UMTS/G3 mobile phone as modem

I'm trying to set up a network connection with a Samsung SGH-Z630 (USB
connector) and a SIM-card by Fonic (a subsidiary of German
O2/Telefónica).
Using openSuSE 11.1 RC1 the mobile is configured correctly as an USB
modem device, and I can sent AT commands. I do also get a network
connection, local and remote IP adress, and DNS servers. Calling an IP
address or doing a ssh connection to the IP adress of an ssh server
works just fine. But DNS is broken, and no names get resolved. The DNS
servers assigned by the ISP respond to ping requests, but that's about
all.

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-modem1
BOOTPROTO='none'
DIALCOMMAND='ATDT'
DIALPREFIX=''
DIALPREFIXREGEX=''
INIT1='ATZ'
INIT2='AT Q0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0'
INIT3='AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","pinternet.interkom.de"," ",0,0'
INIT8='ATM1'
INIT9=''
MODEM_DEVICE='/dev/ttyACM0'
NAME='Z100 Mobile Phone'
PPPD_OPTIONS=''
PROVIDER='provider0'
SPEED='460800'
STARTMODE='manual'
UDI=''
USERCONTROL='yes'

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network/providers/provider0
ASKPASSWORD='no'
AUTODNS='yes'
AUTO_RECONNECT='yes'
DEMAND='no'
DSLSUPPORTED='no'
IDLETIME='300'
ISDNSUPPORTED='no'
MODEMSUPPORTED='yes'
MODIFYDNS='no'
PASSWORD='gprs'
PHONE='*99***1#'
PROVIDER='o2 fonic'
STUPIDMODE='yes'
USERNAME='gprs'
DNS1=''
DNS2=''

What am I missing?
No need to tell that the ISP is of no help and that Samsung's user
manual tells me all about how to select dial tunes and other crap, but
nothing about the built in modem functions.

Günther

On 2008-12-15, Günther Schwarz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I'm trying to set up a network connection with a Samsung SGH-Z630 (USB
> connector) and a SIM-card by Fonic (a subsidiary of German
> O2/Telefónica).
> Using openSuSE 11.1 RC1 the mobile is configured correctly as an USB
> modem device, and I can sent AT commands. I do also get a network
> connection, local and remote IP adress, and DNS servers. Calling an IP
> address or doing a ssh connection to the IP adress of an ssh server
> works just fine. But DNS is broken, and no names get resolved. The DNS
> servers assigned by the ISP respond to ping requests, but that's about
> all.
>
*SKIP*

I think your installation is slightly misconfigured for real life.
Consider adding I<usepeerdns> somewhere in B<pppd> configuration files
(since I'm absolutely ignorant about ways SuSe sets B<pppd> I won't name
exact filename). After that hint everything should work just fine.

--
Torvalds' goal for Linux is very simple: World Domination
Stallman's goal for GNU is even simpler: Freedom

Clifford Kite wrote:

> G?nther Schwarz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> I'm trying to set up a network connection with a Samsung SGH-Z630
>> (USB connector) and a SIM-card by Fonic (a subsidiary of German
>> O2/Telefónica).
>> Using openSuSE 11.1 RC1 the mobile is configured correctly as an USB
>> modem device, and I can sent AT commands. I do also get a network
>> connection, local and remote IP adress, and DNS servers. Calling an
>> IP address or doing a ssh connection to the IP adress of an ssh
>> server works just fine. But DNS is broken, and no names get resolved.
>> The DNS servers assigned by the ISP respond to ping requests, but
>> that's about all.
>
> Are you aware that /etc/resolv.conf must be configured with those DNS
> nameservers? If not then see "man 5 resolver".

On most installations this is supposed to be done automagically. It
works with wired connections (dhcpd) as well as with my analog modem on
a land line (pppd). But it is a valuable test, of course, to set the
entry by hand. The dns servers are given by the output for pppd in the
log files.

So with /etc/resolv.conf:
nameserver 193.189.244.205
nameserver 193.189.244.197

it actually works. So thanks for the hint. I will now have to debug the
services that are supposed to write this file. Otherwise I will have to
change it every time I want to use eth0, eth1 (wireless), or a land
line modem.

Günther

Eric Pozharski wrote:

> On 2008-12-15, Günther Schwarz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> I'm trying to set up a network connection with a Samsung SGH-Z630
>> (USB connector) and a SIM-card by Fonic (a subsidiary of German
>> O2/Telefónica).
>> Using openSuSE 11.1 RC1 the mobile is configured correctly as an USB
>> modem device, and I can sent AT commands. I do also get a network
>> connection, local and remote IP adress, and DNS servers. Calling an
>> IP address or doing a ssh connection to the IP adress of an ssh
>> server works just fine. But DNS is broken, and no names get resolved.
>> The DNS servers assigned by the ISP respond to ping requests, but
>> that's about all.
>>
> *SKIP*
>
> I think your installation is slightly misconfigured for real life.
> Consider adding I<usepeerdns> somewhere in B<pppd> configuration files
> (since I'm absolutely ignorant about ways SuSe sets B<pppd> I won't
> name
> exact filename). After that hint everything should work just fine.

Thanks. SuSE Linux is indeed somehow special by using it's own scripts
with variables in /etc/sysconfig instead of working directly on the
configuration. This sometimes helps, but sometimes makes things more
complicated than necessary.
Anyway, I tried your suggestion. Note my reply to Clifford Kite where I
write that defining the DNS servers manually in /etc/resolve.conf
actually works. So the problem is not with the servers. I'm posting
this via the 3G connection.

/etc/sysconfig/network/providers/provider0
....
AUTODNS='yes'
USERPEERDNS='yes'
....
DNS1=''
DNS2=''

Output from /var/log/messages:
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz pppd[21133]: local IP address 10.70.132.187
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz pppd[21133]: remote IP address 10.64.64.64
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz pppd[21133]: primary DNS address
193.189.244.205
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz pppd[21133]: secondary DNS address
193.189.244.197
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: lockfile created
(/var/run/netconfig.pid) for PID 21142
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: lockfile created
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: write new STATE
file /var/run/netconfig//modem1/netconfig0
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: Module order: dns-resolver
dns-bind dns-dnsmasq nis ntp-runtime
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: dns-resolver module called
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: Static Fallback
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: Use NetworkManager policy merged
settings
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: exec
get_dns_settings: /var/run/netconfig//NetworkManager.netconfig
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: exit get_dns_settings
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: write_resolv_conf: '' ''
Dec 17 21:20:43 regnitz ip-up: debug: No changes for /etc/resolv.conf

So this fails.
Next test:

/etc/sysconfig/network/providers/provider0
....
AUTODNS='yes'
....
DNS1='193.189.244.205'
DNS2='193.189.244.197'

Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz pppd[21501]: local IP address 10.40.186.148
Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz pppd[21501]: remote IP address 10.64.64.64
Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz pppd[21501]: primary DNS address
193.189.244.205
Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz pppd[21501]: secondary DNS address
193.189.244.197
Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz ip-up: debug: lockfile created
(/var/run/netconfig.pid) for PID 21510
Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz ip-up: debug: lockfile created
Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz ip-up: debug: write new STATE
file /var/run/netconfig//modem1/netconfig0
Dec 17 21:24:59 regnitz ip-up: debug: Module order: dns-resolver
dns-bind dns-dnsmasq nis ntp-runtime
Dec 17 21:25:00 regnitz ip-up: debug: dns-resolver module called
Dec 17 21:25:00 regnitz ip-up: debug: Static Fallback
Dec 17 21:25:00 regnitz ip-up: debug: Use NetworkManager policy merged
settings
Dec 17 21:25:00 regnitz ip-up: debug: exec
get_dns_settings: /var/run/netconfig//NetworkManager.netconfig
Dec 17 21:25:00 regnitz ip-up: debug: exit get_dns_settings
Dec 17 21:25:00 regnitz ip-up: debug: write_resolv_conf: '' ''
Dec 17 21:25:00 regnitz ip-up: debug: No changes for /etc/resolv.conf

So it fails again. Now trying with

/etc/sysconfig/network/providers/provider0
....
AUTODNS='no'
....
DNS1='193.189.244.205'
DNS2='193.189.244.197'

Again
Dec 17 21:27:25 regnitz ip-up: debug: No changes for /etc/resolv.conf

:-(

This might be a SuSE issue so I'm including alt.os.linux.suse.

Günther

Günther Schwarz wrote:

> Again
> Dec 17 21:27:25 regnitz ip-up: debug: No changes for /etc/resolv.conf
>
> :-(
>
> This might be a SuSE issue so I'm including alt.os.linux.suse.

The problem persists after an update to the release version of 11.1. So
I submitted a request at bugzilla.novell.com: Bug 443788.

Günther