Supported cellular modem device fails to connect

[ghost]

Hello Guys,

this issue is based on the following german thread i posted earlier this week:
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=vh47q6fo3r910vgnutrd1cm464&topic=5247.0

I bought the Huawei ME909u-521 LTE cellular modem mPCIe card for my APU2C4 to use it as my main WAN connection to the internet in combination with my Telekom SIM card.
In https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/mobile_wan.html
this card got marked as "supported and tested device" so i wanted to maked sure and bought one.

As described in the thread i am not able to make it work even after restarting and/or changing the link interfaces for my PPP connection. No matter what combination i try i always get these following error messages:

using /dev/cuau0 i get:
MODEM: Fail to open serial port /dev/cuau0 on speed 115200
device is busy

using /dev/cuau1 i get:
CHAT: The modem is not responding to "AT" at ModemCmd: label

This issue was first discovered on version 17.1
and there were no solution working even after updating to 17.1.8
Is this a known issue? :-/

Best regards,
Oxy/PitchBendStretch

[AdSchellevis]

If I'm reading the docs correctly, the device should be /dev/cuaU0.0 ... but it has been quite some time ago I did setup something similar with a Huawei.

Can you post your settings and the output of the following command?

ls -asl /dev/cuau*

[ghost]

Hey ad,
thank you very very much for your quick reply. I am confused aswell, since i expected "cuaU0.0" but got "cuau0" and "cuau1"

ls -asl /dev/cuau* gave me the following:

root@test:~ # ls -asl /dev/cuau*
0 crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0x31 Jun 16 17:49 /dev/cuau0
0 crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0x32 Jun 16 17:49 /dev/cuau0.init
0 crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0x33 Jun 16 17:49 /dev/cuau0.lock
0 crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0x37 Jun 16 17:49 /dev/cuau1
0 crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0x38 Jun 16 17:49 /dev/cuau1.init
0 crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0x39 Jun 16 17:49 /dev/cuau1.lock

i tried again but got the same error:

Jun 16 18:01:16 ppp: [opt2_link0] MODEM: Fail to open serial port /dev/cuau0 on speed 115200
Jun 16 18:01:16 ppp: [opt2_link0] can't open /dev/cuau0: Device busy
Jun 16 18:01:15 ppp: [opt2_link0] Link: reconnection attempt 9
Jun 16 18:01:13 ppp: [opt2_link0] Link: reconnection attempt 9 in 2 seconds
Jun 16 18:01:13 ppp: [opt2_link0] LCP: Down event
Jun 16 18:01:13 ppp: [opt2_link0] Link: DOWN event

Thanks for your help. :)

[AdSchellevis]

ok, I just checked a card at our end, it looks like yours has either a wrong firmware or is of the wrong type:

To compare against our card, list usbconfig:

root@OPNsense:~ # usbconfig 
ugen0.1: <OHCI root HUB AMD> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen1.1: <EHCI root HUB AMD> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen2.1: <OHCI root HUB AMD> at usbus2, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen3.1: <EHCI root HUB AMD> at usbus3, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen4.1: <OHCI root HUB AMD> at usbus4, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen5.1: <EHCI root HUB AMD> at usbus5, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen3.2: <HUAWEI Mobile HUAWEI Technology> at usbus3, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (500mA)
 

Then usbconfig the Huawei card:

root@OPNsense:~ # usbconfig -d ugen3.2 dump_device_desc
ugen3.2: <HUAWEI Mobile HUAWEI Technology> at usbus3, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (500mA)
 
  bLength = 0x0012 
  bDescriptorType = 0x0001 
  bcdUSB = 0x0200 
  bDeviceClass = 0x0000  <Probed by interface class>
  bDeviceSubClass = 0x0000 
  bDeviceProtocol = 0x0000 
  bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0040 
  idVendor = 0x12d1 
  idProduct = 0x1573 
  bcdDevice = 0x0228 
  iManufacturer = 0x0001  <HUAWEI Technology>
  iProduct = 0x0002  <HUAWEI Mobile>
  iSerialNumber = 0x0003  <0123456712ABCA17>
  bNumConfigurations = 0x0003 

[ghost]

Hey,

i just did but there is no Huawei card listed.... ?? That is weird.
I get the following:

root@test:~ # usbconfig
ugen0.1: <XHCI root HUB 0x1022> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen1.1: < EHCI root HUB AMD > at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen1.2: <product 0x7900 vendor 0x0438> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (100mA)

After that i did the other command and got:

root@test:~ # usbconfig -d ugen1.2 dump_device_desc
ugen1.2: <product 0x7900 vendor 0x0438> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (100mA)

bLength = 0x0012
bDescriptorType = 0x0001
bcdUSB = 0x0200
bDeviceClass = 0x0009
bDeviceSubClass = 0x0000
bDeviceProtocol = 0x0001
bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0040
idVendor = 0x0438
idProduct = 0x7900
bcdDevice = 0x0018
iManufacturer = 0x0000
iProduct = 0x0000
iSerialNumber = 0x0000
bNumConfigurations = 0x0001

[AdSchellevis]

nope, there doesn't seem to be a card in the list, ugen1.2 is probably something available by default on your system, probably an onboard serial device.
Did you insert the card into the right socket? If I'm not mistaken, there's only one socket connected to the sim.

[fichtner]

usb_modeswitch usage necessary here perhaps?

[ghost]

Sorry for the delay i will write back in about 3-4 hours.

i inserted my SIM card into the only SIM slot available on the APU2C4.
I then have 2 slots for mPCIe and one for mSata. I will try again to use the mPCIe2 slot instead of mPCIe1, maybe the first one is broken.

i will try out the usb_modeswitch later today.

[ghost]

Hey,

so i switched the mPCIe cellular Modem card to the second slot but the error continues.
i read about the usb_modeswitch utility. How do i install it on OPNsense?

Best regards

[somehowadev]

@PitchBendStretch What was your solution, we bumped into the same.

[ghost]

Hi @TecumsehSamp

Sadly i wasn't able to fix my problem back then.
I had my deadlines and my goal was to present/showcase my Captive Portal solution on OPNsense.
I did that by using an old router, flashed the image and made it a wlan Access Point.
I was then able to get rid of my cellular modem idea and did not further tried to solve the issue.
This problem is one year old. OPNsense and FreeBSD upgraded aswell.
Is it still not working with this specific mPCIe modem?
It's really a gamble to get the right modem to work with FreeBSD.

I had no luck though..... i am sorry that i can't help here.

[somehowadev]

Hey, @PitchBendStretch

Yup, though during the course of trying to figure out I think I may have bricked my modem 😞.

No worries though, really appreciate the response.