The least interesting tech narratives to read — and write — are
the ones where everything worked well. Where's the narrative? Where was the
challenge? But I want this on the net so searchers find a success story.
I got a Huwei E1552 Modem to work on Linux, and it took no trouble on Bodhi
Linux 1.1 (corresponds to Ubuntu Karmic Koala, I think) with Gnome Network
Manager. And I was amazed. This is not the way things typically go on Linux!
It should work with any Ubuntu distribution later than Karmic, and potentially
any distro using Gnome's network-manager applet version 0.8 or greater (maybe
earlier, too; I haven't checked). I connected to Senegal's Orange network over
a GSM connection, and since Senegal uses France's Orange technology, this modem
should work on other Orange networks as well.
The only trick was getting it to run successfully on Windows first. Turns
out these little USB key—cellphone thingies are configured to run a
clever little ruse: the first time you plug them in, your computer recognizes
them as a USB key ("flash drive") storage medium. It shows you the
stored file, including the little .EXE Windows executable program that allows
you to install the driver on Windows. Running the installer then
"flips" a bit so the USB key gets recognized forever after as a GSM
modem, which is what it is. Piece of cake.
That finally explains to me why to get these things to work on Linux you so
often need to run USB-Switcher to make that conversion manually. Not knowing
any better, I just let it blow its load on Windows, where I got connected the
first time, and then plugged it into Linux. Bodhi Linux recognized it
immediately, Gnome Network Manager knew immediately how to use it, and when I
requested a connection, I got one immediately. Color me stupified.
Kudos to everyone who made this happen. And to the rest of you, rest
assured that a Sonatel/Orange "Internet Everywhere" Huwei E1552 modem
will get you on line with Linux. On the grounds that somehow this feels like
the future of mobile internet usage, this seems very important to me. And the
fact that I can now urgently check my frikkin' email from the middle of the
badlands is nothing short of thrilling (but not surprising, considering how
much energy and money has gone into ensuring there are cell towers all over the
place, even in the badlands).
Footnote: It also worked perfectly on my HP Chromebook 14. Yippee!
