Cannot make mobile broadband Vodafone USB connection Ubuntu 13.04

Question

I have Ubuntu 13.04 and I bought yesterday a Vodafone USB stick for internet connection. I am located in Romania.

This is what I've did:

First Thing

1. Network Connections, added connection.
2. Selected Mobile broadband
3. Selected my country, and network (vodafone)
4. Selected Mobile Internet (Postpaid) I've called the guy who gave me the stick, and he told me it's Postpaid (anyway, I've tried also prepaid, not working).
5. Just got to general, and checked Automatically connect to this network when it is available, and saved.

Nothing happend.

Second thing

I've installed wvdial, set up the configuration to

Phone = *99#
Username = internet.vodafone.ro
Password = vodafone
New PPPD = yes
stupid mode = 1

When I run sudo wvdial I get this

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Cannot open /dev/modem: No such file or directory
--> Cannot open /dev/modem: No such file or directory
--> Cannot open /dev/modem: No such file or directory

I don't have any /dev/modem file or folder, and also no file starting with the name ttyUSB.

Third thing

I've took out of the USB port the stick, and run ls -1 /dev > before.txt. Plugged in the stick, and runned again. The diff before.txt after.txt got me this:

9a10
> cdrom2
82a84
> sg2
86a89
> sr1

Fourth thing

If I run lsusb I get this

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub 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 007: ID 12d1:1f17 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a5c:21bc Broadcom Corp. BCM2070 Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Bus 001 Device 005: ID 064e:8123 Suyin Corp.

This one (I guess) is the usb stick

Bus 001 Device 007: ID 12d1:1f17 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 

Any suggestions ?

The usb works fine on windows. I've tried to install it's own software (windows application) with wine, but also got an error.

UPDATE:

I've found a command that tells me which /dev/* is my Vodafone Stick.

sudo lsblk

sr1     11:1    1   128M  0 rom  /media/icebox/Vodafone Mobile Broadband

I've changed my wvdial configuration file, and added:

Modem = /dev/sr1

Now, if I run sudo wvdial I get:

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Cannot open /dev/sr1: Invalid argument
--> Cannot open /dev/sr1: Invalid argument
--> Cannot open /dev/sr1: Invalid argument

Answer 1

I think you didn't put your settings correctly.

System Setting -> Network -> Mobile Broadband -> Create a new connection

here you already created a new connection, but what are things you put for "choose your billing plan option" ? did your postpaid package listed?

If its not listed, select "My plan is not listed" then you must put correct APN (Access point name ) for your connection. for this you need to contact your service brovider (Vodafone) and ask those settings, and most importantly whether there are Proxy settings.

if there are proxy settings, then after creating the connection,

System Setting -> Network -> Network proxy -> apply those given proxy settings and apply system wide.

Then go to your web browser and apply those proxy settings.

Answer 2

Some USB dongles have their proprietary Windows drivers onboard. When plugged in for the first time, they act like a storage device and start installing the Windows driver from there. /dev/sr1 is such a storage device. It can't be used to make a connection. If the driver is already installed, it makes the storage device disappear and a new device, mainly composite with modem ports, shows up.^†

On Linux, the mode of USB device have to been switched as well. Sometimes the manufacturer doesn't provide a driver for Linux, so the program usb_modeswitch is needed.

Install usb-modeswitch and usb-modeswitch-data if they aren't already installed. usb-modeswitch-data provides udev rules that automatically recognises and configures common devices, so you probably don't have to manually run the program yourself. Otherwise, run usb-modeswitch and pass the necessary information. Usually it's just the Vendor ID and product ID. In your case, run usb-modeswitch --default-vendor 0x12d1 --default-product 0x1f17.

If the dongle is successfully configured, devices other sr1 should show up in /dev. They may be called /dev/ttyUSB0,/dev/ttyUSB1, /dev/ttyUSB2 or /dev/gsmmodem. Try whatever that comes up, if there are several devices, try them one by one using the Modem option. For example, I used to have a dongle that works with Modem = /dev/ttyUSB2.

______________
^† According to the man pages of usb_modeswitch.