Re: How to send the DBUS signal to NetworkManager in user space?

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Tue, 2009-03-17 at 16:16 +0800, fangxiaozhi 00110321 wrote:
> Dear All:
>  
>    I have a data card, and it can support the usb ether feature.
>  
>    But there are some problems to use in the linux systems:
>  
>    1. While I plug the data card into the linux, and after the cdc_ether.ko driver is attached to the device, the NetworkManager will be activated to add our device in its list, and detach the IP of our device.
>     In this case, which signal or method_call will be received by the NetworkManager from DBUS or HAL?

Excellent; seems like everyone is moving to this model, which is good.
Are you using specific commands on the AT ports to activate the
cdc-ether device?  IE, Option devices use 'AT$OWANCALL' and AT$OWANDATA'
to start the actual data connection and make the IP address known to the
connection manager.  Ericsson F3507g cards use other commands and then
require DHCP done on the ether device.

How do the huawei cards start the actual data connection?

A few more questions for you:

1) does the device support PPP at all on the AT-capable ttys?

2) Which version of NetworkManager are you targeting?

3) Does the card advertise one or more CDC-ACM ports and one CDC-ETHER
port, or are the serial ports still driven by 'option'?

For now, with NetworkManager 0.7.x, we have limited support for the
Option 'hso' modems and the Ericsson F3507g.  We may be able to support
these newer Huawei devices in 0.7.x too.

For NetworkManager 0.8/head, we have a much more flexible system called
ModemManager which will definitely have the infrastructure to handle
your card.  We'd love to add support for your cards to ModemManager, and
also if possible to NM 0.7.x.

>    2. While I dial-up the data card to connect to the Ethernet, the NetworkManager will not be activated to refresh the information, such as IP, for our data card in the linux system.
>      I want to send some signal or method_call to NetworkManager by DBUS to activate it in the user space.
>      Which signal or method_call can I send ? How to send them?

This is expected because the card is not handled natively by
NetworkManager's 3G support.  If possible (and I think it is), we should
teach NetworkManager about your new hardware, then everything will work
happily together.

In return, I have a question for you too :)

I have a Huawei E160G card (firmware version 11.604.06.00.156) that I am
trying to make NetworkManager talk to.  The device randomly stops
responding to AT commands on its first serial port and must be unplugged
and replugged to make it respond again.  Could you direct me to somebody
who could help me debug this behavior and thus make Huawei cards better
supported for NetworkManager users?

Thanks!
Dan