Guide: How to make Gobi 2000 Wirless modem work under Ubuntu 12.04

Install 3G-modemet Sierra Wireless, Inc. Gobi 2000 Wireless Modem

This is a how-to install the 3G modem “Sierra Wireless, Inc. Gobi 2000 Wireless Modem” under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) with basic support for GPS

This guide should work with the following models:

• Fujitsu CELSIUS H700
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK A530 / AH530
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK A550 / AH550 (Intel Gfx)
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK AH550 (NVidia Gfx)
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK E780 (Intel Gfx)
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK E780 (NVidia Gfx)
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK P3110
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK P770
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK P8110
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK PH530
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK S710
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK S760
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4410/ T4310
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T580
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T730
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T900
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK TH700
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK UH900
• and other models from HP, Lenovo and others with Sierra Wireless, Inc. Gobi 2000 Wireless Modem

First, control so that you really have the integrated modem in you computer with lsusb

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1199:9000 Sierra Wireless, Inc. Gobi 2000 Wireless Modem (QDL mode)
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f2:b186 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 08ff:2550 AuthenTec, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 1b96:0008 N-Trig
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 1690:0741 Askey Computer Corp. [hex]
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1234:ffff Unknown

Install the wrapper for Gobi that is needed to load the 3G modem firmware and wine that you need to extract the firmware from the driver for the Microsoft Windows XP/Windows 7 installation packet.

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ sudo apt-get install gobi-loader wine

Download the drivers from http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/Download/Download.asp?SoftwareGUID=BE060271-9410-4E34-B732-D7D016F9EC27&Filename=FTS_SierraWirelessGobi2000HSUSBMobileBroadband_11180_1053221.zip

Start a terminal and navigate to the path where you saved the download. In my case it’s in ~/Downloads.

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ cd Downloads/


Extract the archive with command unzip FTS_SierraWirelessGobi2000HSUSBMobileBroadband_11180_1053221.zip


johan@ubuntu-lab:~/Downloads$ unzip FTS_SierraWirelessGobi2000HSUSBMobileBroadband_11180_1053221.zip


Navigate to the folder that just been created

johan@ubuntu-lab:~/Downloads$ cd 72-VR322-15_1.1.180

Use wine and the command msiexec to extract the drivers from the MSI-file. The files will be saved in the “virtual” c: for wine that’s really saved under ~/.wine/drive_c

johan@ubuntu-lab:~/Downloads/72-VR322-15_1.1.180$ wine msiexec /a GobiInstaller.msi /qb TARGETDIR="c:temp"

Create the folder /lib/firmware/gobi and copy the driver to that path

johan@ubuntu-lab:~/Downloads/72-VR322-15_1.1.180$ sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/gobi
johan@ubuntu-lab:~/Downloads/72-VR322-15_1.1.180$ sudo cp ~/.wine/drive_c/temp/Images/Sierra/UMTS/* /lib/firmware/gobi/
johan@ubuntu-lab:~/Downloads/72-VR322-15_1.1.180$ sudo cp ~/.wine/drive_c/temp/Images/Sierra/0/UQCN.mbn /lib/firmware/gobi/


It’s now time to restart the computer to make the 3G modem to load it’s firmware and after that it will be visible in network-manager for example.

GPS

Some models of Gobi 2000 has internal GPS and it’s also possible to use but in my case the 3G modem is disappearing every time I communicate with the GPS and I have not solved that problem yet. If you have any tips that may solve this problem I would be happy.

Install any GPS client of your choice. I have chosen gpsd

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients

Configure gpsd

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ sudo /lib/udev/gpsd.hotplug add /dev/ttyUSB2
johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure gpsd

Enter /dev/ttyUSB2 as the path to the GPS

Start gpsd

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ sudo service gpsd start

The GPS wont work until you tell it to do so and you need to manually start it with the following command. Please notice that the 3G modem will stop working as fast as you start to communicate with /dev/ttyUSB2

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ sudo su -
root@ubuntu-lab:~$ echo "$GPS_START" > /dev/ttyUSB2

To stop the GPS enter the following command

johan@ubuntu-lab:~$ sudo su -
root@ubuntu-lab:~$ echo "$GPS_STOP" > /dev/ttyUSB2

— Johan Ryberg