Huawei E173 on Fedora 15

["Alfredo C. Harvey" <mackissack gmail com>]

Hello.
After a long journey looking for the solution I have come to you.
I hope the supportive information doesn't come too long but I want to be show enough details so the issue can be solved.

A Huawei E173 USB modem was plugged onto a laptop with Fedora 15 32 bit version Linux.
CD would be recognized as CD-ROM.
But Network Manager wouldn't allow to create the broad band connection.
Device woudn't be shown as alternative.
After googleing around I found about idVendor, idProduct, usb_modeswitch and rules.
This modem is assigned to Movistar México.

Found a lot of information to digest.
In the end I followed this blog (in Spanish): http://raagpc.blogspot.com/2011/07/odisea-3g-huawei-e173.html
which proved to be understandable.

It told to:
a) lsusb to detect ids. 12d1:1c24
b) create modem configurations at /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1c24 with following content
>     #############################
>     # Huawei E173
>     
>     DefaultVendor= 0x12d1
>     DefaultProduct=0x1c24
>     
>     TargetVendor=  0x12d1
>     TargetProduct= 0x1c23
>     
>     CheckSuccess=7
>     
>     MessageContent="55534243123456780000000000000011060000000000000000000000000000"
c) Blog mentioned swap of idProduct from 1c24 to 1c23 which I also had noticed.
lsusb would give one value or the other at different plugging in.

Furthermore, asking 
/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch -c /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1c24
would find and switch at some times and wouldn't at others, depending on the value given by lsusb.
So, i decided to create /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1c23 with following content
>     ########################################################
>     # Huawei E173
>     
>     DefaultVendor= 0x12d1
>     DefaultProduct=0x1c23
>     
>     TargetVendor=  0x12d1
>     TargetProduct= 0x1c23
>     
>     CheckSuccess=16
>     
>     MessageContent="55534243000000000000000000000011060000000000000000000000000000"
Curiously, in the beginning of my search, 1c23 would not appear.
It did after messing around some time.

d) That being done, rule to recognize modem was created at
/lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules
Again, I thought it would be wise to create 2:
>     # Huawei E173 (product 1c23)
>     ATTRS{idVendor}=="12d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1c23", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"
and
>     # Huawei E173 (product 1c24)
>     ATTRS{idVendor}=="12d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1c24", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"

e) Blogger then instructed to download driver from here
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6532138/Linux.tar.gz
and install it.

After this, Network Manager would recognize the device when plugged in.
But it would not operate as modem still.

I found out three ttyUSB ports were created -0, 1 and 2.
ls /dev/ttyUSB* --> /dev/ttyUSB0   /dev/ttyUSB1   /dev/ttyUSB2
Blog says another rule should be created in
/etc/udev/rules.d/50-myrules.rules
which says
KERNEL=="ttyUSB2", RUN+="/bin/ln -sf /dev/ttyUSB2 /dev/ttyUSB0"
(I wondered if it should go to /lib/udev/rules.d/; anyway).

After all that, Network Manager would show the Broad Band option.
But when clicked to connect, it would try about three times
... connecting     ... connecting     ... connecting
But no connection would be established.

However, Huawei E173 modem works.
I tested it with wvdial and minicom

To do this I linked ttyUSB* to /dev/modem to run minicom.
Tried with all ports.
ln -s /dev/ttyUSB2 /dev/modem
allowed connection.

This was the wvdial output
-bash-4.2# wvdial
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1
ATQ0 V1 E1
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99#
CONNECT
--> Carrier detected.  Waiting for prompt.
--> Don't know what to do!  Starting pppd and hoping for the best.
--> Starting pppd at Wed Oct 19 23:48:13 2011
--> Pid of pppd: 6174
--> Using interface ppp0
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> local  IP address 10.77.86.214
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> remote IP address 10.64.64.64
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> primary   DNS address 200.76.88.11
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]
--> secondary DNS address 200.76.80.11
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]                                       #here led in modem lighted up
^CCaught signal 2:  Attempting to exit gracefully...
--> Terminating on signal 15
--> pppd: �J�[08]�J�[08]

My knowlegde of minicom is not that good so I didn't know what to do after connection was established.
But output was enough to prove modem could connect.

All this makes me think inability to connect resides within Network Manager.
Huawei E173 wouldn't be listed as supported device here
http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManager/MobileBroadband
Only these GSM/UMTS/HSPA models

Huawei E160G

Huawei E220 (firmware versions older than 11.117.09.04.00 (Vodafone only) are known to be problematic; make sure you have 11.117.10.00.00 or later)

Huawei E1550

Huawei E226

Did I made myself clear?
Did I mess it up?
Any hint?

Alfredo Harvey