modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile broadband

modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile broadband

[Peteris Krisjanis]

Hi there!

I am Peteris Krisjanis, and I'm doing testing and debbuging Ubuntu
distro - apps, hardware, translations, etc. As very regular Linux user
and practical advocate and migration specialist for 9 years, I am
quite interested for getting hardware "just work". I know it is
neverending story, but it shouldn't keep me and us from trying :)

Anyway, I am posting my first post to this list to get more clear
picture about what's happening with mobile broadband modems within
Linux environment. Current situation is (as far as I understand):

* We have some modeswitching stuff in kernel, but everyone would happy
to see it go to userspace, which is quite understandable;
* We have modem-modeswitch app in udev rules, which handles only few
manufacturers. With some tweaking it can automagically work with other
dongles, but it is not a right way to do it. It is also abandoned;
* And finally we have usb-modeswitch app, which is independent tool to
do a switching and is very widely used and and actively maintained by
Josua Dietze

As a user and someone of Ubuntu community, I would like to know what
Linux hotplug/udev people think about usb-modeswitch direction, is it
right and "blessed" way to do it? So far it seems only *working*
effort to support mode switching for mobile broadband modems, which
are very widely used. This answer is important, as Ubuntu devs are
looking to include it by default in distro, so we can get user's
mobile broadband dongles working out of box in most situations.

Please respond what you think,
Cheers,
Peteris Krisjanis.

Re: modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile

[Marco d'Itri]

On Feb 25, Peteris Krisjanis <pecisk@gmail.com> wrote:

> As a user and someone of Ubuntu community, I would like to know what
> Linux hotplug/udev people think about usb-modeswitch direction, is it
> right and "blessed" way to do it? So far it seems only *working*
Yes. Somebody needs to port to it support for the devices currently only
supported by the udev program.

-- 
ciao,
Marco

Re: modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile

[Dan Nicholson]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 2:05 AM, Peteris Krisjanis <pecisk@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there!
>
> I am Peteris Krisjanis, and I'm doing testing and debbuging Ubuntu
> distro - apps, hardware, translations, etc. As very regular Linux user
> and practical advocate and migration specialist for 9 years, I am
> quite interested for getting hardware "just work". I know it is
> neverending story, but it shouldn't keep me and us from trying :)
>
> Anyway, I am posting my first post to this list to get more clear
> picture about what's happening with mobile broadband modems within
> Linux environment. Current situation is (as far as I understand):
>
> * We have some modeswitching stuff in kernel, but everyone would happy
> to see it go to userspace, which is quite understandable;
> * We have modem-modeswitch app in udev rules, which handles only few
> manufacturers. With some tweaking it can automagically work with other
> dongles, but it is not a right way to do it. It is also abandoned;
> * And finally we have usb-modeswitch app, which is independent tool to
> do a switching and is very widely used and and actively maintained by
> Josua Dietze
>
> As a user and someone of Ubuntu community, I would like to know what
> Linux hotplug/udev people think about usb-modeswitch direction, is it
> right and "blessed" way to do it? So far it seems only *working*
> effort to support mode switching for mobile broadband modems, which
> are very widely used. This answer is important, as Ubuntu devs are
> looking to include it by default in distro, so we can get user's
> mobile broadband dongles working out of box in most situations.

CC'ing Dan Williams (NetworkManager) since he did a lot of work in this area..

--
Dan

Re: modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:05:51PM +0200, Peteris Krisjanis wrote:
> Hi there!
> 
> I am Peteris Krisjanis, and I'm doing testing and debbuging Ubuntu
> distro - apps, hardware, translations, etc. As very regular Linux user
> and practical advocate and migration specialist for 9 years, I am
> quite interested for getting hardware "just work". I know it is
> neverending story, but it shouldn't keep me and us from trying :)
> 
> Anyway, I am posting my first post to this list to get more clear
> picture about what's happening with mobile broadband modems within
> Linux environment. Current situation is (as far as I understand):
> 
> * We have some modeswitching stuff in kernel, but everyone would happy
> to see it go to userspace, which is quite understandable;

Not everyone, see the archives of the linux-usb mailing list for why we
can not change existing devices that do this in the kernel today (hint,
you don't want to break existing systems...)

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile

[Peteris Krisjanis]

2010/2/25 Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>:
> On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:05:51PM +0200, Peteris Krisjanis wrote:
>> Hi there!
>>
>> I am Peteris Krisjanis, and I'm doing testing and debbuging Ubuntu
>> distro - apps, hardware, translations, etc. As very regular Linux user
>> and practical advocate and migration specialist for 9 years, I am
>> quite interested for getting hardware "just work". I know it is
>> neverending story, but it shouldn't keep me and us from trying :)
>>
>> Anyway, I am posting my first post to this list to get more clear
>> picture about what's happening with mobile broadband modems within
>> Linux environment. Current situation is (as far as I understand):
>>
>> * We have some modeswitching stuff in kernel, but everyone would happy
>> to see it go to userspace, which is quite understandable;
>
> Not everyone, see the archives of the linux-usb mailing list for why we
> can not change existing devices that do this in the kernel today (hint,
> you don't want to break existing systems...)

Ok, there are stuff which should be left in kernel. But more or less -
do the rest can be handled by usb-modeswitch or not?

Cheers,
Peter.

Re: modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 06:34:16PM +0200, Peteris Krisjanis wrote:
> 2010/2/25 Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>:
> > On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:05:51PM +0200, Peteris Krisjanis wrote:
> >> Hi there!
> >>
> >> I am Peteris Krisjanis, and I'm doing testing and debbuging Ubuntu
> >> distro - apps, hardware, translations, etc. As very regular Linux user
> >> and practical advocate and migration specialist for 9 years, I am
> >> quite interested for getting hardware "just work". I know it is
> >> neverending story, but it shouldn't keep me and us from trying :)
> >>
> >> Anyway, I am posting my first post to this list to get more clear
> >> picture about what's happening with mobile broadband modems within
> >> Linux environment. Current situation is (as far as I understand):
> >>
> >> * We have some modeswitching stuff in kernel, but everyone would happy
> >> to see it go to userspace, which is quite understandable;
> >
> > Not everyone, see the archives of the linux-usb mailing list for why we
> > can not change existing devices that do this in the kernel today (hint,
> > you don't want to break existing systems...)
> 
> Ok, there are stuff which should be left in kernel. But more or less -
> do the rest can be handled by usb-modeswitch or not?

Sure, I don't see why not.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: modem-modeswitch versus usb-modeswitch aka future of Mobile

[Dan Williams]

On Thu, 2010-02-25 at 06:58 -0800, Dan Nicholson wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 2:05 AM, Peteris Krisjanis <pecisk@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi there!
> >
> > I am Peteris Krisjanis, and I'm doing testing and debbuging Ubuntu
> > distro - apps, hardware, translations, etc. As very regular Linux user
> > and practical advocate and migration specialist for 9 years, I am
> > quite interested for getting hardware "just work". I know it is
> > neverending story, but it shouldn't keep me and us from trying :)
> >
> > Anyway, I am posting my first post to this list to get more clear
> > picture about what's happening with mobile broadband modems within
> > Linux environment. Current situation is (as far as I understand):
> >
> > * We have some modeswitching stuff in kernel, but everyone would happy
> > to see it go to userspace, which is quite understandable;
> > * We have modem-modeswitch app in udev rules, which handles only few
> > manufacturers. With some tweaking it can automagically work with other
> > dongles, but it is not a right way to do it. It is also abandoned;

Yes, usb_modeswitch should be used instead.  The only piece of
modem-modeswitch which is not available in usb_modeswitch already is for
the MobileAction phone cables.  But not too many people have those
(besides me).

> > * And finally we have usb-modeswitch app, which is independent tool to
> > do a switching and is very widely used and and actively maintained by
> > Josua Dietze
> >
> > As a user and someone of Ubuntu community, I would like to know what
> > Linux hotplug/udev people think about usb-modeswitch direction, is it
> > right and "blessed" way to do it? So far it seems only *working*
> > effort to support mode switching for mobile broadband modems, which
> > are very widely used. This answer is important, as Ubuntu devs are
> > looking to include it by default in distro, so we can get user's
> > mobile broadband dongles working out of box in most situations.

As far as I'm concerned, usb_modeswitch is currently the best way to
accomplish this task.  I believe that the usb_modeswitch developers have
addressed all my concerns with out-of-the-box support via udev rules.
It makes sense to do all this in one place, and usb_modeswitch is the
best place to do that right now.

Dan