Debian Linux and Orange 3G

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Introduction
The Kit
- 2.1. Old laptop
- 2.2. New laptop
Inserting the 3G Card
- 3.1. Minicom
The Dialing scripts
Dialing Orange
- 5.1. Problems & Tips
Misc
Contact

History:

Issue 1.0 - First release (04.11.21)
Issue 1.1 - Moved a section and minor additions (04.12.05)
Issue 1.2 - Added TuxMobil link (04.12.06)
Issue 1.3 - Various updates, including usbserial thanks for the emails Matthias Urlichs (05.07.11)
Issue 1.4 - Events/0 problem solved with all credit to Tobias Ramforth (05.09.10)
Issue 1.5 - Updated contact details (05.11.19)

This report is listed at TuxMobil - Linux on laptops, notebooks, PDAs and mobile phones.

1. Introduction

Disclaimer: Use of the information contained within this document is entirely at your own risk!

This is my short guide to setting up and using an Orange Mobile Office 3GCard with Debian "Sarge" (I used to use Libranet 2.8.1). I live and workin the UK, therefore some bits of this guide will be specific to the UK and Orange's service in this country.

Before I bought the 3G Card, I searched for technical information about the Orange 3G Card, and I was disappointed to discoverthat there was very little information.

Orange UK did not have any support pages for linux users, and I would guessthat their support for their Windows users isn't that good.

I found one web page about getting the Orange 3G datacard to work withlinux, at Calum's web-site http://gk.umtstrial.co.uk/~calum/u530.php and thisgave me the confidence to try to get mine working.

Also I have a small confession, I did use M$ Windows and the horrid Orangesoftware to run my 3G Card for the first couple of weeks. But it was useful,as it allowed me to find out about some of the AT commands that can be used.Note: I may also have activated the USIM/3G Card whilst using the Orangesoftware by reading an SMS from the 3G card (Sorry, I don't know how to dothis from linux).

2. The Kit

My Orange Mobile Office Card 3G was bought retail from an Orangeshop. The underside of the card indicates it is a Novatel Wireless MerlinU530 (Model: NRM-U530) and I am guessing the hardware revision is HW:01.08040714 as this is printed on a white sticker.

2.1. Old laptop

This laptop has now been retired, owing to a structural failure i.e thehinges broke.

My ACER laptop was running the Debian linux Libranet 2.8.1 distro http://www.libranet.com. It was a minimal install of Libranet 2.8.1, whichwas then updated using aptitude to upgrade/dist-upgrade from a DebianSarge/Testing DVD-R (bought from the Linux Emporiumhttp://www.linuxemporium.co.uk).

I was using the default debian kernel binary package:

   jules@acerlin:~/Total_3G$ uname -a
   Linux acerlin 2.4.27-1-686 #1 Fri Sep 3 06:28:00 UTC 2004 i686 GNU/Linux

Before getting the card, I did install the pcmcia package and I think I ranthe Libranet Xadminmenu to enable pcmcia support.

2.2. New laptop

Typically, I couldn't decide what laptop to get next. In the end, I optedfor the ultra-light weight Fujitsu P7010D 1.1GHz 512M 60MB HD and a freefinger-print scanner (the latter being of no use since there isn't a linuxdriver available). As the hardware is fairly new, and because the fan isnoisy, cpu frequency stepping and power management are important, I figuredthat I should be using a 2.6.x kernel.

Unfortunately, I had until recently (10th Sep 2005) been frustrated that I wasunable to get 2.6.x to run smoothly on my laptop. Linux would noticeably andbriefly freeze every few minutes, the mouse pointer, video playback, etc wereall affected.

Looking at the output from top, I could see that the events/0 processjumped to 33 %CPU usage and the Time+ was always very high (when I first startlinux it was greater than 3:00 within the first minute of uptime!)

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
  3 root      31  -5     0    0    0 S 33.3  0.0   0:53.82 events/0

UPDATE My events/0 problem was due to loading the genrtc driver.I've now unselected 'genrtc' in the .config and recompiled the kernel. Manythanks to Tobias Ramforth for the answer.

I started using the Con Kolivas patches when I was trying to find a solution to the events/0 problem, and they werevery effective in hiding many of the "freeze" symptoms. A responsive desktop still seems like a good idea, so I am going to continue applying the ck patches.

At the time of updating this guide, I was using the following kernel

  jules@fsclin:~$ uname -a
  Linux fsclin 2.6.13-ck1 #1 Sat Sep 10 14:34:03 BST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

I also have problems with lots of ppp0 rx errors when I use the 3G card and Ithink this may be due or contributed to by the ACPI code. My workaround, toreduce the rx errors, is to disable the ACPI with the kernel parameteracpi=off. I have two menu items in my grub's menu.lst file to either bootkernel 2.6.13-ck1 with or without ACPI.

The remainder of this guide (I hope) is equally valid for either a 2.4.x or 2.6.xkernel.

3. Inserting the 3G Card

Confirm that the pcmcia drivers were started by looking for output in dmesg:

   Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
     options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
     PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:09.0
     Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x0698, PCI irq 11
     Socket status: 30000417
     cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x378-0x37f 0x4d0-0x4d7
     cs: IO port probe 0x0800-0x08ff: clean.
     cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
     cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.

When I insert the card I get a double-beep and then the red LED on the 3G card lights and then flashes red. The tail of dmesg shows:

   cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean.                           
   ttyS02 at port 0x03e8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A

Note: My Mobile Orange 3G Card (aka Novatel Merlin U530, see The Kit section for a fuller description) is using the serial_cs driver. When compiling a kernel, this should include, usually as a module, the SERIAL_8250_CS driver.

As an aside, Vodafone UK rebrand the Option 3G card, which needs the usbserial/option driver, I don't cover this hardware in this guide. On a cautionary note, it is possible that Orange, may also rebrand a different make of card in the future or that Novatel may switch to a different serial interface without changing the model number or packaging.

3.1. Minicom

Everybody runs up minicom to look at their modem, don't they? Actually thereis one really important AT command that you'll want to know, but I'll leavethat until later.

Run minicom -s as root, so that you can set the minicom configuration. Usingthe dmesg info from when the card was inserted, set the tty serial port e.g. /dev/ttyS2 (Note: the zero '0' is not entered, don't know why?)

A couple of AT commands, they can be entered in either upper or lowercase:

   Welcome to minicom 2.1
  
   OPTIONS: History Buffer, F-key Macros, Search History Buffer, I18n
   Compiled on Nov 12 2003, 19:21:57.
  
   Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys
  
   AT                                                                         
   OK                                                                         
   ati                                                                        
   Manufacturer: Novatel Wireless Incorporated                                
   Model: Merlin U530 (HW REV 1)                                              
   Revision: 35.0-35.0  [2004-05-12 18:22:10]                                 
   IMEI: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                                                      
   +GCAP: +CGSM,+ES                                                           
                                                                              
   OK                                                                         
   at&f                                                                       
   OK                                                                         
   at&v                                                                       
                                                                              
   &C: 1; &D: 2; &F: 0; E: 1; L: 0; M: 0; Q: 0; V: 1; X: 4; Z: 0; S0: 0;      
   S3: 13; S4: 10; S5: 8; S6: 2; S7: 50; S8: 2; S9: 6; S10: 14; S11: 95;      
   +ICF: 3,3; +IFC: 2,2; +IPR: 115200; +DR: 0; +DS: 0,0,2048,6;               
   +CBST: 7,0,1; +CHSN: 0,0,0,0; +CREG: 0; +CGREG: 0; +CSCS: "IRA";           
   +CSTA: 129; +CR: 0; +CRC: 0; +CMEE: 0; +CGDCONT: ; +CGEQREQ: ;             
   +CGEQMIN: ; +CGQREQ: ; +CGQMIN: ; +CGEREP: 0,0; +CGCLASS: "A"; +CGSMS: 3;  
   +CSMS: 0; +CMGF: 0; +CSCA: "+447973100973",145; +CSMP: ,,0,0; +CSDH: 0;    
   +FCLASS: 0; +FDD: 0; +FAR: 0; +FCL: 0;  +FIT: 0,0; +ES: ,,;                
   +ESA: 0,,,,0,0,255,; +CRLP: 61,61,48,6; +CPIN: ,; +CGATT: 1; +CGACT: ;     
   +CPBS: "SM"; +CPMS: "ME","ME","SM"; +CNMI: 0,0,0,0,0; +FTS: 0; +FRS: 0;    
   +FTH: 3; +FRH: 3; +FTM: 96; +FRM: 96; +CCUG: 0,0,0; +CUSD: 0               
                                                                              
   OK

Now for the first of the useful AT commands:

   at+csq
   +CSQ: 9,99
  
   OK

The AT+CSQ command gives the signal strength. The responses are:

   +CSQ: 99,99  No signal (red LED)
   +CSQ: 9,99  Maybe 1 bar out of 5?

And now probably the most useful AT commands I can tell you about:

   at$nwrat?
   $NWRAT: 2,2,3
  
   OK
   at$nwrat=2,2
   OK

The AT$NWRAT? command shows whether the card has been set to use GPRS/3G, GPRS or 3G only.

In the responses, the first and second arguments (together) shows whetherthe card has been set to use GPRS/3G, GPRS or 3G only. The third argumentshows the data services currently locked to, where a '0' when there is no signal (flashing red LED),a '6' when locked to a GPRS signal (flashing green LED)and a '3' when locked to a 3G signal (flashing blue LED):

   $NWRAT: 0,2,6   Use either GPRS/3G
   $NWRAT: 1,2,6   Use only GPRS (green LED)
   $NWRAT: 2,2,3   Use only 3G (blue LED)

The AT$NWRAT=n,n command is used to select whether to use GPRS/3G, GPRS or3G only.

   $NWRAT=0,2      Set to use either GPRS/3G
   $NWRAT=1,2      Set to use only GPRS (green LED)
   $NWRAT=2,2      Set to use only 3G (blue LED)

Note: In marginal reception areas it seems to be more reliable if you choosethe appropriate service (either GPRS or 3G only) rather than let the card switch back and forth. If you let the card switch back and forth, it has beenmy experience that the connection is more likely to be dropped.

4. The Dialing scripts

To setup the PPP dialing, I used the pppconfig tool, which I think is thedefault ppp setup utility for Debian, and then I added extra AT commands tothe chatscript and commented out lines in the ISP peers file.

/etc/ppp/peers/orange

  # This optionfile was generated by pppconfig 2.3.2. 
  # 
  #
  noauth
  connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/orange"
  debug
  /dev/ttyS2
  115200
  defaultroute
  noipdefault 
  # ipcp-accept-local
  # ipcp-accept-remote
  user any
  password any
  # remotename orange
  # ipparam orange
  usepeerdns
  # novj

/etc/chatscripts/orange

  # This chatfile was generated by pppconfig 2.3.2.
  # Please do not delete any of the comments.  Pppconfig needs them.
  # 
  # ispauth chat
  # abortstring
  ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED
  # modeminit
  '' ATZ
  # Check SIM pin should return ready
  OK-AT-OK "AT+CPIN?"
  # Check the whether 3G or GPRS
  OK-AT-OK "AT$NWRAT?"
  # Set +CGEE to 2
  OK-AT-OK "AT+CMEE=2"
  # Setup PDP? in +CGDCONT
  OK-AT-OK 'AT+CGDCONT=3,"IP","orangeinternet"'
  # Setup +CGEQREG
  OK-AT-OK 'AT+CGEQREQ=3,3,64,384,0,0,2,0,"0E0","0E0",3,0,0'
  # Attached to Orange network, will return 1
  OK-AT-OK 'AT+CGATT?'
  # ispnumber
  OK-AT-OK 'ATD*99***3#'
  # ispconnect
  #CONNECT /c
  # prelogin
  
  # ispname
  # ogin: "dummy"
  # isppassword
  # ssword: /q"dummy"
  # postlogin
  #'' /c
  # end of pppconfig stuff

The AT commands that I added were (some of) the ones that the Orangesoftware was issuing.

The +CPIN?, $NWRAT? and +CGATT? are not important as they only printinformation.The +CGEQREQ= apparently sets the limits of the data link and that stringmeans the maximum anyway, so probably not necessary.The +CGDCONT and ATD*99***3# are the important strings, if you look at otherweb-sites these usually have '1's in place of the '3's in mine.

5. Dialing Orange

The Libranet distro comes with a simple GUI Dialer called LibranetPPP. OnDebian, I'm now using gpppon, a gnome wrapper around pon and poff.

As root you can also control a PPP connection using the pon & poff commands.To startup a PPP connection:

   pon orange

   pon orange && tail -f /var/log/messages

To shutdown a PPP connection

   poff orange

The following is a sample of a PPP connection from /var/log/messages:

  Nov 20 09:48:31 acerlin kernel: CSLIP: code copyright 1989 Regents of the
  University of California
  Nov 20 09:48:32 acerlin kernel: PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
  Nov 20 09:48:32 acerlin pppd[2078]: pppd 2.4.2 started by jules, uid 1000
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: abort on (BUSY)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: abort on (VOICE)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: abort on (NO DIALTONE)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: abort on (NO DIAL TONE)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: abort on (NO ANSWER)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: abort on (DELAYED)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: send (ATZ^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: expect (OK)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: ATZ^M^M
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: OK
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]:  -- got it 
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: send (AT+CPIN?^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin kernel: spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: expect (OK)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: AT+CPIN?^M^M
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: +CPIN: READY^M
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: OK
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]:  -- got it 
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: send (AT$NWRAT?^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: expect (OK)
  Nov 20 09:48:33 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: AT$NWRAT?^M^M
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: $NWRAT: 2,2,3^M
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: OK
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]:  -- got it 
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: send (AT+CMEE=1^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: expect (OK)
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: AT+CMEE=1^M^M
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: OK
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]:  -- got it 
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: send (AT+CGDCONT=3,"IP","orangeinternet"^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: expect (OK)
  Nov 20 09:48:34 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:35 acerlin chat[2079]: AT+CGDCONT=3,"IP","orangeinternet"^M^M
  Nov 20 09:48:35 acerlin chat[2079]: OK
  Nov 20 09:48:35 acerlin chat[2079]:  -- got it 
  Nov 20 09:48:35 acerlin chat[2079]: send (AT+CGEQREQ=3,3,64,384,0,0,2,0,"0E0","0E0",3,0,0^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:35 acerlin chat[2079]: expect (OK)
  Nov 20 09:48:35 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: AT+CGEQREQ=3,3,64,384,0,0,2,0,"0E0","0E0",3,0,0^M^M
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: OK
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]:  -- got it 
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: send (AT+CGATT?^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: expect (OK)
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: AT+CGATT?^M^M
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: +CGATT: 1^M
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: ^M
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: OK
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]:  -- got it 
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin chat[2079]: send (ATD*99***3#^M)
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin pppd[2078]: Serial connection established.
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin pppd[2078]: Using interface ppp0
  Nov 20 09:48:36 acerlin pppd[2078]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS2
  Nov 20 09:48:38 acerlin pppd[2078]: CHAP authentication succeeded
  Nov 20 09:48:38 acerlin kernel: PPP BSD Compression module registered
  Nov 20 09:48:38 acerlin kernel: PPP Deflate Compression module registered
  Nov 20 09:48:43 acerlin pppd[2078]: Could not determine remote IP address: defaulting to 10.64.64.64
  Nov 20 09:48:43 acerlin pppd[2078]: local  IP address 10.40.3.187
  Nov 20 09:48:43 acerlin pppd[2078]: remote IP address 10.64.64.64
  Nov 20 09:48:43 acerlin pppd[2078]: primary   DNS address 193.36.81.38
  Nov 20 09:48:43 acerlin pppd[2078]: secondary DNS address 193.36.81.37
  Nov 20 10:05:35 acerlin pppd[2078]: LCP terminated by peer
  Nov 20 10:05:35 acerlin pppd[2078]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
  Nov 20 10:05:35 acerlin pppd[2078]: Modem hangup
  Nov 20 10:05:35 acerlin pppd[2078]: Connection terminated.
  Nov 20 10:05:35 acerlin pppd[2078]: Connect time 17.0 minutes.
  Nov 20 10:05:35 acerlin pppd[2078]: Sent 98739 bytes, received 511152 bytes.
  Nov 20 10:05:37 acerlin pppd[2078]: Exit.

5.1. Problems & Tips

I've encountered a few problems while I was setting up and starting a PPPconnnection.

When I was first trying to connect, I spent a very frustrating couple ofhours trying to work out why I was getting a "Serial link is not 8-bitclean" error message from pppd. I had made a typo when entering thetelephone number and I had only typed in one 9 instead of two. Aaargh!
The pppd tries to get the dns ip addresses but after many attempts exits.If I run up minicom after such a failure then NO CARRIER is the firstresponse back from the 3G Card. Question, is the chatscript missing the NOCARRIER response? By observation when it does occur, I've got the Cardlocked to using the 3G only and the signal is probably not strong enough.
Is there a way to monitor the signal strength when online? Apparently, a later version of the Orange software for Windows can now monitor the signal strength. I haven't seen the newer software, but I've read messagesthat it is still awful.
If the connection drops, I can't always get the PPP to connect again. When Iinvestigate with minicom, sometimes I have to enter AT&F (which should probablybe in my chatscript anyway?). On other occasions, I've found that the cardneeds to be switched between 3G and GPRS (or the other way around) before itwill pick up a signal.
To save from unplugging the card all the time. For kernel 2.4.x:I've been using the pcmcia init.d script. As root, I've been entering /etc/init.d/pcmcia stop and this seems to switch off the 3G card because the LED on the 3G card goes off. Switch the 3G card back on using /etc/init.d/pcmcia start.For kernel 2.6.x:I'm using sudo cardctl eject and sudo cardctl insert to switch the card off and on.
Some emails would hang part way through sending and the connectionwould timeout.I was finding that sometimes I couldn't send emails. If I tried with a small test email that would often send okay.Adding mtu 1452 to /etc/ppp/peers/orange seemed to solve the problem.

6. Misc

I wrote this document with jed and then translated it to html using the txt2tags command:

  txt2tags -n --toc -i debian-orange-3g.t2t -o debian-orange-3g.html -t html

TO DO

The PPPStatus program
Calculating the total bytes used. I made some progress with a small Python script to parse the PPPStatus log files. It currently prints each connection made in date order, the totals bytes transferred so far this month and the remaining bytes available. I am still a beginner with Python, so I haven't put it up here yet.

7. Contact

If you wish to comment on this guide, please send any comments todebora3g at xemaps point com

--The End--