making a 3G Huawei 220 USB modem work in Linux 2.6

Context: just received a Huawei 220 3G USB modem [1] (HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM, HSDPA <= 3.6Mbps ), have to make it work in my Linux thinkpad X60 w/ Linux 2.6.20+ , for accessing the Swisscom HSDPA service.

It didn't work out of the box, mainly because of the device's CD emulation storage (windoze drivers :P) interfering with its comm device.

First searches return pointers to a "vodafone-mobile-connect-card-driver-for-linux" [2] package, which is absolute crap: a heavy weight GUI interface that doesn't even work (at least for me).

Hey ... I just want to have my /dev/ttyUSB0 to be able to configure a pppd on it, I found a true, low level solution [3] that manages to make the device behave like the very thing it was born for :)

Here is an excerpt of the mininum required configs to make it work

• /etc/udev/rules.d/99-huawei.rules
  

  
  ## /etc/udev/rules.d/99-huawei.rules
  ##
  ## to enable it, run: udevcontrol reload_rules
  ##
  #
  # udev rule for HUAWEI E220 3G HSDPA Modem
  # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  # (c)opyleft   OOZIE < oozie@poczta.fm > 
  #
  # This file prevents the pseudo scsi cdrom device from enabling, 
  # thus providing a workaround for kernel versions < 2.6.20
  # 
  # Minor edition by JuanJo Ciarlante
  ##
  
  SUBSYSTEM=="block", \
  ACTION=="add", \
  SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1", \
  SYSFS{idProduct}=="1003", \
  RUN="/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0x1003", \
  OPTIONS="ignore_device"
  

  
  


• /etc/ppp/peers/3g
  

  
  # /etc/ppp/peers/3g
  # pppd call 3g nodetach
  # (using Huawei e220 USB modem)
  /dev/ttyUSB0
  #3600000 #irrelevant
  noipdefault
  defaultroute
  user gprs
  password gprs
  #persist
  lock
  noauth
  nodetach
  usepeerdns
  nodeflate
  nobsdcomp
  nopcomp
  noaccomp
  novj
  novjccomp
  nomagic
  #asyncmap 0
  #lcp-echo-failure 10000
  #lcp-echo-interval 1000
  lcp-echo-failure  10
  lcp-echo-interval 30
  connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/3g.chat'
  debug
  idle 180
  holdoff 10
  

  
  
• /etc/ppp/peers/3g.chat
  

  
  # /etc/ppp/peers/3g.chat
  TIMEOUT 3
  ABORT BUSY
  ABORT 'NO CARRIER'
  ABORT VOICE
  ABORT 'NO DIALTONE'
  ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE'
  ABORT 'NO ANSWER'
  ABORT DELAYED
  "" ATZ
  OK ATQ0V1E1S0=0&C1&D2
  OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","gprs.swisscom.ch","0.0.0.0",0,0
  OK ATDT*99#
  CONNECT ""
  

  
  

• [1] http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/products/view.do?id=282
  
• [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_Mobile_Connect_Card_driver_for_Linux
• [3] http://oozie.fm.interia.pl/pro/huawei-e220/