0421:0610 Nokia CS-15 USB modem does not work in Karmic - Raring depending on modem make

The connection in Jaunty is unstable: Typically the you get disconnected once after about 15 minutes from the start. Reconnecting is also buggy and sometimes you have to unplug the USB modem and plug it again after a couple of seconds in order to get connected again. In Jaunty many have also experienced slower connection speed / bandwidth compared to Hardy or other operation systems.

I posted a fix for getting a Nokia CS-15 to work in Karmic (9.10) here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/456162

Not sure if its the same modem as you are using, but some of the errors you are getting look familiar

I havent had any problems with performance since getting it working, but it hasnt been long

The performance issues related to at worst ten times slower connection speed compared to Windows OS's should be addressed in a new bug report because they are hardware independent. Currently there is a Finnish discussion going on at http://forum.ubuntu-fi.org/index.php?topic=31241.msg244345#msg244345
Probably these speed / network bandwidth issues are related only to one internet service provider called Sonera (TeliaSonera) in Finland. In addition, the issues seems to be distro independent.

The nokia-zerocd installation done in Jaunty can be uninstalled by correcting accused typos in two files
/var/lib/dpkg/info/nokia-zerocd.postinst
/var/lib/dpkg/info/nokia-zerocd.postrm

The command in those files should be changed from
udevadm control reload_rules
to
udevadm control --reload-rules

After you have managed to uninstall the nokia-zerocd, you can proceed to establish a connection using wvdial program*. Make a file /etc/udev/rules.d/25-nokia-zerocd.rules, which contains the following line:

BUS=="usb", SUBSYSTEM=="block", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0421", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0610", ACTION=="add", PROGRAM=="nokia-testcd %M %s{bcdDevice}", RUN+="/usr/bin/eject -s %N", OPTIONS+="last_rule"

Then reboot or command (sudo) udevadm control --reload-rules.

*In Lucid Lynx alpha3 you will again be able to connect with NetworkManager, after making the above extra udev rule by yourself, though.

Does the Nokia CS-15 USB modem work under Ubuntu 12.04?

Thomas, unfortunately it depends on the firmware you have installed on your CS-15. The so called original firmware seems to work in Precise, when it did not work in 11.04. Then, what a pitty, a newer firmware installed about a year ago from nokia.com, do not work in 12.04 Precise, although it worked in 11.04!

Below I attached some sys.logs from two Live USB sessions (Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) 32-bit).

# uname -a
Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-23-generic-pae #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 22:19:09 UTC 2012 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

With the newer firmware the modeswitching is not happening (checked by lsusb ID stays as 0421::0610). With the "original" firmware the modeswitching is correctly happening (to 0421::0612).

When not working, logged errors:
kernel: [] sr1: CDROM (ioctl) error, command: Get event status notification 4a 01 00 00 10 00 00 00 08 00
kernel: [] sr: Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
kernel: [] sr: Add. Sense: No additional sense information

Precise live usb session:
When testing CS-15 with the updated firmware I physically unplugged the malfunctioning device. After a couple of minutes I plugged it in again and the whole system crashed immediately. As an attachment there is a the displayed information (oops; "BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000394"). ?field.comment=Precise live usb session:
When testing CS-15 with the updated firmware I physically unplugged the malfunctioning device. After a couple of minutes I plugged it in again and the whole system crashed immediately. As an attachment there is a the displayed information (oops; "BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000394").

Strongly related to firmware version the CS-15 happens to have.

To sum up a CS-15 with an "original" firmware (x.62.40) does not work anymore even in current Lucid Lynx (some kind of a regression). CS-15 with updated firmware works in Lucid and Precise, but is unstable, and do not work in Quantal (live session).

#LUCID:
CS-15 with updated firmware (http://europe.nokia.com/support/product-support/internet-stick-cs-15-support/software ---> Nokia_CS-15_Setup.exe CS-15_R2.10.2) works in current Lucid Lynx 10.04 (2.6.32-45-generic #99-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 16 16:31:11 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux) somehow but is unstable. See below an attached updated_CS-15_unstable_in_Lucid.txt.

On the other hand, the unupdated CS-15 (firmware version .62.40) was once connected but almost immediately it was completely disregarded, i.e. it was not shown up in lsusb anymore, also after several trials of unpluging and pluging. Although, in a same session, where the updated CS-15 was first used, plugged out and after a while the unupdated CS-15 was plugged in a connection was established for about five seconds but then the unupdated CS-15 completely malfunctioned ("Received bad configure-nak: 02 06 00 2d 0f 01 81 06 00 00 00 00 83 06 00 00 00 00").

#PRECISE:
The updated CS-15 works in Precise Pangolin 12.04 (3.2.0-32-generic-pae #51-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 26 21:54:23 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux) but is unstable also here. It needed a couple of times to be plugged in and out until usb modeswitch happened! But then the connection failed when left on its' own for a couple of minutes and the mode was switched back to :0610.

#QUANTAL:
CS-15 does not work in live session of Quantal 12.10 (3.5.0-17-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 9 19:32:08 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux).
The updated CS-15 was shown in lsusb but the mode was not switched to :0612, so the led stayed off. Manual modeswitch did not work either ($usb_modeswitch -v 0x0421 -p 0x0610 -P 0x0612 ---> Error getting the current configuration (error -1). Assuming configuration 1).
The unupdated CS-15 was not even shown in lsusb (unable to enumerate).

This seems to be a duplicate of bug #992639.

Good news: Updating the firmware of CS-15 from R2.10 to *current* R2.17 helped. Now in Lucid Lynx the CS-15 is working out of the box, i.e. the mode is switched automatically to 0x0612. If the connection turns out to be unstable, I will report it here later.

With the older firmware CS-15 did not work in 13.04 Raring Ringtail (live session, 32-bit). The mode did not change even by "eject /dev/sr1" or "sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x0421 product=0x0612".

Hans Hellén, could you please confirm this issue exists with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . If the issue remains, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.11-rc4

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

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Hans Hellén, as per http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers an update is available for your BIOS (V1.06). If you update to this, does it change anything?

If not, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful.

Thank you for your understanding.

Christopher M. Penalver (penalvch), thank you for your effort.

Could you elaborate what is the point in flashing the BIOS on laptop? I can assure you, the malfunction of CS-15 is not dependent on the hardware platform on witch the modem is tried to be used. The modem could be used somehow with some 2.6.x kernels, although it has probably always been unstable. By the way, the firmware on my CS-15 modems was the current R2.17 when doing the tests earlier this week.

So, is there development going on to make this, still an efficient, modem to be usable? Or is it finally time to say goodbye to Nokia?

I tried usb live session of 32-bit Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) and saw a segfault (kernel, usb_modeswitch_dispatcher, libc-2.17) when pluging physically the CS-15 out and immediately within 1–2 seconds back in. Two times the mode was switched! But then even more than ten plug in and out attempts did not make the modem usable. So, pretty useless as a modem still.

Log about segfault is from attached mode-switched-on-Raring.txt:
Sep 19 10:13:53 ubuntu kernel: [ 236.649206] usb_modeswitch_[4011]: segfault at 0 ip b75b66f1 sp bfa68b4c error 4 in libc-2.17.so[b7538000+1ad000]

A connection was usable for a while, since very long time.

The connection was unstable (usb live session, 32-bit 12.04.3).

Missing information from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/496256/comments/33 .

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More testing is still needed. One CS-15 stick got nicely mode switched by kernel v3.12-rc1, but the other stick has to be physically pluged in and out tens of time until the mode get switched. Could there be some hardware differences within CS-15 modems? There is one visible difference between the sticks: the better one has numbers printed (090426) on the metal plate above SIM card (and the IMEI code of the better stick is about 40 000 bigger).

After waking up from suspend to RAM the modem has to be physically pluged out and in in order to establish a connection with Network Manager.

The long time stability of connection was not yet tested.

Hans Hellén, in order to see any difference, plug one of the sticks in, unplug all other usb devices, and execute the following in a terminal and attach to this report:
lsusb -v

Please remove this stick, and repeat the above procedure for the other stick.

There seems to be different kinds of CS-15 modems out there. For two of my devices lsusb -v gives
"wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes" for a modem with bigger IMEI
and
"wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes" for a modem with smaller IMEI.

bigger IMEI:
– appears in lsusb and mode does not get switched, 3.2.0-54-generic (32-bit)
– nothing appears in lsusb, 3.5.0-41-generic (64-bit)
– appears in lsusb and mode gets switched, 3.8.0-30-generic (32-bit)
– appears in lsusb and mode gets switched, 3.12.0-031200rc1-generic (32-bit)

smaller IMEI:
– appears in lsusb and mode does not get switched, 3.2.0-54-generic (32-bit)
– appears in lsusb and sometimes mode gets switched, 3.5.0-41-generic (64-bit)
– appears in lsusb and mode does not get switched, 3.8.0-30-generic (32-bit)
– appears in lsusb and mode does not get switched, 3.12.0-031200rc1-generic (32-bit)

Hans Hellén, the next step is to bisect between Jaunty and Karmic, in order to identify the commit that caused this regression. Could you please do this following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?

Hans Hellén, please do not switch back and forth between the two different sticks. Let us just focus on the smaller IMEI one to ease developer and triage efforts.

Interesting, the CS-15 stick with *smaller* IMEI can be used to establish an internet connection using this workaround https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/+source/linux/+bug/992639/comments/37

The stick with bigger IMEI does not show any sings of life.

Using 12.04 (precise) 64-bit, Linux 3.5.0-44-generic.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]