Novatel Merlin EX720 + SuSE Linux == ?

cyberdeath

Hello everyone. I have a SuSE Linux 10.1 box that I've gone through the procedures on setting up a ppp client with my Novatel Merlin EX720. I used wvdial to set it up along with the other commands stated on the Sprint Linux User Guide. However, I was able to get it to work once...but only some sites would load...among other problems. I realize that my connection is terrible due to having a bad signal as I'm right on the corner next to a "gray area" with no signal. (which will hopefully be fixed as soon as my equipment comes in from the 3g store). However, I've also read on the Sprint Linux user guide of the limitations...namely the 500kbps one. Is there any way around that? I would really like to get the full benefit of my card even on my linux machine. I've read on the sprint site that the drivers for the card will be available Q2 of 2007....and it's past that. I haven't found any drivers on this forum, either.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

NeoMatrix · EVDO Newbie Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 9

I set up my Kubuntu 7.10 install on my Thinkpad X60s using the Sprint Linux guide (available from Sprint Website for download) and an EX720 with PCMCIA adapter and I was getting 1200 kbps, so I was quite happy.

It looks like your reception might be giving you problems...

dragon_788 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 3

The 500kbps limitation is only if you use the usbserial driver mentioned in the sprint guide. You might want to try "modprobe airprime" and see if it gives you an error, if not, remove and reinsert your card and try "dmesg" if it tells you a new device is detected using airprime at /dev/ttyUSB0 (naming may vary) then you are in business, look to the links posted in the "Linux and EVDO" thread here on the forums, someone posted a good way to load airprime at boot, otherwise ask here again and I'll see if I can find the steps I took to get it working.

fb314 · EVDO User Joined: 31 Oct 2006 Posts: 39

It could be done but I don't know how to get it running in suse. My suggestion would be to have a friend with a fast connection download the newer opensuse 10.3 and give that a whirl. I have a good idea how to get it going on ubuntu but I'm not sure if the same method would work for suse since they put some of their files in different places than other distros.

Let me know what you might like to do and I'll see if I can help.

cyberdeath · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject:

Ok, I have been using USB0 with the usbserial drivers. I wrote a little script that loads on boot to have it detect the device, etc. However, upon connection, I can only get speeds up to: 460800 according to the process:

/bin/bash /etc/ppp/ip-up ppp0 /dev/ttyUSB0 460800 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Is this really limiting it or is that a false positive? Is there a way to make it detect the device as a network card?

Here is the script I use below: