forums.xandros.com

[mongrel]

Sierra Wireless 860 + Cingular/ATT HSDPA/3G + Linux

After struggling with it for over 6 months, I finally managed to get my Aircard 860 to work under linux.
This works under Xandros 4.0 Pro. I tried to replicate this with ubuntu but no luck so far.
What I had:
* Linux 2.6 (I used 2.6.18-dcc-smp) Xandros 4.0 Professional
* pcmciautils
* wvdial(recommended over kppp)
* Patience
* Drivers from Sierra Wireless website http://www.sierrawireless.com/software/8x0/AirCard_8xx_Linux.tar.gz

Do not inset the aircard. If you have already, just remove it.
step 1: Unzip and copy
You need to be root to do this.
Download the drivers from sierrawireless website and expand it. You need just one file from the tarball you downloaded. Locate SW_8xx_SER.dat and copy that file to /etc/pcmcia/cis.

Step 2: edit pcmcia config
"cd" to /etc/pcmcia/ and add the following

card "Sierra Wireless 860"
manfid 0x0192, 0x0710
cis "cis/SW_8xx_SER.dat"
bind "serial_cs"

Make sure you have SW_8xx_SER.dat in under /etc/pcmcia/cis/


Step 3: restart system and insert card
restart your system and once you boot up to you desktop insert the aircard. Wait till the LED on the card blinks green.

Open up another console and type cardinfo. You do not need to be root for this. This is a neat tool to see what card you have inserted. If you are root and you use this command you will get an error " connection to ":0.0" refused by server". To fix this go back to user and type "xhost +" in your prompt. You should be able to see your card details in cardinfo

Step 4: Verify that you card has been detected
Login as root and type in the following
poobal-laptop:/etc/pcmcia/cis# dmesg |grep tty
0.0: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A

You should see a ttys1 or ttys0. If you don't see it then some setting is missing. If you do see a ttys* then continue setting up dialup networking.

Step 5: Setting up wvdial
logout as root and cd to your home directory. Create a text file "cingular" or any other name is fine too with the following.
---------------------------------------------------
[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyS1
Baud = 115200
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = *99***1#
Username = ISP.CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password = CINGULAR1
APN: isp.cingular
stupid mode = on
-------------------------------------------------------
Now login as root again and type in "wvdial --config cingular"
If you connect successfully, you should see your ip info on your console.
To disconnect I just hit ctrl+c

Most of the instructions i got from several other people. The key is finding where you need to copy your drivers. I get about 700k down and 256k or so up and the connection is really stable. This is good enough for me now. I don't know how roaming is going to work. The main drawback under linux is that there is no GUI to check signal strength and bytes sent and received.


References:
1. Andrew C. Dingman's Post:without this post I still would be going around in circles tyring to get this to work.
2.AC8xx/7xx workaround for a Linux OS with PCMCIAutils


Contact: karthik@poobal.net