Setting up Novatel Mifi 2200 on 8.2-REL

[Ian Smith]

On Mon, 14 Mar 2011, Ryan Coleman wrote:

 > I've searched high and low and have no idea where to start to get 
 > this thing going... It's recognizing it now but I am not finding any 
 > details online (like people who have shared their full configuration 
 > details) on how they got the VirginMobile version going. In fact, 
 > I've found so few pieces I am not sure how I might piece it all 
 > together. I've tried to hack a VZW one through but no luck.
 > 
 > Thanks again. I'm working, also, on getting VPN to work should this 
 > not be settled by the time the machine needs to be installed.

Ryan, I can't comment on your gadget, and though I used dialup ppp for 
about 10 years, it's been a while and some things have likely changed -
but you want to be looking at ppp(8), /etc/ppp/ppp.conf and the example 
files referenced there in /usr/share/examples/ppp/ esp. ppp.conf.sample 
for the correct formats, particularly of the dial string.

 > Current ppp.conf details:
 > virgin:
 > >         set device /dev/cuau0
 > >         set speed 230400
 > >         set phone "#99*"
 > >         set authname ""
 > >         set authkey ""
 > >         set server /var/run/ppp.pid "" 0177

I'd assume that's ok, but for the first two error messages below .. I'll 
transplant them to here:

 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve kernel: tun2: link state changed to UP
 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve ppp[8111]: tun2: Warning: Local: bind: Address already in use

I suspect that means /dev/cuau0 is already in use.

 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve ppp[8111]: tun2: Warning: set server: Failed 2

See 'set server' in ppp(8).  It should specify a local tcp port or local 
domain socket.  A pidfile seems most unsuitable for that, it's a file 
not a socket and most likely used by /etc/rc.d/ppp.  Here I used:

 set server 3000 mypassword

so 'pppctl 3000' can be used to control or interrogate ppp.  pppctl(8) 
uses an example local domain socket of:

           set server /var/run/internet "" 0177

 > >         set dial "ABORT BUSY ABORT NO\sCARRIER TIMEOUT 5 "

That closing double quote ends your dial string, so the below are then 
all interpreted as (invalid) commands to ppp instead.

 > >         AT OK
 > >         ATZ0 OK
 > >         ATQ0 OK
 > >         ATV1 OK
 > >         ATE1 OK
 > >         AT+EFCS=2 OK
 > >         AT&V OK
 > >         #\dATDT\T TIMEOUT 30 CONNECT"

Your dial string needs to be one single string, and you can't include 
any #comments within it. Again transplanting some of the error messages:

 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve ppp[8111]: tun2: Warning: AT: Invalid command
 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve ppp[8111]: tun2: Warning: AT: Failed 1
 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve ppp[8111]: tun2: Warning: ATZ0: Invalid command
 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve ppp[8111]: tun2: Warning: ATZ0: Failed 1
 > > Mar 15 04:26:50 camserve ppp[8111]: tun2: Warning: ATQ0: Invalid command
 > > [..]

Here's one of my old dial strings in the correct format.  For a dialup 
modem so won't be at all suitable, but I'm pointing out the format:

 set dial "ABORT BUSY ABORT NO\\sCARRIER ABORT NO\\sANSWER TIMEOUT 10 \
           \"\" ATZ OK-ATZ-OK ATE0Q0L1S7=50W3+MS=V34B,1,24000,33600 OK \
           \\dATDT\\T TIMEOUT 60 CONNECT \\c \\n"

 > >         set login
 > >         set redial 3 0
 > >         set timeout 0
 > >         set ifaddr 10.0.0.1/0 10.0.0.2/0 255.255.255.0 0.0.0.0
 > >         add! default HISADDR
 > >         enable dns
 > >         disable ipv6cp
 > >         enable lqr
 > >         accept lqr
 > >         set cd off

Maybe :)  I won't comment on any of the rest as I don't know this kit or 
anything about its requirements.

HTH, Ian