# ZTE MF636 USB modem dongle (British Telecom Mobile)/  FreeBSD 8.1



## RoboNuggie (Jul 31, 2010)

Hello, first time poster and first time BSD user.... :e

I have managed to set up a great system, fluxbox, nvidia, printer etc under FreeBSD, but the one snag is I cannot get the dongle modem to work or really know how to configure.... i have tried editing ppp.conf, have u3g installed but for the life of me I am stuck.

I have read somewhere that I may need to disable umass or enable usb_modeswitching.... but really I don't know.


```
ls -l /dev/cuaU*
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 129 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.0
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 130 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.0.init
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 131 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.0.lock
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 135 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.1
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 136 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.1.init
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 137 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.1.lock
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 141 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.2
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 142 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.2.init
crw-rw----  1 uucp  dialer    0, 143 Jul 31 13:30 /dev/cuaU0.2.lock
```

my dmesg is : 


```
ugen4.4: <ZTE,Incorporated> at usbus4
ugen4.4: <ZTE,Incorporated> at usbus4 (disconnected)
ugen4.4: <ZTE,Incorporated> at usbus4
ugen4.4: <ZTE,Incorporated> at usbus4 (disconnected)
ugen4.4: <ZTE,Incorporated> at usbus4
u3g0: <ZTE,Incorporated ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM, class 0/0, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 4> on usbus4
u3g0: Found 3 ports.
umass1: <ZTE,Incorporated ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM, class 0/0, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 4> on usbus4
umass1:  SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x0000
umass1:1:1:-1: Attached to scbus1
(probe0:umass-sim1:1:0:0): TEST UNIT READY. CDB: 0 0 0 0 0 0 
(probe0:umass-sim1:1:0:0): CAM status: SCSI Status Error
(probe0:umass-sim1:1:0:0): SCSI status: Check Condition
(probe0:umass-sim1:1:0:0): SCSI sense: NOT READY asc:3a,0 (Medium not present)
da1 at umass-sim1 bus 1 scbus1 target 0 lun 0
da1: <ZTE MMC Storage 2.31> Removable Direct Access SCSI-2 device 
da1: 40.000MB/s transfers
da1: Attempt to query device size failed: NOT READY, Medium not present
```


I feel that I am relatively close but just cannot go that bit further....


The dongle works under Debian, so it should work here surely.....


Thanks in advance.....


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## aragon (Jul 31, 2010)

Since you've got serial devices from it you are probably close to getting it working.  Have you tried issuing AT commands to any of the devices with cu(1)?  You need to find which device is the correct one for the phone's data modem, then set ppp to use it.


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## RoboNuggie (Jul 31, 2010)

He aragon,

Yes, using term and setting device to /dev/cuaU0.2 i can send AT commands with the (I presume) modem responding...

I canb get it to connect but it sticks at CONNEC 720000 or similar...

Gah, nearly there.... if I can get this to work I will write a howto not only for myself but for others in a similar need...


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## aragon (Jul 31, 2010)

Try run ppp on cuaU0.2 then.  3G providers sometimes run their PPP NASes in passive mode, so after CONNECT you won't see any PPP protocol initialisation from them - they wait for your side to initiate it.

Jumping into Linux and checking its ppp configuration might help too.


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## RoboNuggie (Aug 1, 2010)

Thanks aragon, your replies were both quick and helpful.... I think I will like it here on this forum!

I have actually got it to work, it is just that when I was looking a `tail -f /var/log/ppp.log` I saw an error at the end 


```
tun0: warrning: 0.0.0.0: Change route failed: errno: No such process
```
and I thought it was not working..... so kept fiddling with the PPP.CONF, but I actually forgot to check that whether internet was working...doh!

Thank you again aragon


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