 KB/sec.
If you’re stuck on a kernel below 2.6.20, you can patch your kernel to get faster speeds too. I’ve written a Quick HOWTO detailing the process.