Evdo Networking in Ubuntu
I've started this page to document how I got Sprint Evdo up and running on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft). There are several sites scattered around the web that indicate that it's possible to get evdo running on linux, but I was worried that none of these sites would apply to my card.
Most of these steps probably apply to many cards. I've read that it is common for many cards to have a USB interface regardless of whether they are mini-PCIe or PCMCIAor ExpressCard. This was tested on a Dell Lattitude D820 with the "Dell Wireless 5700 Sprint Mobile Broadband Mini-Card".
Most of this probably applies to Verizon as well, but Verizon has a very restrictive Terms-of-Service which prevents you from actually using your networking connection, so I went with Sprint.
Step 1. Activate your card using Windows. There's likely a way to do it in Linux, I just don't know how. (If you do, please edit this page!)
Step 2. Figure out what kind of network card you have by looking through your device list for an Evdo card. Anything that says CDMA is a good bet.
$ less /proc/bus/usb/devices 8 Spd=12 MxCh= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=413c ProdID=8128 Rev= 0.00 S: Manufacturer=Novatel Wireless Inc. S: Product=Novatel Wireless EXPD CDMA C:* #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=100mA
Step 3. Try to load usbserial, using the Vendor & ProdID strings from step #2.
$ sudo modprobe vendor=0x413c product=0x8128
Step 4. If that worked as expected, go ahead and add usbserial to /etc/modules.
$ sudo nano /etc/modules
and add the line:
# evdo usbserial vendor=0x413c product=0x8128
Step 5. Save the following file as /etc/ppp/peers/sprint:
#the USB serial device of the EVDO PCMCIA card. ttyUSB0 #your login information user your10digitphonenumber@sprintpcs.com 230400 # speed #debug defaultroute # use the cellular network for the default route usepeerdns # use the DNS servers from the remote network #-detach # keep pppd in the foreground crtscts # hardware flow control lock # lock the serial port passive # transmit the echo but don't fail if there is no response noauth # don't expect the modem to authenticate itself # do not send lcp echo requests lcp-echo-interval 0 # if the connection fails, try to reconnect, forever persist maxfail 0 connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-connect" disconnect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-disconnect"
(This script is a modified version of the one at http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~kfu22/evdo/.) If you'd like to tweak it, look at the options in 'man pppd'. One thing I've discovered is that I don't believe the speed setting actually affects speed -- you can set it to 230400 or 115200 and it makes no difference.
Step 6. Save the following file as /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-connect:
SAY 'Starting Sprint\n' TIMEOUT 120 ABORT 'BUSY' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT 'NO CARRIER' '' 'ATZ' 'OK' 'AT&F0' 'OK' 'ATE0v1' '' 'AT+CSQ' 'OK' 'ATDT#777' 'CONNECT'
(This script is a modified version of the one at http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~kfu22/evdo/.)
Step 7. Save the following file as /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-disconnect:
"" "\K" "" "+++ATH0" SAY "Disconnected from Sprint."
(This script is a modified version of the one at http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~kfu22/evdo/.)
Step 8. Add the following stanza to /etc/network/interfaces so that your evdo connection will come up at boot-time:
auto ppp0 iface ppp0 inet ppp provider sprint
Step 9. Restart your networking:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Congratulations! You're done!
Were your experiences different? Were you able to get a different card working under Ubuntu, or a different provider? Please edit this page and help those who will follow in your footsteps!
Useful Links
http://kenkinder.com/evdo-pc5740/ http://www.evdoforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=6180#6180 http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~kfu22/evdo/