Re: Problems with latest network manager

[Tim Hawkins <tim hawkins me com>]

After a lot of messing around i have finally managed to get it to dial.
I believe that network-manager is crashing and restarting shortly after
booting, but as i log in it is dialling using one of the GSM profiles
that i had set to system, that i can no longer see. But because the
modem is connected to the wrong network the dial does not succeed. This
may be resulting in the crash.

I can make it dial and connect by... 

1) Boot the machine with the modem connected, wait for the crash
reporter to report that the network manager has crashed... 

2) Remove and reinsert the modem, this seems to be important...

3) Open minicom and issue the AT+COPS=1,2,23420 command to the modem to
make it attach to the 3 network. 

4) Restart the machine (restarting network manager does not seem to
work)

5) network manager will now dial and connect to the network immediately
after login and wont crash. 

On Fri, 2008-10-03 at 18:50 +0100, Tim Hawkins wrote:
> GSM modems now seem to be completely broken and no longer function. I am
> unable to make a connection 
> on a previously functioning system. 
> 
> Hardware: Acer Aspire One. 
> Modem: Huawei 169G ( very similar to 220 )
> Provider: Three UK, Orange UK 
> OS: Intrepid Alpha6, tracking changes in update manager. 
> Version effected: 0.7~~svn20080927t101113.0-ubuntu1
> 
> symptoms are:
> 
> 	1) The GSM modem connection now prompts for a password, even though the
> password 
> 		is provided in the configuration for the connection, the password does
> not 
> 		seem to do anything, if i enter a password, it is immediately
> rejected, too 
> 		fast to have been used in a connection attempt. I have even tried
> entering
> 		network password, admin password, keyring password, all to no avail. 
> 
> 	2) The password above is shown on the entry dialogue in clear, so now
> everybody on the 
> 		train next to me can see my password as I type it. Should show
> shrouded and 
> 		have a "show password" check box under it as per all other dialogues. 
> 
> 	3) The connection type (GPRS, UMTS etc ) is not retained in the
> connection info screen, changing 
> 		it and then reentering the editor shows it was not saved, the default
> however 
> 		is "UMTS", not "Any" which it should be. (side note, UMTS is not a
> well understood term
> 		outside of the US, cant we just use simple terms like 2G, 3G , any).
> Setting 
> 		this wrong seems to result in a "disconnect" message  immediately when
> dialling, and since you 
> 		can no longer set it ... well ..... 
> 
> 	4) Setting a connection to "system" is not saved, existing connections
> i had set to "system"
> 		have mysteriously disappeared, i had a number of connections setup for
> the multiple 
> 		testing accounts I have on this machine, now they are no longer
> visible. How do I 
> 		get to my "system" connection definitions now.? 
> 
> 	5) The connection configuration  editor dialog will often (most of the
> time) under circumstances i cant yet pin down, not enable 
> 		the OK button on the conf dialog, leaving only Cancel there. This
> happens no matter 
> 		what you change on the dialog. If its doing it for some reason, then
> it should say that on the screen, something like "saving disabled
> because ....." 
> 
> 6) The dropdown menu with the connections listed, shows a "disconect"
> entry under any 3g connection, which does nothing, you have to click on 
> the actual connection menu entry to disconnect it. 
> 
> 7) Not related to 3G, there does not seem to be any way to "disconnect"
> a wifi connection, other than to connect another one., can we have the 
> ability to disconnect a wifi connection like we have with the gsm
> modems. 
> 
> 8) I know its against HID design guidelines, but can we have all the
> "action" buttons on the dialogue's moved to the top, network manager
> will be used a lot on net-books etc which have small screens (480->600
> pixels high), i quite often find i cant reach the buttons to action
> dialogs on my net-book ( note there is a trick you can use, turn on
> virtual desktops and arrange them in a 2x2 array) then drag your dialog
> until it is half way between the two, then you can use the up and down
> desktop move functions to reach the upper and lower halves of the
> dialog, but its a pain to have to do this all the time). 
> 
> 9) enhancement request... Most GSM modems have a network scanning mode
> on the huawei's  you open minicom on /dev/ttyUSB2 at 115200 baud, and
> issue. "AT+COPS=?", the modem will then rapid blink for a while and
> respond with a list of available networks, with network names and
> numbers. you can then issue AT+COPS=1,2,network_number to set the
> network. for example AT+COPS=1,2,23400 will select "3 UK". This is a
> life saver because the modems will often lock onto an alternative 
> network that does not do 3G (blink blue), in the uk orange is the fall
> back GPRS (blink green)
> network for three's 3G network, once the modem gets locked onto that 
> network its a bugger to get it off it as the signal strength is often
> greater than the 3g one. Can we have a network browser, and the ability
> to set the network for a connection?, i notice there is a network Field
> in the config, but no indication as to what is supposed to be put there,
> the full name , short name, network number ?... and no indication as to 
> what it is supposed to do, does it force the modem to that network, or
> abort the connection if the modem is not on that network, or is it just
> for information?. 
> 
> As stated above, the 3g Modem side is now unusable, which is a shame as 
> it was working very well only a few days ago.
> 
> 
> 
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