Got it! I’m now writing this from the Toshiba laptop using the Sierra 881U card running Fedora 8. Here’s why it works.
Fedora 8 uses a 2.6.23 kernel with has the patches for the TRU Install stuff that Sierra uses to make their USB dongle a flash drive the first time it’s used. The kernel needs to be patched to ignore that aspect of the card.
Sierra Wireless has most of the answer in this FAQ All I needed to do was download the driver, compile it, and install it. The FAQ claims that the module is already in place, at least by my reading, but in the 2.6.23.14-115 version I had with Fedora it’s not. I diff’d the original sierra.c and the new sierra.c to be sure. I also checked to make sure the patch was in place and it was without my having to do that portion.
So how to compile the module? I used to use Red Hat back in the day so Fedora and it’s rpm system seemed familiar, but it’s been years. So like a good noob I checked the docs I could find. The wiki had the answer. Since I didn’t need to compile a kernel, only a module, I followed the instructions at the bottom of that page labeled
Building Only Kernel Modules.”
Back to the instructions from Sierra on installing the scripts into /etc/ppp and /etc/ppp/peers. They worked for me straight out of the box but using wvdialconf showed me I could up the speed setting to 460800.
So far I’ve…
1) Downloaded and installed the scripts from Sierra editing the speed
2) Downloaded the driver module from Sierra
3) Downloaded and installed the kernel-devel stuff from Fedora to be able compile the module
4) Compiled and installed the module (the default Makefile that came with the sierra.c code worked
WIth the new driver the modem is found and dmesg showed it connected at /dev/ttyUSB0/1/2! Excellent.
I then tried the new pppd scripts to connect and while it found the DNS just fine it set a route of 10.64.64.64 which is, as you migh expect, useless.
What to do? Google of course.
That found me some instructions on KernelTrap on using an 875u AirCard.
Essentially it boils down to starting up the script, finding a good route with routetrace, removing 10.64.64.64 and replacing it with the good route, then editing resolv.conf with a good DSN (which was found by the modem and showed in the term window.).
That’s pretty much it! I’m here as proof. The problem, of course, is that it’s not particularly automatic, but if I can’t figure that out after all this, I’d better hang it up.
Now the question becomes, do I blow away Vista? I think so. I can’t think of any reason for keeping it around other than having something to frustrate myself with. 🙂
That’s it for now then! Time to reconfigure!
Aloha!
Slower, cheaper, less useful…