NetworkManager and Mobile Broadband issues

[Pralix]

I have a Dell Laptop with a Dell 5520 HSDPA modem inside. The Sabayon 5.0 install CD recognizes the modem and it is able to connect. After I installed Sabayon 5, it no longer recognized the modem. The option and usbserial drivers are loaded. The config files don't look any different. Maybe something changed in the kernel? After I noticed this problem, I tried the live dvd again and Mobile Broadband worked. No luck on a real install.

dmesg |grep option

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[   11.801562] option 4-2:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   11.801740] option 4-2:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   11.801800] option 4-2:1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   11.801876] usbcore: registered new interface driver option
[   11.801877] option: v0.7.2:USB Driver for GSM modems


NM_SERIAL_DEBUG=1 NetworkManager --no-daemon

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NetworkManager: <info>  (wlan0): exported as /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/net_00_1f_3b_cb_22_ed
NetworkManager: <info>  (ttyUSB2): ignoring due to lack of mobile broadband capabilties
NetworkManager: <info>  (ttyUSB1): ignoring due to lack of mobile broadband capabilties
NetworkManager: <info>  (ttyUSB0): found serial port (udev:  hal:GSM)
NetworkManager: <info>  (ttyUSB0): ignoring due to lack of probed mobile broadband capabilties


Any hints in getting it working in a real install?

[Pralix]

I have ruled out differences between the LiveDVD kernel and the installed sabayon kernel. Something is different in the config. Not sure where to start.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Before you do anything else, try making sure that your hostname on your HDD installation is set up in all the relevant network files -- see the SL Wiki article HOWTO: Changing the hostname -- because I believe this can cause problems for NetworkManager.

Furthermore, here are some files to compare on your HDD with those when you boot the LiveDVD:

/etc/dbus-1/system.d/knetworkmanager.conf
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/nm-system-settings.conf
/etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

Here is what I have installed and working with wired Ethernet (DHCP and static IP addressing), WiFi 802.11abg (unencrypted, WEP and WPA-PSK) and mobile broadband (Huawei HSDPA E220 modem) under KDE 4.3.3:

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$ eix -I network             
[U] kde-base/kdenetwork-filesharing                             
     Available versions:                                         
        (4.3)   4.3.3 (~)4.3.4 **4.3.9999!m!t[2]                 
        (4.4)   [M](~)4.3.90!m[2] [M]**4.4.9999!m!t[2]           
        (live)  **9999!m!t[2]                                   
        {aqua debug kdeenablefinal (+)kdeprefix}                 
     Installed versions:  4.3.3(4.3)(19:53:34 09/11/09)(-aqua -debug -kdeprefix)
     Homepage:            http://www.kde.org/                                   
     Description:         kcontrol filesharing config module for NFS, SMB etc   

[U] kde-base/kdenetwork-meta
     Available versions:   
        (4.3)   4.3.3 (~)4.3.4 **4.3.9999[2]
        (4.4)   [M](~)4.3.90[2] [M]**4.4.9999[2]
        (live)  **9999[2]                       
        {kdeprefix}                             
     Installed versions:  4.3.3(4.3)(19:54:16 09/11/09)(-kdeprefix)
     Homepage:            http://www.kde.org/                     
     Description:         kdenetwork - merge this to pull in all kdenetwork-derived packages

[U] kde-base/knetworkconf
     Available versions: 
        (4.3)   4.3.3 (~)4.3.4 **4.3.9999!m!t[2]
        (4.4)   [M](~)4.3.90!m[2] [M]**4.4.9999!m!t[2]
        (live)  **9999!m!t[2]                         
        {aqua debug kdeenablefinal (+)kdeprefix}     
     Installed versions:  4.3.3(4.3)(19:45:29 09/11/09)(-aqua -debug -kdeprefix)
     Homepage:            http://www.kde.org/                                   
     Description:         KDE control Center Module to confiure Network settings

[I] kde-misc/plasma-widget-network-manager [1]
     Available versions:  (~)0.0_pre976478 (~)9999 {aqua kdeenablefinal}
     Installed versions:  9999(14:55:02 12/10/09)(-aqua)
     Homepage:            http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/playground/base/plasma/applets/networkmanager/
     Description:         KDE plasma applet for controlling network connections managed by NetworkManager.

[I] net-misc/networkmanager
     Available versions:  *0.6.5_p20070823 0.6.6 (~)0.7.1-r3 0.7.1-r6 (~)0.7.1_p20090824 0.7.2 (~)0.7.2[1] [M]**0.8.0_pre20090824 [M]**0.8.0_pre20091105 [M]**0.8.0_pre20091105[1] {avahi bluetooth connection-sharing crypt debug dhclient dhcpcd doc gnome gnutls nss resolvconf}
     Installed versions:  0.7.2(19:31:26 29/11/09)(avahi dhclient gnutls nss -connection-sharing -dhcpcd -doc -resolvconf)
     Homepage:            http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/
     Description:         Network configuration and management in an easy way. Desktop environment independent.

[U] net-misc/networkmanager-vpnc
     Available versions:  (~)0.6.4_p20070621 (~)0.7.1 (~)0.7.2 {crypt debug doc gnome}
     Installed versions:  0.7.1(17:51:20 12/10/09)(-gnome)
     Homepage:            http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/
     Description:         NetworkManager VPNC plugin.

[1] "sabayon" /usr/local/portage/layman/sabayon
[2] "kde" /usr/local/portage/layman/kde

Found 6 matches.

Perhaps you'll find some tips in the NetworkManager FAQ.

It might also be worth reading the Gentoo Wiki NetworkManager article NetworkManager without gnome and the older article HOWTO_NetworkManager (N.B.: SL uses Baselayout-2 and OpenRC).

Let me know if you want to see the contents of a specific config file.

EDIT (January 16, 2010 14:14 UTC): See also the GNOME Live page on NetworkManager configuration: System Settings.

[Pralix]

I looked at those links but didn't find anything pertinent to Mobile Broadband. Something is not right in the way the LiveDVD probes the gsm versus the way a real install probes it. The correct environment variables that allow network manager to use the gsm modem do not seem to be set. These are set from the modem probe.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I'm running out of ideas. I wonder if, rather than differences in configuration files, it is something to do with the groups you are (not) in. Here are the groups of which I am a member:

disk lp wheel floppy uucp cron audio cdrom dialout video games cdrw usb users haldaemon plugdev scanner entropy pulse-access pulse-rt pulse crontab vboxusers polkituser ntlmaps

and here are the groups of which the root user is a member:

root bin daemon sys adm disk lp wheel floppy dialout tape video clamav messagebus haldaemon ntlmaps

I don't have a LiveDVD to hand to boot and check the situation with that.

I also suggest you boot the SL LiveDVD and do an ls -la on the /dev directory, then compare it with an ls -la when you boot from your HDD installation of SL, to see if there are any differences.

I don't have access at the moment to the Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem that I was using successfully with SL last week, but my Zoom 3095 V.92 USB mini external modem requires me to be in the uucp group (and I think the dialout group too, so I added myself to that as well).