(workaround) mint 17.1 huawei G3 disconnects after15 seconds

[sadhu]

On Wednesday Dec 17, 2014 I installed Mint 17.1 Cinnamon and was running for a couple of days with no problems. Was able to download and install the installation updates. Then, in the middle of a software update on Saturday, Dec 20, at approx 1030 hrs GMT, I was disconnected. I am unable to reconnect (that is, it disconnects after 15 seconds) no matter which dongle I use (I have two), nor which machine (laptop or desktop) I'm using. Both are running 17.1 64bit.

I had previously updated my laptop when I was in town, using a Wifi connection (not my dongle). So when I got back home, the dongle no longer worked on the laptop.

I rebooted to my fallback mint 17, and the E156 dongle works fine on both machines. Obviously a software problem that originated with the latest Mint 17.1 update.

My dongles are
E156 (I think -- the lettering has worn off the dongle)
E173

Other than totally give up on 17.1, how can I resolve this issue?

-sadhu

ps - reported as bug: Github Issue #3780

[sadhu]

I think the problem lies in the driver software. The signal strength here may be a bit low, so the driver shuts off the dongle.

I reported this bug on the linuxmint github page, but no one responded. Where should I report this? --On some ubuntu forum or project bug page?

BTW I don't get this error in Ubuntu 14.04 -- or Linuxmint 17.

Would be grateful for any kind of response on this.

[karlchen]

Hello, sadhu.

You reported this problem at a pretty tricky point in time: Due to the fact that the Christmas holidays split one week into half and that the same happened in the next week with the New Years days, lots of people took the chance to have 2 weeks off by sacrificing a minimal number of vacation days. You can also tell that there has been some kind of standstill durng the past 2 weeks, because almost no software update has been detected on the software repository servers during the past 2 weeks.
This will be one of the reasons why you may have got no response on Github.

In brief words, please, do not mistake the lack of responses as lack of interest.
I am not sure how many Linux Mint users who have switched to Mint 17.1 also use a Huawei G3 dongle and how many of these people experience the same problem as you do.
Personally I am on Mint 17.1, but I do not have any Huawei G3 dongle.

Sorry, it may or may not take a few more days, before there will be any helpful feedback.

Cheers,
Karl

[sadhu]

Hello, sadhu. You reported this problem at a pretty tricky point in time... This will be one of the reasons why you may have got no response ...
Cheers,
Karl

TYVM Karl. Never thought of that... I'll try to be more patient.

[professorsnapper]

Sadhu, I suspect that you & I might be experiencing the same issue (similar symptoms, began happening around the same time), but I don't think it's limited to Huawei devices, as I'm using a Sierra Wireless Aircard 312U dongle.

My post is here:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=186265
(also links to a post on Ask Ubuntu detailing this issue)

I'll wait to see what comes of your bug report...

Ken.
***

[sadhu]

OMG, I hope they don't "update" linuxmint 17 the same way.... I'll be forced to use mint 15 ... or ubuntu.

But the question arises -- it they fix the mint 17.1 bug, how will we apply it? I suppose we'll have to download a .deb using a different OS, then reboot in 17.1, and install it...

[sadhu]

Yes, this problem is related to: https://askubuntu.com/questions/491841/ ... 23480801cb The last post on the page suggests

After two weeks of frustrating searching, research and reading, I have managed to repair the problem. The issue appears to be the new version of modem-manager installed on upgrading to Trusty.

Since I knew the modem had worked under previous releases of Ubuntu, I figured if I could downgrade just the one package (modem-manager) I might stand a chance of getting a working Sierra Wireless 313u again. Sure enough, this worked. Here are the steps I took:

• Install Synaptic, since it allows forced downgrades and locking versions

• add the repository for Precise Pangolin back into Synaptic sources, since this LTS release of Ubuntu is still supported the the repositories would be easily accessible (also, the modem had worked under Precise).

• Use Synaptic to force installation of Modem-manager 0.5.2.0-0Ubuntu2, which is the Precise version of the package.

• Use Synaptic to lock this version in place, and prevent an upgrade to the newer, non-working version of Modem-manager (the new version, in Trusty, is 1.0.0-2Ubuntu1)

How to do that, if I cannot connect in mint 17.1? --Idea: mint 17 and 17.1 are in different partitions on my hdd. Could I simply copy the various libs for the earlier modem-manager? I could easily do that using a two-pane instance of Nemo in superuser mode.

Of course, I don't know what to look for and replace!

[professorsnapper]

Hi Sadhu,

Unfortunately it seems that Mint 17(.1) has indeed been "updated" in the same way as Ubuntu - at least your Mint and my 2 Mints

The two comments I've gathered about the solution you quote below (one on Ask Ubuntu, the other from richyrich on this Mint forum) advise against mixing repositories from two different releases of a distro (e.g. Ubuntu's Trusty & Precise) - in richyrich's words, this can lead to "dependency hell". This renders the solution from Ask Ubuntu far less than ideal in my books.

Noting that I'm no expert on these things, would it be viable to operate from your Mint 17 partition until a patch is released for 17.1, given that you already have access to both?

Thinking from a "big picture" view for a moment, I reckon it'd be great to have a function within the OS which, in the event of an update breaking some functionality, enables the user to easily and simply "roll back" to the last known working system configuration, via a graphic interface. I'm reasonably sure that Apple's "Time Machine" enables this kind of thing. I wonder if a) such a thing already exists for Mint / Ubuntu / Debian, or b) whether it's worth raising a feature request at http://community.linuxmint.com/idea

Hmmm......

[sadhu]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1804985 suggested that I issue the command

Code: Select all

tail -n100 /var/log/apt/history.log

I excerpted the entries from Dec 16 onwards in the attched text file. However, the last time I was able to connect was Dec 22, as one can see from the log. Therefore, I suspect the problem arises from the Dec 22 update, which was fortunately quite small (compared to the one from Dec 16).

If someone could tell me 1) what was the bad module that caused the problem, 2) how to roll it back, and 3) how to use synaptic to "lock it" to prevent future updates, I would be grateful! The locking business was suggested by CatKiller on the above thread.

-Sadhu

[sadhu]

I wonder if a) such a thing already exists for Mint / Ubuntu / Debian, or b) whether it's worth raising a feature request at http://community.linuxmint.com/idea

I took you up on your tip: http://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/5460

Please everybody promote the idea. Maybe it'll filter down to the developers.

-Sadhu!

[gold_finger]

If "modem-manager" is the upgraded package causing problem, apply both of the following methods to lock the package to its current version so updates won't change it and Synaptic won't be able to install a different version either.

First, open a terminal and enter the following command:

Code: Select all

echo modem-manager hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections

Then place hold on it in Synaptic Package Manager too.
• Find the package in Synaptic
• Along top of window, go to Package -> Lock Version.

If you want to unlock the package later, reverse the procedure in Synaptic (find/highlight package, go to Package -> Lock Package and uncheck it) and reverse terminal command like this:

Code: Select all

echo modem-manager install | sudo dpkg --set-selections

Wait until you know the bug has been fixed, then just unlock the package.

[Reorx]

But the question arises -- it they fix the mint 17.1 bug, how will we apply it? I suppose we'll have to download a .deb using a different OS, then reboot in 17.1, and install it...

Maybe a cat5 connection? (if your machine has an RJ45 plug)

[sadhu]

Maybe a cat5 connection? (if your machine has an RJ45 plug)

My machines have cat-5 connectivity; that's how I synchronize the data partitions on my desktop and laptop: rsync via a cat-5 null-modem cable.

But I live in a rural area of a third world country--Unfortunately there's no cable or broadband here. The only internet connection is via G3 dongle.

-sadhu

[sadhu]

If "modem-manager" is the upgraded package causing problem, apply both of the following methods to lock the package to its current version so updates won't change it and Synaptic won't be able to install a different version either.

I tried what you suggested--nothing happens, and I still can't connect. And excuse me, I don't get it. If modemmanager is the source of the problem and I mark it as "lock version", then I'm freezing a non-working software into my machine, right?

I thought I might remove it and its accompanying library, but synaptic reports

To be removed

1. cinnamon
   cinnamon-bluetooth
   cinnamon-control-center
   libreoffice-calc
   libreoffice-gnome
   libreoffice-gtk
   libreoffice-help-en-us
   libreoffice-impress
   libreoffice-presentaton-minimizer
   libreoffice-writer
   mint-meta-cinnamon
   network-manager
   network-manager-gnome

I think the results of removing it would be catastrophic.

And now I don't think the problem lies with modemmanager. I just checked synaptic, and found that Mint 17 uses the same version of modemmanager and libmm-glib0 --1.0.0-2ubuntu1.

So this problem lies elsewhere.

So I'll have to stick with Mint 17. A shame, because I really like 17.1.


-sadhu

[Pierre]

see if the sakis3g script will hold the connection open:
http://www.sakis3g.com/#about

- see it's 'keep alive' section.

[sadhu]

see if the sakis3g script will hold the connection open:
http://www.sakis3g.com/#about
- see it's 'keep alive' section.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. i would have never found the site using google or duck duck go....

For the keep alive function I downloaded UMTSkeeper (which contains a full copy of sakis3g), but haven't started running it yet. But the connection is now alive, as I'm writing this from Mint 17.1. I performed the big software update, and In a moment I'll check to see if the standard connection is still dead.

=== yes it's still dead. I've connected using sakis3g.

Now I have one more small question: do I mark this problem as "solved"? Is a workaround a solution?

-sadhu

[gold_finger]

If "modem-manager" is the upgraded package causing problem, apply both of the following methods to lock the package to its current version so updates won't change it and Synaptic won't be able to install a different version either.

I tried what you suggested--nothing happens, and I still can't connect. And excuse me, I don't get it. If modemmanager is the source of the problem and I mark it as "lock version", then I'm freezing a non-working software into my machine, right?

And now I don't think the problem lies with modemmanager. I just checked synaptic, and found that Mint 17 uses the same version of modemmanager and libmm-glib0 --1.0.0-2ubuntu1.

So this problem lies elsewhere.
-sadhu

I was assuming that you had determined that modem-manager was source of problem only after it got updated with initial updates. So what I meant was for you to freeze it immediately after installation, before doing any system updates and then it wouldn't get changed. But apparently you've since found that that package is not the problem, so nevermind.