Sierra Wireless USB modem (GSM/UMTS) setup in Ubuntu 8.04.1

I am now tried to verify two 3G modules to my recent project. That is the Sierra mini card module which was attached on USB interface. Such as:


In Ubuntu w/ kernel 2.6.24-19-generic I can compile and install new driver v1.3.1b without any problem. I have tried 2 different modules MC8775 and MC8790, both of them work very good.

There are some points you may interested in it:
1. After driver installed, you can use command "modinfo sierra" to check version and it should be v1.3.1b.
2. By default, Sierra driver uses pppd to connect. And use /dev/ttyUSB* to communicate with device. If you received an error such as modem initialization failed or connect script failed, you can try to modify the string "/dev/ttyUSB0" (this is default value) in your /etc/ppp/peers/gsm script (this is default Sierra provided script path of pppd). Just try to use another ttyUSB[1..n] which you can use command "ls /dev/ttyUSB*" to know how many ttyUSB you can try.

3. If you can dial out successfully and get IP configuration but you can not surf on internet with browsers, just try to cp /etc/ppp/resolv.conf to /etc/resolv.conf.

BTW, if you use the 3G device from Acer Peripherals Inc. (now BENQ Corp.), you don't need additonal kernel driver module but only usbserial.ko. First use lsusb to check the VID:PID. In my case that is 04a5:0468, so I issue command to load up kernel driver module for this device: sudo modprobe -v usbserial product=0x0468 vendor=0x04a5. Second, you just need to wait for few "seconds" for driver to take effect and create proper device nodes for you (/dev/ttyUSB[0~2]). Then you can use pppd to dial out just like the way you do on Sierra devices. Note that this 3G module's communication port is /dev/ttyUSB1 for pppd.