Fedora and USB Mobile Broadband

[udrepper]

Outside the US I use a USB stick for Internet access. It is a Huawei E161, similar enough to other sticks like E160 etc.

Inserting it into a standard Fedora 12 system causes only the simulated CDROM to be mounted. This dual-mode is the root of the problem.

Looking for a solution one comes across many different solutions. The provider I use,

Comments

[anonymous]

Some of those USB sticks can be configured in an always modem mode.

For ex. my ZTE MF626 (and MF636) you just need to enter these commands (using minicom or any other serial terminal program):

AT+ZOPRT=5
AT+ZCDRUN=8

I think these commands will work for other 3G modems too

[zaitcev]

I don't think adding bogus dependencies is the answer. Since NM is installed on every computer, you essentially make usb_modeswitch installed on every computer.

If NM can ask packagekit to pull the package upon detecting a Huawei, that would be fine (like gnome-terminal asks for fonts).

[udrepper]

In general I would agree. But

a) the dependency in this case is really small, perhaps smaller than anything used to handle it automatically

b) there is the chicken and egg problem. Without a working network connection, how can you automatically download the missing package?