Oct 312011
 
Ubuntu on sub notebook

This may help some people: Here is how I got a new mobile broadband connection to work with Huawei E173. It replaces my older Huawei E230 which had no separate antenna.  Don’t forget to put your SIM card into the new modem. The Huawei E173 so far seems much faster probably due to the antenna. More details you find here.

1. Download the Huawei E173 driver for linux. I found it here.

2. Unzip the linux.zip file in a convenient location, for instance on the desktop. Upon decompressing you’ll have a new folder: ~/Desktop/Linux/

3. Right click on each individual file in the folder ~/Desktop/Linux/, chose >> Proprieties >> Permissions – read and write all + check on “Allow executing as a program”

4. Open a terminal window (CTRL+ALT+t) and write in command line:

Code:
cd ~/Desktop/Linux/

then

Code:
sudo ./install

and press Enter on all questions.

The Huawei E173 driver will install (the default installation path is in /usr/local/) together with a specific connection program called Moviestar 3.5G/Mobile Partner

You can change the language from Spanish to English in the options.

I installed in on Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx (LTS) 64  bits.

  14 Responses to “How to get your Huawei E173 mobile broadband modem to work on Ubuntu”

  1. I want to Uninstall this program because now my OS (Debian Jessie) recognizes mi smartphone as a modem an doesn’t let me navigate the files. Any recommendation please? There’s only an install script on the Linux.zip file provided…

  2. Mobile Partner for Linux! Versions 21 and 22 (from the МегаФон) 23.009.
    Recommend to version 21.005

    Changes:
    1) Update the driver (now works with the new udev v180>)
    2) The archives are now two versions of the program. Universal and special for KDE 4!
    3) And the little things (the profiles of operators, small changes, corrections)
    4) Does not modify the “/etc/sudoers”
    5) 36 languages
    Works in Ubuntu 13.04

    Download it here
    http://depositfiles.com/folders/IG81U4MSJ

  3. Thanks !! Working …. Nice and good tips !!

  4. thanks a lot man! the tutorial perfectly works for me.

  5. Thank you for your Article to install Mo bail Partner in Linux. it is working very well in my Fedora 15
    I was searching since last month but now I found the solution in your article
    Thank you very much ……………………

  6. Thank you very much Jason, as a newbie I was trying to install the MegaFon Dashboard on Fedora 16 (FAILED), this worked straight away :-)

    After many many hours, I then figured out how to install both Dashboards as MegaFon has the USSD function on its custom dashboard, that can be used to get my balance, plus also to suspend an account, so that monthly charges do not occur.

    I refer to your download as the Spanish version (changed to english after install),

    To those who want to have both dashboards I suggest to install Russian First, then the Spanish one as it will autoload the Spanish which can actually track usage.

    How to get the Huawei Dashboard mobile broadband modem to work on Fedora using the Huawei Dashboard Linux software.

    For the Russian MegaFon linux install,

    Open the Linux subdirectory,
    Copy the install file into the same directory and rename it to eg Install_a
    open a terminal window as root,# chmod a+x Install_a
    open Install_a in Kwrite
    find
    INSTALLPATH=”/usr/local/Mobile_Partner”
    and further down also
    INSTALLPATH=`egrep “^path=” $CONFIG_FILE | awk -F ‘=’ ‘{print $2}’`
    to
    INSTALLPATH=”/usr/local/Mobile_Partner_MegaFon”
    save the file.

    you then need to make a directory, as the script doesn’t
    mkdir /usr/local/Mobile_Partner_MegaFon
    mkdir /usr/local/Mobile_Partner_MegaFon/lib/
    mkdir /usr/local/Mobile_Partner_MegaFon/lib/UpdateInstall

    enter ,# sh Install_a

    It will then Install the program, and will load up the Dashboard :-)

    copy the file /root/MobilePartner.desktop TO /usr/local/share/applications
    and rename it to MegaFon.desktop, so it will create icon in network menu. This file gets overwritten when installing the spanish version

    For Spanish install,

    Open the Linux directory after unzipping file,
    Copy the install file into the same directory and rename it to eg Install_Spanish
    open a terminal window as root,# chmod a+x Install_Spanish
    open Install_Spanish in Kwrite
    find
    INSTALLPATH=`egrep “^path=” $CONFIG_FILE | awk -F ‘=’ ‘{print $2}’`
    to
    INSTALLPATH=”/usr/local/Movistar 3.5G”

    save the file. Otherwise it copies into the Mobile_Partner_MegaFon directory :-(.

    enter ,# sh Install_Spanish

    It will then Install the program, loads up the Dashboard quickly :-)

    In Fedora it showed that there is a SELinux troubleshooter error,
    click on details, and follow the instructions to allow the ifconfig to access daemon.pid
    ,this gets rid of the error and the PC is quick again.

    How to get Huawei Dashboard mobile broadband modem to work on Fedora using the Huawei Dashboard

  7. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Finally surfing under Ubuntu

  8. Works fine for me. Thank you

    • Hi Ravinda,

      This is a very popular post on my blog. After your comment I have hopes that about half of my visitors had a good experience after reading “ReportsFromEarth”…

      Happy Ubuntu-ing,

      Jason

      PS: Did anyone notice the newly added star rating feature. No login needed. Easy feedback – thanks!

  9. I tried this and all I got was a load of error messages (screens full), saying in effect that the install had failed.

    I have to say that unless you’re a Geek, with unlimited time to spare, Linux is next to useless.

    • I should have mentioned that if you proceed with the above, you end up with an application called moviestar, which doesn’t work, is all in Spanish, and can’t be removed without re-installing ubuntu from scratch.

      • Jim – sorry to hear it did not work for you. If you are still new to Ubuntu you might just need a bit more time to get used to it. Windows also has its problems… but we tend to forget how many years many of us have spent dealing with those.

        I did mention in the article that you can change the language in the options (of the moviestar application/ driver). I believe most applications (even when installed without the software center or Synaptic Package Manager) can be easily removed by removing their application folder.

        Most of the problems I had with Ubuntu that required significant time of searching are with some new printer or wireless card drivers. Ubuntu boots in almost half the time compared to windows and I practically do not need to spend time on virus protection and software that often confused windows…

        but yes, like with most new technology it tends to be appreciated by the more geeky users :)

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*