Comment 39 for bug 147119

I've tried Alexander Sack's fix, and it fixes the firefox off-line/on-line bug for me.

I use a Hauwei 3G connection, and since Hardy, I can use NetworkManager->DialUp Connections->modem ppp0 to connect to 3G (I couldn't in gutsy.) In stock Hardy, firefox3 starts off-line. With Alexander's fix, Firefox3 starts on-line.

The fix makes it so firefox 3 starts "on-line" instead of "off-line", which to me is a step in the right direction. Thanks Alexander

It needs a bit more work, though: nm-applet/networkmanager itself still thinks that the link is down, which makes it impossible to use NetworkManager's VPN configs on-top of dialup. NetworkManager fails an assertation in /var/log/syslog:

Jun 21 12:54:09 nacmacfeegle NetworkManager: nm_device_is_activating: assertion `dev != NULL' failed

nm-tool doesn't list ppp0. Dunno if this is related, or not. Don't really care :) I want my VPN.

So, /etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

iface ppp0 inet ppp
provider ppp0
auto ppp0

/etc/ppp/peers/ppp0 (generated by Network configuration tool)

/dev/ttyUSB0
115200
connect 'chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/ppp0'
user "a"
usepeerdns
defaultroute
persist

/etc/chatscripts/ppp0 (generated by Network configuration tool)

ABORT 'BUSY'
ABORT 'NO CARRIER'
ABORT 'ERROR'
'' AT
OK AT+CGATT=1
OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
OK ATDT*99***1#

PS. NetworkManager gprs config fails if your Hauwei SIM card needs a pin code -- completely unrelated bug.