Re: Sierra USB 306 - GetSignalQuality() fails when connected: "Could not parse the +CIND response"



On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-11-26 at 18:59 -0800, Kelsey Sigurdur wrote:
>> On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 10:26 AM, Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com> wrote:
>> > On Fri, 2012-11-23 at 17:33 -0800, Kelsey Sigurdur wrote:
>> >> Hi folks,
>> >>
>> >> Newb here. As the subject says,  GetSignalQuality() is failing with
>> >> the error "Could not parse the +CIND response" when connected to the
>> >> network. When disconnected but enabled GetSignalQuality() properly
>> >> returns a value.
>> >>
>> >> I'm just looking to find out if this is a issue with the hardware or
>> >> perhaps a bug in ModemManager.
>> >>
>> >> I've scoured the archives as far back as January 2011 and the closest
>> >> problem to mine that I've found so far is the following thread, which
>> >> wasn't followed up on:
>> >>
>> >> "Re: how to get signal strength of EVDO modem"
>> >> https://mail.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2011-January/msg00073.html
>> >
>> > So here's what's going on.
>> >
>> > 1) you don't appear to have the sierra_net driver on your system, or if
>> > you do, it's not bound to the USB 306.  The USB 306 should expose a
>> > network port as well as a few serial TTYs, and ModemManager should pick
>> > that network port up.  The logs you posted indicate that the kernel
>> > isn't binding sierra_net to the USB 306, so this appears to be a kernel
>> > or modeswitch issue.
>> >
>> > 2) Because there's no network port, you only get one full-featured AT
>> > command port, which is used for PPP while connected.  The other
>> > AT-capable ports have limited AT command parsers which do not allow the
>> > AT+CIND command, which is why you get that error.  However, there's a
>> > bug in ModemManager where it should just report the signal quality
>> > obtained by +CSQ instead of returning an error.
>> >
>> > So, I'd suggest finding out why sierra_net isn't getting used, but I'll
>> > also fix the MM bug too.
>> >
>> > Dan
>> >
>>
>> Thanks Dan.
>>
>> I do have the sierra_net driver on my system but you are correct that
>> it's not getting bound to the device.
>>
>> For now I'm guessing it's a kernel issue. Google, and my rudimentary
>> understanding of C, suggests that the USB 306 is blacklisted in
>> sierra.c but would work with a firmware version >= M3.0.
>> Unfortunately,  the Sierra Wireless site offers only M2_0_11_10AP as
>> the latest firmware for this device.
>
> Ah, you're right.  My USB306 has firmware version 3, and I have no idea
> where I got that firmware version, or even what firmware version it had
> when I got it from Sierra.  I did a bunch of searching around to find
> out if there was a firmware upgrade for the 306, but couldn't find one
> beyond the version you have.
>
>> See http://lwn.net/Articles/385096/ if you're interested in where I
>> came across the blacklist info.
>>
>> I'm off to investigate modeswitching. Thanks for the tips, I appreciate it.
>
> So in light of this, I'll assume that the USB306 allows PPP on the
> secondary APP ports.  This makes the APP1 port with the limited AT
> parser the PPP/data port, so that we can continue to issue normal
> commands on the main port, instead of the main port being used for PPP
> and APP port rejecting most of what we want to do.
>
> To test that out, do this:
>
> mv /usr/sbin/modem-manager /
> killall -TERM modem-manager
> MM_SIERRA_APP1_PPP_OK=1 /modem-manager --debug
>
> and then reconnect and see if the signal strength turns out OK.  I can't
> recall if I tested PPP on the APP1 port with the USB306, but the above
> commands will force that to occur.  If it works, I'll add a quirk for
> the 306.
>
> Dan
>

That worked beautifully! I've attached the debug output.

Could you briefly explain why moving the modem-manager binary was necessary?

Thank-you very much for your help. :) Now to try and score more recent firmware.

Attachment: ModemManager.log
Description: Binary data



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