How I got my Verizon PC5750
PCMCIA Broadband Wireless card
working in Mandriva 2008.1
1)
There is a
a. (there
are a
b. But I couldn’t find one that would show me, step by step, how to do this in MDV!
c. Now,
there are a
d. But that’s why I’m not a programmer anymore, I stop when it works, who CARES what it looks like.
2) First let me thank Awilliams from MDV, his blog is here: http://planetmandriva.zarb.org/
a. He is always helping EVERYONE in Mandrivausers.org and the Mandriva.com Forums.
b. Unfortunately his specific idea didn’t work here; he did point me in the right direction.
3) Thanks also to Tina Gasperson from linux.com that DID in fact have the right answer, just a little long for me.
a. Her entire article can be found at: http://www.linux.com/articles/52729
b. She
has a
4) This is going to very specifically be aimed at MDV 2008.1 and the Verizon PC5750
a. This is also known as the Panatech USB Modem, even though it’s a PCMCIA card.
b. I’ve been told that if you open it up you’ll find a standard USB type connection, but I’m not that brave.
c. These instructions COULD work with other similar modems, or other distros, but I can only test what I have.
d. Although if you read Tina’s article HSE is using a PC5740
5) Some bits of information:
a. For some reason DRAKCONNECT sees this as a BLUETOOTH device and wants a 4 digit PIN, I couldn’t figure it out, but if YOU do email me, and I’ll update!
b. To find some card specifics, when I entered: cat /proc/bus/usb/devices devices
c.
I found the following to be true about MY
card: vendor=0x106c product=0x3702
d.
Again, this may be a difference between the 5750
and the 5740 or it could be that mine is a REV A
6) The MDV2008.1 has an updated KERNEL so that’s not needed here, but if you want to make sure you can enter (as root) :
modprobe usbserial vendor=0x106c product=0x3702
a. That will make sure the proper entry is created in the ttyACM0
b. To validate that navigate to: /dev and if you ls you should see a file with that name.
c. If you see that you’re good to go!
7) Now
you need to create or modify a file called 1xevdo
a. You can either copy THIS to your favorite text editor and save it to : /etc/ppp/peers/.
ttyACM0
115200
debug
noauth
defaultroute
usepeerdns
connect-delay 10000
user xxxxxxxxxx@vzw3g.com
show-password
crtscts
lock
lcp-echo-failure 4
lcp-echo-interval 65535
connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -t3 -f /etc/ppp/peers/1xevdo_chat'
c. If you would LIKE you may ALSO download the file from HERE and just change the xxxxx’s after you have saved it in /etc/ppp/peers/.
d. If you want to learn more about what the scripting mean check out kenkinder.com for a detailed explanation,
8) Now you need to create or download a second script, to be saved in the same directory:
ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT 'ERROR' ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT
'BUSY' ABORT 'NO ANSWER'
'' ATZ
CONNECT \d\c
9) Or again you can download it HERE
a. In this file you won’t have to change anything.
b. Whether you create it from scratch or download it, save it in /etc/ppp/peers next to the 1st script
10) With
your PC5750 card plugged in (at boot hopefully), drop down to a console and
type (as root) pppd call 1xevdo.
a. After all this, the response is terribly underwhelming!
b. If you’re lucky you should get zero feedback and just have your bash prompt waiting for you.
c. Now the original article doesn’t say that you have to run the script as root, but trying to run mine as a regular user kept giving me a ‘pppd command not recognized’ error.
d. SO avoid the hassle, SU!
11) It takes about 30 – 45 seconds to get connected and get your IP address, and again there isn’t any feedback UNLESS you have your network icon notifying you of connections.
a. In that case as soon as it connects, and receives an IP address, it will announce that AND your ip address in the corner of your toolbar.
12) I’m not 100% sold that this last command has to be entered, since I’ve only done it once, and I have gotten different ip addresses each time, but it does make some sense, so here you are!
a. Open a terminal as root and find your ip address
b. For me it’s as easy as typing ifconfig.
i. That will poll all your network adapters, so you’ll want to look for the pppd or PANTECH entry.
ii. Copy down the associated ip address
c.
from that SAME terminal/root login type: route add default gw
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
d. Again adding YOUR ip address where the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is.
e. This command adds the local IP address to your routing table so your computer can communicate with other computers on the Internet
f. But as I say I’ve only done it once and had several IP’s, but until we hear otherwise ‘m going to include it here.
13) You are NOW ready to hit MySpace, WDIZ or any other sight that your heart desires.
14) Since I started this whole thing so that I could use my laptop and card while I’m in the hospital next month, I wanted to make this as BRAINLESS as possible. So with a lot of experimenting I present THIS as a way to create your desktop ICON.
15) Right click on your desktop, in an empty spot, and choose create new, then link to application.
16) When the 1st tab shows up it wants a NAME, I called mine EVDO
17) The next tab to look at is PERMISSIONS, for me I make sure EVERYONE can READ and Write, and I placed a check mark in is executable.
18) Next under the APPLICATION tab I made:
a. The command : ./pppd call 1xevdo
b. The Workpath /usr/sbin
19) Under that SAME tab in the ADVANCED properties
a. Under the I have checked run in terminal
b. Under that I did NOT check do not close.
i. You can if you want the terminal to stay open, but there’s not a compelling reason to.
20) In the USER tab I have:
a. Checked run as a different user
i. Root
b. This does REQUIRE you to enter your root password
21) Other than choosing a unique ICON that’s about it. You should NOW be able to BOOT with your card in place, click on an icon and 20 seconds later be ONLINE!
Again, I am NO Linux Guru, so if you have cleaner steps. OR better yet, a way to make it work under DRAKCONNECT, PLEASE SHOOT me an email here!