Configure USB Modem EC1260 in Linux Kernel 2.6.27 and below

Recently I bought a Reliance USB stick (So that I can use my Laptop as a truly portable machine). Right now I am using openSUSE 11.1 which uses Linux Kernel 2.6.27, which is I say is obsolete in this world of rapid technical changes (Even though Linux Kernel 2.6.27 is somewhat just a year old).

So when I plugged in my newly acquired USB modem into my laptop… my system could not detect it as a modem, but just as a USB storage device. So what to do!

Here are the steps I took to make my system recognize it as a USB modem.

First plug in the USB device in the system and after 5-10 seconds get the output of “lsusb” from the konsole (or any command line tool you use). Here is my output:

$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 12d1:140b Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 138a:0001
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 093a:2510 Pixart Imaging, Inc.
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 064e:a127 Suyin Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

On the USB device box it was written that the device was a Huawei one. So the first line from the output is what I need. The part I have bolded is what we need. It is vendor id and device id of the USB device. The product id is “0x140b” and vendor id is “0x12d1”.

Execute the below commands to make system stops recognizing the modem as USB storage device. Before giving out the “eject” command make sure that the device you are ejecting is USB modem. You can use “dmesg” to get this information.

$ eject /dev/sr1
$ modprobe -r usb-storage usbserial
$ modeprobe usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0x140b

Now as the device is successfully ejected and we can proceed further.

You will get three devices now:
/dev/ttyUSB0
/devttyUSB1
/dev/ttyUSB2
/dev/ttyUSB0 is the modem, use only this device. /dev/ttyUSB1 is the control channel, /dev/ttyUSB2 is doing GSM checks.
Make changes in /etc/wvdial.conf. Here are my chanages:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 115200
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2
Init3 =
Area Code =
Phone = #777
Username = myusername |With Reliance net connect |
Password = my_password |it is the mobile number of the modem|
Ask Password = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Force Address =
Idle Seconds = 300
DialMessage1 =
DialMessage2 =
ISDN = 0
Auto DNS = 1

Run wvdial and you are connected to the world wide web 🙂

In place of wvdial you can also use kinternet. Just use settings –> configure with Yast –> add modem, and in the modem name put /dev/ttyUSB0

This may seem a lot of work to do, but we can automate this whole process which I will be putting down in my next blog 🙂

This problem has been solved in Linux Kernel 2.6.29 and greater (I am not sure about Kernel 2.6.28).

Have a nice time…

  1. lokesh left a comment on May 22, 2010 at 3:59 AM

    hi sir very thank you sir for your solution it really helps me

    actually i knew that it’s not detecting the modem and by default comes in Mass Storage

    when i use this , everuthing is solved i can access internet

    but it’s very slow , as it’s a 3g modem and should have a good speed like it works on Xp

    anyway i also want to know that i want to come on linux field
    and want to know how can we find all the solution by us ,i know that
    have to do shell scripting and a lot of other things , please guide me if u can my id id xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com

    and one more thing is if we have to automate this whole process , what we have to add of configure and yes can we know like in xp we use internet through this usb modem and have all the info of using internet like session and data usage , can we do this also in linux after disconnecting
    and want to know how to update kernel versions as m using rhel5 2.16.18 ……… something like that
    and also want to mount ntfs partition on linux please help me out

  2. loki left a comment on May 28, 2010 at 1:50 AM

    hi sir plz do me a favour i want some help regarding linux , m using rhel5 can u plz help me out

  3. Hi Lokesh,

    Great to hear that my post has helped you, sorry for replying back so late.

    Only modem does not guarantee a good speed, your service provider should also be providing you with the enough bandwidth, and its not always what they promise. I had taken Reliance Broadband Netconnect+ which promised with a speed of up to 3.5mbps but used to give me just 3-4 kbps speed. If your Net Connection is working fine and as expected in XP, then there should be a problem. You can try disabling ipv6. Your Kernel seems to be also very obsolete as I have right now Kernel 2.6.31.12-0.2 on my system(openSUSE 11.2). Does this Kernel comes with your rhel? if yes, then you are using a very old distrobution of rhel. BTW is it RHEL or Fedora? Fedora is a free linux distribution by Red Hat while RHEL costs you something. Read this http://www.redhat.com/software/rhelorfedora/. So its best if you get the latest Fedora DVD from their site, and install from it. You will not even need to configure your USB modem as it is already taken care of in latest Kernels.

    There are two parts of knowing Linux. One on admin level and another on programming level. To learn on programming level you just to learn some shell scripting. But if you want to go on admin level, then grab some book on RHCE(Red hat certified engineer) and go through it. It will surely help you.

    If you want to automate things just go through the “udev rules” , which you can find on the net.

    I do not know about XP as I have stopped using Windows a long time back :), only use it in my office, where everything is configured by sysadmin for us… but yes, in Linux you can use this USB modem to connect to the internet using Knetworkmanager(KDE) or networkmanager(gnome). Again I will suggest you to download and install any latest Linux distribution as there are a lot of improvements in just about everything.

    Updating kernel is a very big thing, and if you are not familiar with Linux, better never do it. Instead get the latest version of any Linux distribution, and then join the user community (forums) of that distribution.

    Mounting ntfs partition in Linux:
    open your /etc/fstab as root (super user) and add this line for your ntfs partition:
    partition_name /path_to_be_mounted ntfs-3g locale=en_US.UTF-8 1 2

    where
    partition_name: Name of the ntfs partition(something like sda1). You can get partition names by command “df” on linux console)
    /path_to_be_mounted: Can be any path, like “/home/user/NTFS_DIR” or anything you like.Here, you will have to create NTFS_DIR first, just like creating any other folder.

    This command will mount your NTFS partition in read-write mode. For more options you can search the net. /etc/fstab is the file where the system takes information on how to mount partitions. and for removable media the information is taken from /etc/mtab.

    Do let me know if more information is needed or I have gone wrong somewhere.

  4. Kiran Pande left a comment on March 26, 2012 at 12:18 PM

    hello,
    I use same opensuse 11.1.
    I want to connect to Internet by using my Nokia 5233 mobile using Airtel comm.
    Please help.

  5. Hey,
    I just bought AirTel 3G USB modem. I can’t access mass storage in Linux (I can access it in Windows). I am using Ubuntu 12.04.
    I tried doing what you have posted. but there’s nothing as /dev/sr1 . I have /dev/sr0 which my CD-ROM. I tried ejecting /dev/sg0 and /dev/sg1 but it says it’s not permitted (and I am in root).
    How can I access mass storage ?

  6. What I have posted in this blog is totally opposite to what you are trying to do 🙂 . Here my Netconnect device was getting detected as a storage device instead of a modem. I will have to look into how can a modem having storage space is identified in Linux. I do not have any such device with me right now, so not sure when can I find solution. In the meantime Ubuntu forums(or any Linux distro forum) will be a great place. Forum is a place filled with great Linux gurus.

  7. G. MOHAMMED GAFFAR left a comment on July 13, 2012 at 12:28 PM

    I want to know whether this Reliance Huawei EC1260 USB modem works for the following OS:

    1) Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Home Basic with Lenovo IdeaPad S205 (netbook)

    2) Fedora 17 OS with Dell Inspiron

    3) Ubuntu 12.04 with Dell Inspiron

    Thanks,
    G. MOHAMMED GAFFAR
    Bangalore

    • Few of my friends who use Windows7 are using this device and it is working fine for them. I am not sure what edition they are using but it should work on all Windows 7.
      This device should work on Fedora 17 and Ubuntu 12.04, as well as on all latest flavors of Linux.

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