[arch-releng] Support mobile broadband with wvdial

Thomas Bächler thomas at archlinux.org
Wed Dec 8 12:48:10 EST 2010


Am 08.12.2010 16:57, schrieb Ray Rashif:
>> IMO, this is the way to go. It isn't difficult, it just needs some time
>> and someone to do it (it's on my imaginary TODO list which is growing
>> and growing - meaning I won't do it any time soon).
> 
> That's fine too, I was just concerned that we need something that
> actually works in a straightforward manner. This (netcfg method) would
> be even better, actually. It's just that I've never tried to dial up
> with anything other than wvdial, and I haven't come across much
> documentation that uses ppp for gsm.
> 
> For eg. I have 2 configuration files that I copied off the net; 1 for
> 3G modems which I didn't have to edit and the other for cellphones,
> which needed only the APN changed. I just issue a 'wvdial' to get
> connected with my Huawei E220 or ROKR E8.
> 
> I wouldn't know how one would do the equivalent with pppd alone. I've
> tried adapting /etc/ppp/options by looking at each line in
> /etc/wvdial.conf, to no avail. Thomas, could you provide an example?

This is a chat file (would be generated on-the-fly by netcfg):

ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO
DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED ABORT ERROR
'' ATX
OK 'ATZ'
TIMEOUT 5
OK 'ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0'
OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
OK ATH
OK ATE1
OK 'ATM0L0DT *99***1#' CONNECT

This is more complicated than it needs to be actually, some stuff might
be omitted. "internet" is the APN here, and *99***1# is the "phone
number", which is different in some cases (I think *99#). The rest never
has to be changed.

Now, this can be launched using:

/usr/sbin/pppd /dev/ttyUSB2 persist nodetach nobsdcomp nodeflate connect
"/usr/sbin/chat -s -S -v -f /path/to/chat/file/foo.chat" 460800 modem
crtscts defaultroute user " " password " " noaccomp nopcomp novj
novjccomp noccp noauth ipcp-accept-remote ipcp-accept-local noipdefault
usepeerdns

Now, most of these options are to override insane default from
/etc/ppp/options (which sadly are always applied, and 'auth' is default,
so you need to have 'noauth').

The only thing one would have to change here is the tty, the username
and password (usually ignored on 3G) and maybe replace persist with demand.

What I meant earlier: When I first tried to use wvdial, I thought I
wouldn't have to write the chat file - however, the wvdial.conf just
contained the same shit as my chat file, just in a less readable format.
The pppd-line is actually very long, but most of the stuff is never changed.

This information alone is enough to write a netcfg 3g connection, but I
do not have a 3G stick anymore. I could test this with my mobile phone,
which works exactly the same way (I just need to use /dev/rfcomm0 as a
tty instead).

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