WAP: Part 1 - MultiTech USB GPRS Modem in Linux
The first part of my WAP series is going to cover getting the MultiTech MTCBA-G-U-F2 USB GPRS Modem to work with Linux. This is
very specific information, but it may also apply to other USB modems using the TI 3410 and 5052 chipsets.
The later articles will assume that you have a modem already setup, because we're not going to use the "Fake SMSC" protocol in Kannel,
we're going to send actual messages to actual phones. This segment can probably be skipped if you've already got a working modem (Skip to WAP: Part 2 - Send SMS from Kannel).
It may also be worth noting that we've had difficulty with reliability of these USB modems when sending out large batches of messages. I
think the problem occurs when the modem does not reset itself to a working/known state. But it seems to work fine for testing purposes.
So for production, we use the RS232 Serial version of the same modem.
To get the USB modem working, I started with patches from Peter Berger's site: ti_usb_multitech-1.1.tgz (local mirror). There's a lot of other interesting code (related to 3410/5052 and otherwise) in his downloads directory: http://gate.brimson.com/downloads/
The patch contained in Peter's tarball is for kernel 2.6.13. If your kernel is newer than that, you can try my updated patch for 2.6.22 to see if it applies cleaner.
For the most part, the instructions in ti_usb_multitech_release_notes-1.1.txt still apply, however there were some differences that may be specific to Gentoo:
Once everything is recompiled you should be able to plug the device in and hopefully hotplug will load the module for you (based on the USB ID). In your kernel dmesg hopefully you'll see a device assigned, and a new (usable) device file.
WAP: Part 1 - MultiTech USB GPRS Modem in Linux
WAP: Part 2 - Send SMS from Kannel
WAP: Part 3 - WAP Push with Kannel & PHP
WAP: Part 4 - Send SMS from PHP
WAP: Part 5 - Customizing content with WURFL
WAP: Part 6 - Microbrowser content in WML / XHTML MP
very specific information, but it may also apply to other USB modems using the TI 3410 and 5052 chipsets.
The later articles will assume that you have a modem already setup, because we're not going to use the "Fake SMSC" protocol in Kannel,
we're going to send actual messages to actual phones. This segment can probably be skipped if you've already got a working modem (Skip to WAP: Part 2 - Send SMS from Kannel).
It may also be worth noting that we've had difficulty with reliability of these USB modems when sending out large batches of messages. I
think the problem occurs when the modem does not reset itself to a working/known state. But it seems to work fine for testing purposes.
So for production, we use the RS232 Serial version of the same modem.
To get the USB modem working, I started with patches from Peter Berger's site: ti_usb_multitech-1.1.tgz (local mirror). There's a lot of other interesting code (related to 3410/5052 and otherwise) in his downloads directory: http://gate.brimson.com/downloads/
Patching the Kernel
The patch contained in Peter's tarball is for kernel 2.6.13. If your kernel is newer than that, you can try my updated patch for 2.6.22 to see if it applies cleaner.
/ # cd
~ # wget http://dev.sellingsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/ti_usb_multitech_2622.patch
~ # cd /usr/src/linux
linux # patch -p1 < ~/ti_usb_multitech_2622.patch
For the most part, the instructions in ti_usb_multitech_release_notes-1.1.txt still apply, however there were some differences that may be specific to Gentoo:
- I had better success copying the ti_usb_3410_5052.hotplug script (not ti_usb_3410_5052) to /etc/hotplug/usb/ti_usb_3410_5052
- The release notes say to put the firmware images in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware, but my hotplug installation was looking for them in /lib64/firmware
Plugging it in
Once everything is recompiled you should be able to plug the device in and hopefully hotplug will load the module for you (based on the USB ID). In your kernel dmesg hopefully you'll see a device assigned, and a new (usable) device file.
~ # dmesg
...
ti_usb_3410_5052 3-3:2.0: TI USB 3410 1 port adapter converter detected
usb 3-3: TI USB 3410 1 port adapter converter now attached to ttyUSB0
...
~ # ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 188, 0 Sep 10 16:13 /dev/ttyUSB0
Articles In This Series:
WAP: Part 1 - MultiTech USB GPRS Modem in Linux
WAP: Part 2 - Send SMS from Kannel
WAP: Part 3 - WAP Push with Kannel & PHP
WAP: Part 4 - Send SMS from PHP
WAP: Part 5 - Customizing content with WURFL
WAP: Part 6 - Microbrowser content in WML / XHTML MP
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