Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello,

Puppy Linux (Bionic) has a chicken-and-egg problem for users of USB dongles and sticks for internet connections (UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA ... ).

1)

The USB devices show up as external drives, rather than as an USB modem.

It's a known and solved problem, see a forum post from 2009 (German) and the general solutions to it, here, here, here, and here.

For Ubuntu and others, it's SOLVED by simply having the NetworkManager and the Gnome-PPP installed, because they also install and manage the general solution (above).

It's particularly damning for users who have exactly 1x way to get online, but the USB modem doesn't register with the operating system, to allow for downloading the packages.

2)

Another problem is the wrong dial-phone number. The standard is *99#, while alternatives are seldom mentioned:

  *99***1# 
  *99**1*1# 

The most common result is the pppd "exit code 16": there is a connection, no internet, no IP address, and then it all drops after 30 seconds to one minute, like this user reports, this, this, this, or this. The exit code 16 itself doesn't tell, what the problem is, leading to speculations about modem-device AT codes.

The dial-number problem is solved by trying out all three numbers—manually.

However, in conclusion, I suggest to include the general software solution (above) to be included, because a Puppy user might also use a prepaid SIM card in a USB modem that won't register.

Thanks and cheers.

What I do, as of now.

(0) Using a phone, I download the Gnome-PPP deb and copy it to an external drive for use in the computer.

(1) I install the Gnome-PPP deb and then (2) open the terminal for entering this code once.

sudo usb_modeswitch -v 0x1c9e -p 0xf000 -V 0x1c9e -P 0x9603 -M "55534243123456788000000080000606f50402527000000000000000000000"

The code is explicitly tied to only one device by one specific manufacturer. This won't work for other devices, so how to come up with the code is explained in the general solution (above).

(3) In the normal Puppy dialer, I hit the "choose modem" button and (4) enter the phone number and APN address manually. Finding these information might be problematic for some users, though. (5) Connect.

Steps 0–1–2 could be spared. The NetworkManager and Gnome-PPP don't bother the user with step 2 anymore.

Man, I too came here because my 3G Huawei USB broadband won't connect to the internet. I even tried using the right apn, username, password and pin number and It still won't work whereas when I tried connecting it on a different distro, it works.

Looks like we just have to wait for the respond

The discussion continues. See this post.

I'm using a USB flash modem to connect to the internet from the very first day. For some long time I was wrongly thinking it's a GPRS modem, though it's a 3G USB flash modem. With the exception of one case only I never had trouble to connect to the web - it was a Puppy with a wrong version of usb-mode-switch (can't recall which Puppy it was). However, I never got a working connection via 2G/3G option of Network Manager, but by the use of Puppy's PGPRS program it connects all the time without trouble.