Reliance ZTE/ONDA on Linux

I have a HSD Reliance ZTE datacard/modem which I had been unable to run on Linux till tonight. The inter­est­ing bit is, I have had this card for around 7 months now — and it was forc­ing me to use Win­dows Vista (the hor­ror, the agony, the pain!).

As a log (in case my com­puter gets for­mat­ted some­time in the future — a likely, but not hoped for occur­rence — ) as well as a pos­si­ble guide to oth­ers, here are the steps I followed.

Note: I’m using Ubuntu 9.10 with a Reliance Net­Con­nect ZTE AC8710 modem.

1. Con­nect to the net using some other, tem­po­rary connection
   1. Get usb-modeswitch. Those with access to a repos­i­tory can sim­ply do
      [bash]sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch
      [/bash]
      Oth­ers can get the lat­est ver­sion from http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/ .
   2. You will also need (do an apt-get as required)
      [bash]lsusb, libusb-dev, wvdial, mod­probe
      [/bash]
2. Con­nect your modem and run
   [bash]lsusb
   [/bash]
   You should see one of the usb ports hav­ing your modem — it will prob­a­bly be clas­si­fied as ONDA and have a vendor/product id spec­i­fied. Along the lines of
   [bash]192d:fff6
   [/bash]
   The fff6 indi­cates that it has been detected as a flash drive/cd rom and not as a modem.
3. Also do a
   [bash]dmesg | tail
   [/bash]
   And observe where the modem has gone — usbtty0 / 1 / 2/ 3 etc.
4. Edit the usb-modeswitch con­fig­u­ra­tion to make your com­puter rec­og­nize it as a modem
   [bash]sudo vim /etc/usb_modeswitch.conf
   [/bash]
   Nav­i­gate till you find the set­tings for your ven­dor id/product id.
   [bash]########################################################
   568 # ZTE AC8710
   569 #
   570 # Two ID vari­ants known; check your default
   571 #
   572 # Con­trib­u­tor: Michael Khurt­siya
   573
   574 ;Default­Ven­dor=  0x19d2
   575 ;Default­Prod­uct= 0xfff5
   576
   577 ;Tar­getVen­dor=   0x19d2
   578 ;Tar­get­Prod­uct=  0xffff
   579
   <strong> 580 # No. 2
   581
   582 ;Default­Ven­dor=  0x19d2
   583 ;Default­Prod­uct= 0xfff6
   584
   585 ;Tar­getVen­dor=   0x19d2
   586 ;Tar­get­Prod­uct=  0xfff1
   587
   588 # only for ref­er­ence
   589 # MessageEndpoint=0x05</strong>
   590 <strong>
   591 ;MessageContent=“5553424312345678c00000008000069f030000000000000000000000000000”</strong>
   [/bash]
   And remove the ‘;’ before the required lines. Save and exit.
   Run it.
   [bash]sudo usb_modeswitch[/bash]
5. Check whether it’s worked — do another
   [bash]lsusb
   [/bash]
   and see that the prod­uct id has changed to fff1 (or what­ever your tar­get prod­uct was).
6. Now we need to do a mod­probe
   [bash]modprobe usb­se­r­ial vendor=0x19d2 product=0xfff1
   [/bash]
   Replace ven­dor and prod­cut as you require.
7. Once that’s done, you need to make your wvdial.conf file. To edit the file:
   [bash]sudo vim /etc/wvdial.conf
   [/bash]
   Copy paste the fol­low­ing in it.
   [bash][Dialer Defaults]
   User­name = &lt;enter your 10 digit modem num­ber here&gt;
   Pass­word = &lt;enter your 10 digit modem num­ber here&gt;
   Init1 = ATZ
   Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &amp;C1 &amp;D2 +FCLASS=0
   Modem Type = Ana­log Modem
   Phone = #777
   ISDN = 0
   SetVol­ume = 0
   Flow­Con­trol = Hard­ware (CRTSCTS)
   Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0 &lt;modify based on the results of your dmesg&gt;
   Dial Com­mand = ATDT
   Baud = 460800
   Stu­pid Mode = 1[/bash]
8. Once that’s done, you should be good to go. Sim­ply run
   [bash]sudo wvdial
   [/bash]

And you should be con­nected. Hope­fully this helps some­one and pre­vents them from wast­ing as much time as I did.

Sources:

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1333535
• http://travisneotyler.blogspot.com/2009/07/back-on-wireless-web.html