GuestbookSign our guestbook ContactGet in touch with the authors ArchiveAll unixwerk articles since 2003
April 10, 2013

Tip: Using a Vodafone Surfstick with Slackware 14.0

This article describes how to setup a Vodafone Mobile Broadband K3765-Z with Slackware 14.0 and Network Manager.

Contents

  1. Plug in the Stick
  2. Enable Network manager
  3. Add a Network Connection
  4. Enable the Network Connetion
 

1. Plug in the Stick

First we need to plug the Vodafone stick into a free USB slot. The generic kernel delivered with your Slackware installation has all modules available needed for registration of the stick. With the command dmesg we see some lines like:

darkstar# dmesg
                              :
                              :
[   10.364053] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd
[   10.495398] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=19d2, idProduct=2002
[   10.495404] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=4, Product=3, SerialNumber=5
[   10.495409] usb 3-1: Product: Vodafone Mobile Broadband K3765-Z
[   10.495413] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: Vodafone (ZTE)
[   10.495417] usb 3-1: SerialNumber: 1234567890ABCDEF
                              :
                              :

and two new kernel modules should have been loaded:

darkstar# lsmod
                              :
                              :
usb_wwan                7726  1 option
usbserial              26140  7 usb_wwan,option
                              :
                              :

 

2. Enable Network manager

As of Slackware 14.0 the network manager is part of a stock Slackware installation. However, networkmanager is not started by default. But we can start it manually (as root)

darkstar# sh /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager start

Of course we want the network manager to be started with the system start. As always with Slackware this has to be done by making the start script executable:

darkstar# chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager

 

3. Add a Network Connection

Now we are ready to start the network connection editor:

darkstar$ sudo nm-connection-editor

[Connection Editor]

 

We select the tab "[Mobile Broadband]" and press the "[+ Add]" button to add a new network connection. A new window appears. We only need to edit settings in the "[Mobile Broadband]" tab:

The figure on the left shows the correct settings for a Vodafone Mobile Broadband Stick type "K3765-Z". For those who can't display the picture:

Additionally we could set "Connect automatically" to force network manager to automatically connect to this network if it is available.

At this point we should see a new interface with nm-tool:

darkstar# nm-tool

NetworkManager Tool

State: disconnected

- Device: ttyUSB3 -----------------------------------
  Type:              Mobile Broadband (GSM)
  Driver:            option1
  State:             disconnected
  Default:           no

  Capabilities:

If you don't see the new device a restart of the network manager¹ or even a reboot might be required. With my setup I actually needed a reboot in order to see the new device within the network manager.


¹ To restart the network manager run the following command as root: sh /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager restart

 

 

4. Enable the Network Connetion

Wireless WAN is disabled by default:

darkstar# nmcli nm wwan
WWAN      
disabled   

We need to enable wireless WAN connections globally:

darkstar# nmcli nm wwan on
darkstar# nmcli nm wwan
WWAN      
enabled   

If you set the "Connect automatically" option the connection manager should bring up the connection now. If you didn't set the option you need to bring up the connection manually:

darkstar# nmcli con list
NAME                      UUID                                   TYPE              TIMESTAMP-REAL
Wired connection 1        4e722de9-ce98-1ab2-b1c2-123456789abc   802-3-ethernet    Wed 10 Apr 2013 10:51:16 AM CEST  
Vodafone Default 1        a1b2d3c4-a1b2-1a2b-1a2b-ab12cd23ef45   gsm               Wed 10 Apr 2013 01:36:15 PM CEST  
darkstar# nmcli con up uuid a1b2d3c4-a1b2-1a2b-1a2b-ab12cd23ef45

The status can be checked with nm-tool again:

darkstar# nm-tool

NetworkManager Tool

State: connected (global)

- Device: ttyUSB3  [Vodafone Default 1] ----------------------------------------
  Type:              Mobile Broadband (GSM)
  Driver:            option1
  State:             connected
  Default:           yes

  Capabilities:

  IPv4 Settings:
    Address:         2.205.224.170
    Prefix:          32 (255.255.255.255)
    Gateway:         10.64.64.64

    DNS:             139.7.30.126
    DNS:             139.7.30.125

 

Also on unixwerk