Verizon wireless modem not working in Porteus Version 3

[jmhoward56]

I have a Verizon Wireless usb modem that I use to connect to the internet. The modem works fine with the older versions of Porteus (V2.1) but not with the new V3.0. I have been trying to determine if it is due to slackware 14.1 or to porteus V3.0. I was wondering if anyone else has had any issues with this or a similar device. I have tried installing several packages such as the iso-codes package which I read had helped to correct some other problems but so far nothing has worked.

Thanking you in advance for any help with the matter,

[fanthom]

hi jmhoward56,

please generate psinfo report in both: 2.1/3.0.1 versions -> upload to pastebin.com -> link here
so i can make comparison.

thank you.

[jmhoward56]

fanthom, thank you for the prompt reply here are the links to the psinfo output.

Version 2 psinfo link ==> http://pastebin.com/kXRWPM54

Version 3 psinfo link ==> http://pastebin.com/tSKJD1b8

Thanks again.

[fanthom]

these links are private. if you dont want to make them public then please send me an email on fanthom@porteus.org.

thanks

[jmhoward56]

Sorry, they should be public now.

[fanthom]

right - some weird things happens in 3.0.
looks like device gets the IP alright:

Code: Select all

Sep  1 10:11:03 porteus dhcpcd[3345]: eth1: soliciting a DHCP lease
Sep  1 10:11:05 porteus avahi-daemon[2219]: Registering new address record for fe80::d257:85ff:fe96:e438 on eth1.*.
Sep  1 10:11:06 porteus dhcpcd[3345]: eth1: offered 192.168.32.50 from 192.168.32.2
Sep  1 10:11:12 porteus dhcpcd[3345]: eth1: leased 192.168.32.50 for 604800 seconds

but the same second it gets removed for some reason:

Code: Select all

Sep  1 10:11:12 porteus dhcpcd[3345]: eth1: removing IP address 192.168.32.50/24
Sep  1 10:11:12 porteus avahi-daemon[2219]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.32.50 on eth1.
Sep  1 10:11:12 porteus avahi-daemon[2219]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface eth1.IPv4 with address 192.168.32.50.
Sep  1 10:11:12 porteus dhcpcd[3345]: eth1: removing route to 192.168.32.0/24

from hardware point of view everything is ok. must be configuration/software issue.
please try to change settings in /etc/dhcpcd.conf. probably not related but please try solution from here:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... 921#p26913

unfortunately i have no other ideas at the moment.

[jmhoward56]

Thank you I will, this has been driving me crazy for a couple of months now.

[jmhoward56]

Tried your suggestions with no luck.
Thank you for your help, when I find the solution I will post.

[francois]

@fanthom:
What about sns-tool or fanthom network setup tool? Did we got rid of that nice little tool?

@jmhoward:
Is it possible to give precision about your Verizon Wireless usb modem: specific model, specs...

[jmhoward56]

It is a Pantech UML295 usb modem, it shows up as eth1 when I connect to computer. It shows to be using cdc_ether driver when attached to Porteus V2.1 as I currently am. When I boot with Porteus V3 It appears to be connecting normally but a few seconds after connecting, light on modem goes blue and connection drops and will cycle on and off a few times before I remove it.
I have been trying to compare config files between V2.1 and V3 to see if I can see anything that might make a difference, so far all I found was guest not being member of plugdev in the group file but changing made no difference.
I do not have access to a computer running Slackware 14.1 to see if it works under that, my laptop has 14.0 installed currently and it works fine on it. I was using Porteus V3 to see how/if it would run on my laptop before upgrading to 14.1 when I encountered this problem.
I was also trying to determine if any changes to NetworkManager, ModemManager, dhcpd etc might be causing problems. I also was looking in to udevil since I have not had any experience with it. I also tried KDE, lxqt, and razorqt editions to see if they would make any difference which they did not.

[fanthom]

my laptop has 14.0 installed currently and it works fine on it.

very good.
please backup this installation and then upgrade 'dhcpcd' package to one from slackware-14.1 and check if that breaks your modem. if yes then it will be a matter of downgrading dhcpcd in your Porteus-3.x installation.

if you come across unresolved libs (slackware releases are not binary compatible) then please compile dhcpcd from the slackbuilds.

EDIT:\\ actually you could do this in Porteus 2.x and 3.x as it's safer (has 'Always Fresh' mode to revert changes).

[jmhoward56]

fanthom, so this is what I did, grabbed the source for dhcpcd-6.0.5 from slackware mirror for slackware 14.1 and compiled on my system to avoid any dependency issues. I then removed the old dhcpcd-5 version and installed the new version. Other than the network icon missing from my taskbar at the top everything seems to be working fine so my guess it is not dhcpcd file.

[Edit] network icon is back on taskbar so everything is working.

[fanthom]

ok - so now please use kernel from 2.1 in 3.0 and check if your modem starts working.
all what you need to do is to swap /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz and /porteus/base/000-kernel.xzm between releases.

you could also move all modules to /porteus/optional except for 000 and 001. this way you will boot to text mode which is enough for testing network connectivity (use ping) and plain dhcpcd will be used instead of NetworkManager.

not sure if there is anything else what we could do ...

[jmhoward56]

fanthom, tried the last suggestion and still no luck. Thank you for all your help. I will continue to work on this because I would like to upgrade to a 14.1 system on laptop but I hate installing then having to uninstall if it doesn't work. I also want to try lxqt but this requires slackware 14.1 to compile (tried and fails on pcmanfm-qt). Anyway thanks again.

[jmhoward56]

Update; so if I insert the Pantech usb device and reboot the computer it will recognize the device and appears to be working as I am using it now. My question is what occurred during the boot process that would be different from simply plugging in after system starts? Does something different occur during initrd boot that inserts a different module or disables one when it chroots to the live system?