Micromax MMX 352G USB 3G Modem with BSNL 2G/3G SIM on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

Micromax MMX 352G USB 3G Modem with BSNL 2G/3G SIM on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

Micromax deserves some praise for the kind of job they have done in bundling the MMX 352G USB 3G Modem with dialler applications. Though they need to work out on focussing their attention on the Linux users too. The modem works smoothly on windows without any hassles. Whereas in Ubuntu 11.04 it has some driver issues. There's hardly any document that provides the specific documentation.

I tried my best for not being a die-hard & ardent fan (which I am not certainly) of linux and found a layman's quick-fix solution for this. Sakis-3g is cute little tool that anyone can use on linux. Here are a few steps for installing Sakis-3g.

1. Download Sakis-3g from Sakis-3g website directly (thanks to google for providing its kind helping hand).
2. I extracted it to my home folder.
3. Enter “$ sudo chmod +x sakis3g”
4. Enter “$ sudo .//sakis3g helper balloons &”

Then I connected my Micromax usb modem to my laptop and waited patiently for a miracle to happen. Well nothing strange happened but this brought up a linux trademark holding usb removable disk on the upper panel of my desktop (which I wasnt very happy to see it untill i got really connected). Now sakis3g was working as it popped up message detecting my modem. On clicking the icon it brought up a menu driven tool. Hastily I clicked on “Connect with 3G”

Voila!!! And I did it. Pretty easy stuff.

Though I can get connected to internet with good speeds, but still I am too lazy to type that command (which is not always so user-friendly) each and every time I want to access www. I had to get a permanent fix on this problem. With some help from google, I managed figure out some driver fixes that could fix this issue permanently (i.e. Due to my little liking to linux/unix).

Well, I have worked out few easy steps to get connected to internet (its pretty hard to survive without it). 'Copy-paste' can make things (like shell commands) look bit less creepy.

5. I made sure if I have got usb-modeswitch & wvdial packages installed on my system in the 'synaptic pakage manager' from System > Administration drop down menu in the menu bar.

Still I checked if there was any latest update available for the above listed packages by typing below mentioned commands in my not-so-friendly gnome terminal.
Enter “$ sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch”
Enter “$ sudo apt-get install wvdial”
6. Enter “$ watch lsusb”
   And the output showed some crap that resembled something like this
   Bus 002 Device 006: ID 1c9e:f000
   After few seconds it showed
   Bus 002 Device 007: ID 1c9e:9605
   Where, 1c9e is the vendor id and f000 & 9605 are the product ids of the usb modem before and after switching. That is f000 is the default product id & 9605 is the target product id.
7. After confirming the outputs, I made some tweaks in usb-modeswitch configuration files as below
   Enter “$ sudo gedit /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules”
   The file opened in gedit. There I had to enter some text below the line that said
   LABEL="modeswitch_rules_begin"
   It looks something like this :-
   LABEL="modeswitch_rules_begin"
   #Micromax MMX352G USB 3G MODEM
   ATTRS{idVendor}=="1c9e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="9605", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"
   Had to save and then exit the editor.
8. Then I copied the default configuration file to a new configuration file that would help our modem to switch and act like a true modem.
   Enter “$ sudo cp /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1c9e\:9200 /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1c9e\:9605”
9. Editing one more usb_modeswitch configuration file brought me one step closer to the edge.

Enter “$ sudo gedit /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1c9e\:9605”
Here's the ouput of the file.

########################################################
# Micromax MMX 352G USB 3G Modem
DefaultVendor= 0x1c9e
DefaultProduct=0x9605
TargetVendor= 0x1c9e
TargetProduct= 0x9605
CheckSuccess=20
MessageContent="55534243123456780000000000000606f50402527000000000000000000000"

10. Now finally we have to work out with usbserial module (that is what drivers are referred to in UNIX)

Enter “$ sudo gedit /etc/modules”
Add the below mentioned line at the end of the file.
#MICROMAX 352G 3G USB MODEM
usbserial vendor=0x1c9e product=0x9605
11. Rebooted the machine curiously.

That is all. Configuration of devices was complete.

Now, after the machine rebooted, I plugged in the usb modem and waited for around half a minute.

12. Back to GUI by clicking on the Network Manager Applet on the top panel, a list of available connections came through a drop down menu.
13. Among these I clicked on New Mobile Broadband (GSM) Connection.
14. The New Broadband Connection Wizard popped up. Clicked on the “Forward” button.
15. I had to select India (Wonderful place where I live). Clicked on “Forward” (Pretty easy).
16. Selected “BSNL/Cellone” from the list of service providers. Again a click happened.
17. Selected “BSNL/CellOne Old East Zone Prepaid (Jharkhand, Bihar, Kolkata, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, North East, Adman Nicobar)” from the list of plans that were available and clicked on “Forward” & then “Apply”.
18. Connection Configuration window will appear where I selected “Connect Automatically” under Connection Name. Entered “*99#” in front of number and entered “bsnlnet” in front of APN. Finally “Save”.

Finally, done with all clicking which quite effortless. Nothing seemed to appear for some time, but then automatically the Network Manager Applet selected my configured connection. That is all I had to do. Time to have the sweet fruit of my tireless effort.