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I recently bought a 3G dongle for a project I'm working on. I want my Raspberry Pi to be able to receive SMS messages and respond to them. I got a HSDPA 3g dongle with a 7.2mbps connection. I've set up the dongle on Windows with an A1 (not sure if you guys know this provider) sim and it works fine. I can connect to the internet just fine and also receive text messages (SMS)

However when I try connecting it to my Raspberry Pi (with Raspbian OS) then it doesn't work. It's always show as a "Mass Storage Device".

I tried my luck with usb_modeswitch and wvdial and with Sakis3g as well, but I can't get it to work. My problem with usb_modeswitch and wvdial was that even after I tried everything explained on these 2 blog posts (https://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/how-setup-usb-3g-modem-raspberry-pi-using-usbmodeswitch-and-wvdial ; https://nicovddussen.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/setting-up-your-raspberry-pi-to-work-with-a-3g-dongle/) it still didn't switch to the modem mode. It always stays at the "Mass Storage Mode". I saw an alternative and tried using Sakis3G, but with no luck as well. Seems like their website (sakis3g.org / sakis3g.com) is offline and you can't download certain .tar.gz folders/files anymore. I tried my luck with this blog post. (https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/07/3g-internet-on-raspberry-pi-success/)

And you guessed it, I couldn't get it to work either. It doesn't let me download the .gz folder/file because the website appears to be down.

It's a very big problem for my project and I would appreciate any help. It's really important. If anyone knows what I can do to fix this, please offer help. I'd really appreciate it.

Greetings.

anthrx
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1 Answers1

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Trying using tips supplied in this article

  1. Unplug your modem
  2. Open a terminal prompt

  3. Install the usb-modeswitch package by typing in:

    sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch

EDIT... ADD REBOOT STEP

  1. Reboot Pi

Plug the modem in,
Give it a couple of seconds and then try commands to confirm it worked

lsusb
ifconfig -a

You should see a new interface (Note the name of it - might be something like wwan0 )

To get this to acquire an IP address, edit the file /etc/network/interfaces and add the lines:

allow-hotplug wwan0  
iface wwan0 inet dhcp

EDIT - REBOOT AGAIN
........

EDIT - UPDATE
Also note that the full version of sakis3G has this usb-modeswitch embedded in it.

You can still download code and look at instructions at old site that's been archived at: http://web.archive.org/web/20130511202305/http://www.sakis3g.org/#download

dbmitch
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  • thanks for your input. My problem is, the modem is not recognized as a 3g dongle but as a mass storage system. So it doesn't even give me an interface. All I see it the loopback interface, the ethernet interface and the wlan interface. No wwan0 at all. – anthrx Nov 12 '16 at 08:14
  • You don't indicate an attempt to try this solution. The point is that it's supposed to give you the chance to switch usb mode from mass storage to 3g wan. Please read the suggestion and try the step by step instructions. – dbmitch Nov 12 '16 at 18:53
  • Also update your question with results of lsusb command... Before and after install/reboot – dbmitch Nov 12 '16 at 18:59
  • thanks for bearing with me on this. I uploaded screenshots of everything to this website. (http://imgur.com/a/vW5gT) EDIT: In one of the blog posts I read it was stated that I need to hard reset and soft reset on different occasions, do I have to do that here as well? And also, at what point did you want me to plug my 3g stick again? Plus, does it matter if I'm connected to the internet while doing this? – anthrx Nov 12 '16 at 20:36
  • also, there is no before and after lsusb. It stayed the same. – anthrx Nov 12 '16 at 20:43
  • Plug your modem in **after** the `install usb-modeswitch` and after first reboot - and **Before** you type the second `lsusb`. After you wait a few seconds and plug it in, can you copy/paste the text displayed from `dmesg | grep -i usb` - And by the way it looks like your modem is a Qualcomm - not listed in the Debian 3G wiki under 100% working modems. What Raspban O/S are your running - is it headless or GUI based? – dbmitch Nov 12 '16 at 22:43
  • There is also no Qualcomm modem listed under currently known working modems under usb_modeswitch at http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/device_reference.txt – dbmitch Nov 12 '16 at 22:56
  • If you conform the make and model of your 3G modem - please edit your question title to include it - and add any other relevant details to your question. There are some firmware hacks that people have done to get these working on Debian - but I'm not sure if you're prepared to try that? – dbmitch Nov 12 '16 at 23:04
  • I uploaded a new album with 2 added images of the OS and what showed after typing "dmesg | grep -i usb". And as you said, I am not ready to apply firmware hacks. This is a side-part of a project but a really important one. I don't have too much skill with programming and/or linux devices in general. I bought this exact modem: http://www.banggood.com/HSDPA-USB-STICK-SIM-Modem-7_2Mbps-3G-Wireless-Dongle-TF-Card-Adapter-p-920201.html?p=ZV11051338515201503U The thing is, it is stated in the description that this supports Linux. That's why I figured I'm good with buying it. – anthrx Nov 13 '16 at 11:30
  • I think you're out of luck - I didn't see it on the pi list of 3G modems either. You could try a mnaul firce to the Ethernet mode using `sudo usb_modeswitch -v 0x05c6 -p 0x1405 -d` - where 05c6 is the device id you showed under lsusb - and 1405 is Ethernet only setting - but unless you have firmware installed I don't think it'll work for you – dbmitch Nov 13 '16 at 23:03
  • hey man, finally got it working with a different modem. The Huawei E220. Got it working with the sakis3g script you provided me. Now all that's left is receiving messages and sending messages in combination with some other stuff in a c-program. Thanks a lot for your help. – anthrx Nov 14 '16 at 13:41
  • Nice - good choice with modem pick - there's a lot of Huawei's on the lists. I know I saw a lot of problems with the Qualcomm chip when I was looking at 56k voice modems – dbmitch Nov 14 '16 at 17:37
  • oh god. There we go encountering another problem. First it worked, we connected to the internet just fine and all of the sudden it stopped working. Tried enabling an autostart script and it stopped working. Now I can't get it to work again. Why is this so hard? – anthrx Nov 16 '16 at 07:31