[PLUG] [Dev] Adding BSNL EVDO detection to NetworkManager

[Chetan S]

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 5:20 PM, Rahul Sundaram
<sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> Chetan S wrote:
>
>> The question - which string from the hal listing will make most sense ?
>>
>> If anyone familiar with D-Bus , Hal programming, NetworkManager can
>> they step in and explain if the line of reasoning is fine.
>> Others are free to pitch in too !!ers
>
> Why not go to the NetworkManager list and ask this question?  The
> developers of the underlying tools are subscribed in that list as well.
>
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list
>
>
> Rahul



Tada !  The problem is solved and in a much more simpler and robust
way than mucking around in C.

* Warning *   Long post ahead.

Let me explain -

1.  BSNL provides a usb modem AC8700 for EVDO broadband.  This gets
autodetected by hal in Ubuntu Intrepid and the moto-modem driver gets
loaded.

2.  For some funny reason networkmanager could not detect this and so
i looked around networkmanager source code, hal  etc etc.
some utils which help -  hal-device, qdbusviewer  and good ol grep.

Thankfully before I could add some additional detection lines to
networkmanager usb modem code, there was something I stumbled upon
under hal.  Enter our hero -    hal-info !!!!

This neat file resides under
/usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-modem.fdi   for Ubuntu
Intrepid.

Its an xml file and has some neat lines for nokia, novatel etc etc.

How it works -
a.  Hal detects the device and loads the appropriate driver
b.  Hal info is a xml based "salad dressing" file that hal uses to
inject more information to a specific device listing of hal.
In usb modem case it adds    <append key="modem.command_sets"
type="strlist">IS-707-A</append>  i.e the commandset info for
cdma2000.
c.  Network manager walks the device list searching for the string
IS-707-A and "detects" the modem as usb modem.

A sample listing from that file :

 <!-- Novatel -->
      <match key="@info.parent:usb.vendor_id" int="0x1410">
        <!-- Merlin XS620/S640,S620,EX720,S720,EV620
CDMA/EV-DO,ES620/Merlin ES720/Ovation U720,ES620 SM Bus,U727 -->
        <match key="@info.parent:usb.product_id"
int_outof="0x1100;0x1110;0x1410;0x1120;0x1130;0x2100;0x2110;0x2130;0x4100;0x5010">
          <match key="@info.parent:usb.interface.number" int="0">
            <append key="modem.command_sets" type="strlist">IS-707-A</append>
          </match>
        </match>


Where to get this information from to create a new entry ???

hal-device ofcourse !!!!!!

So I created the following entry just under the Novatel entry.

<!-- BSNL -->
      <match key="@info.parent:usb.vendor_id" int="0x5c6">
        <!-- ZTE EVDO AC8700 -->
        <match key="@info.parent:usb.product_id" int_outof="0x3197">
          <match key="@info.parent:usb.interface.number" int="0">
            <append key="modem.command_sets" type="strlist">IS-707-A</append>
          </match>
        </match>
     </match>


the vendor id and product id I gleaned from the hal-device o/p after
the modem driver was loaded by hal.



Bingo ! now when i connected the modem it listed in Network manager
applet automatically and I was able to configure it and use network
manager to connect to BSNL EVDO !!!!!   No more gnome-ppp madness.

Next task on hand. How to vary the baud rate that networkmanager uses
for the modem. Cya till then !

If you need any info do ask !



regards,
C