MBIM mode for gl.inet UI

lex · June 20, 2023, 10:19pm

Hello! Just successfully started [Dell Inc.] DW5821e Snapdragon X20 LTE modem on gl.inet beryl ax.

lsusb:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 413c:81d7 Dell Inc. DW5821e Snapdragon X20 LTE

Sadly, gl.inet UI doesn’t support it. Hasn’t even launched from QMI… anyway.

opkg install modemmanager luci-proto-modemmanager kmod-usb-net-cdc-mbim libmbim mbim-utils
(not sure if last two are needed, i just used them for debug).

go to LuCi (advanced settings in gl.inet UI)

go to interfaces, add new interface - type modemmanager (which you just installed), select your modem, fill your settings (apn, user/password, etc)

Don’t forget to go to firewall tab and assign “WAN” zone for it!

And, well, that’s it. Interface will start and connection to the internet will be working.

With Huawei E3372h-153 i was getting around 10mbps (±), with this modem in enclosure and external antennas. i’m getting 50+ with 38% signal down and 30 up. Latency seems to be lower, too.

Top USB power usage is around 0.6A (beryl ax tops after about 0.8A, causing USB port shutdown), so no external power is needed.

Hoping this info will help gl.inet to implement some sort of support of modemmanager to gl.inet UI (at least seeing cellular: online will be nice!)

lex · June 21, 2023, 10:41am

Found one small issue - if you unplug and plug modem again, it won’t restart connection, because, it seems, USB device path changes every time (not sure why, since port is same, but looks like xhci hub behavior)
So you need to go to UI agent, click edit, and click save so modem will be saved to config with new dev path.

SeaMonkey · June 21, 2023, 2:40pm

Hey Lex, thanks for response.
I have carried out all the steps as instructed, but looks like Modem device is not identified properly (pls see screen shoots), and error existing in the Status.

![16873582906972249031879802109194|281x500]
Do You have any ideas what can be wrong?

lex · June 21, 2023, 2:52pm

do you have usb-modeswitch installed? I think it’s bundled by default in my beryl ax, but might be different for other devices?

lex · June 21, 2023, 3:02pm

try running mmcli -L in ssh and see what it outputs. If it’s “unknown modem”, it probably means it hasn’t switched to proper mode. usb-modeswitch should do that, AFAIK. I had same issues when my modem was in QMI mode (it will appear in your gl.inet ui, not in luci, as “unsupported modem”). It needs to be in MBIM, otherwise it won’t work with modemmanager.

SeaMonkey · June 21, 2023, 3:06pm

Yes, it is installed.

SeaMonkey · June 21, 2023, 3:20pm

In the Gl-inet ui there is nothing.

Kindly advise how to run mmcli -L i ssh? I am quite raw here

lyh2000free · August 4, 2023, 6:39pm

Really thanks for your information. Hope the developer will add the support for mbim mode quickly.

jrees · September 8, 2023, 7:20pm

THANK YOU!
got me connected with my
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1199:9071 Sierra Wireless, Incorporated MC7455-CP
aka the modem i pulled out of a cradlepoint aer1600.
using GL-AXT1800
even though i’m connected, the non advanced gui thinks i’m not connected… which kinda sucks

cielke · November 21, 2023, 6:34pm

I have a similiar situation as @SeaMonkey.

root@GL-MT3000:~# mmcli -L
No modems were found

root@GL-MT3000:~# ls /dev/ttyUSB*
/dev/ttyUSB0  /dev/ttyUSB1  /dev/ttyUSB2  /dev/ttyUSB3

when I plug my GL-M2 board to BerylAX the log says:

Tue Nov 21 19:10:33 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2093.495672] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci-mtk
Tue Nov 21 19:10:33 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2093.653942] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, device number 6
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.519675] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using xhci-mtk
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.682551] option 1-1:2.2: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.688913] usb 1-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.696115] option 1-1:2.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.702440] usb 1-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.709636] option 1-1:2.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.715982] usb 1-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB2
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.723233] option 1-1:2.5: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 2102.729640] usb 1-1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB3
Tue Nov 21 19:10:42 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2102.765479] usb 1-1: usbfs: process 9059 (usbmode) did not claim interface 1 before use
Tue Nov 21 19:10:43 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2102.974425] usb 1-1: usbfs: interface 1 claimed by usbfs while 'usbmode' sets config #0
Tue Nov 21 19:10:43 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2103.071773] usb 1-1: usbfs: process 9207 (usbmode) did not claim interface 1 before use
Tue Nov 21 19:10:43 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2103.281151] usb 1-1: usbfs: interface 1 claimed by usbfs while 'usbmode' sets config #0
Tue Nov 21 19:10:43 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2103.565696] usb 1-1: usbfs: process 9400 (usbmode) did not claim interface 1 before use
Tue Nov 21 19:10:43 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2103.774588] usb 1-1: usbfs: interface 1 claimed by usbfs while 'usbmode' sets config #0
Tue Nov 21 19:10:47 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2106.917252] usb 1-1: usbfs: process 9555 (usbmode) did not claim interface 1 before use
Tue Nov 21 19:10:52 2023 kern.warn kernel: [ 2112.212016] usb 1-1: usbfs: interface 1 claimed by usbfs while 'usbmode' sets config #0

any ideas?

------- Update
so I read that the problem is caused by usb-modeswitch.
I edited the .conf file for my card 413c:81e0 - added mode “MBIM” which resulted in:

root@GL-MT3000:~# mmcli -L
    /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/Modem/0 [manufacturer unknown] model unknown

I can see that support for the card was added in release 20191128 (but have 2017-12-19) and opkg can not upgrade it. I found the new version online but it needs two other packages upgraded and I’m a bit worried it will end up with complete havoc.
What other options would I have to make it work?

dunsky · August 17, 2024, 2:56pm

Hi, I've just removed basically all the files from /etc/hotplug.d/usb and after that when I plug in my M.2 USB modem DW5821e finally nothing is breaking it and it shows up as /dev/cdc-wdm0 device as MBIM interface so just install everything MBIM related and add interface wwan0 with your /dev/cdc-wdm0 modem, no need to use ModemManager or anything else then.