How to get your EV-DO modem working on Xubuntu

Just a quick follow up to my Xubuntu on the Asus Eee PC post. A short bit of fiddling has provided me with my must-have function: support for my EV-DO USB modem. A trick that didn't work for me on Xandros Linux did work well in Xubuntu. Since the OS doesn't know what USB device you're using for a modem, you need to tell it. In a terminal session, it was just a matter of typing the following lines:

sudo modprobe -r usbserial
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1410 product=0x4100

Bear in mind that the vendor and product numbers will vary depending on the modem you're using. There's a pretty solid list of vendor / product numbers over on the Ubuntu Forums.

It's possible to dial out on the EV-DO modem through a command line like I used to do in Xandros, but I decided to install KPPP for a GUI-based approach. Once I did that, it was a simple few steps to configure the connection. For Verizon Wireless, the modem should dial the number #777. The user ID is your 10-digit phone number (the one assigned to the modem) followed by @vzw3g.com. Example: if your number is 212-555-1212, your ID would be 2125551212@vzw3g.com. The password for the connection is vzw. That's all you need.

Once configured, I just started up the connection in KPPP and I was good to go. Speedtest.net is showing download speeds of around 500 kbps, but I'm in my home office on the fringe of coverage. On my next coffee break, I'll run the test to see if I get a full-bandwidth connection. Sure would be nice if I could make use of the integrated GPS in the USB727 too...

Comments

[Gonzalo]

That's awesome you got your evdo card to work, i used to think ubuntu/linux was soo complicated but must of the fixes are out there. Some of them are as easy as copy paste in terminal.

[Rodfather]

Cool. I guess usbserial works correctly in that distro.
Looks like the steps to get connected is pretty much the same as the Sprint Novatel U727 besides entering a user ID, password, and phone number.
All that's needed for Sprint is dialing #777.
KPPP should make everything much easier.
It was somewhat of a pain getting the U727 working with the OLPC XO.
BTW, here's a PDF for getting Sprint modems working in Linux:
http://www4.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/downloads/Sprint_Mobile_Broadband_Setup_Guide.pdf

[Jason]

Hi,
This may seem like a weird question but here goes ...
Can the custom version of Xandros O/S be downloaded and installed on a PC other than the eee pc. It seems like the Icon Based apps are very simple to use and would be great for my kids on their basic PC.
Thanks....

[Travis]

I had GPS running on my EeePC Xandros but couldn't get text to speech and that is mostly why I switched to XP.