ModemManager
ModemManager is a service that automatically sets up and connects 2G/3G/4G/5G modems and provides a high level of abstraction when interacting with modems.
A few examples of functionality offered by ModemManager are:
- initialisation of the modem
- connecting to the Internet
- sending/receiving SMS
- firmware upgrades for select QMI-based modems.
Installing
In menuconfig, ModemManager is located under the Network section.
Kernel modules
You probably need to include the kernel module for your modem in your firmware image, or on running firmware via opkg.
Common ones which should get most modems working to some extent are:
opkg update && opkg install kmod-usb-serial kmod-usb-net kmod-usb-serial-wwan kmod-usb-serial-option kmod-usb-net-qmi-wwan kmod-usb-net-cdc-mbim
MBIM Support
ModemManager supports MBIM modems. You can include MBIM support by selecting it under the Configuration section in ModemManager's menuconfig entry.
QMI Support
ModemManager supports QMI modems. You can include QMI support by selecting it under the Configuration section in ModemManager's menuconfig entry.
Use
ModemManager abstracts the configuration of your modems into standard Linux network interfaces. The example below illustrates a typical configuration:
/etc/config/network
config interface 'broadband'
option device '/sys/devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2.1'
option proto 'modemmanager'
option apn 'ac.vodafone.es'
option username 'vodafone'
option password 'vodafone'
option pincode '7423'
option lowpower '1'
The available options are
| option | type | required | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| device | string | X | Full sysfs path of the device, for example /sys/devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2.1. Do not use /dev/cdc-wdm0. |
| apn | string | X | The GPRS Access Point Name specifying the APN used when establishing a data session with the GSM-based network |
| allowedauth | list(string) | Authentication method to use. A list of none, pap, chap, mschap, mschapv2, eap |
|
| username | string | The username used to authenticate with the network, if required | |
| password | string | The password used to authenticate with the network, if required | |
| pincode | string | If the SIM is locked with a PIN it must be unlocked before any other operations are requested | |
| iptype | string | X | ipv4v6 or ipv4 or ipv6 |
| signalrate | int | Signal refresh rate to signalrate second (see mmcli --signal-setup) |
|
| lowpower | boolean | See mmcli --set-power-state-low |
Luci support
It is possible to install luci-proto-modemmanager to configure an interface with ModemManager protocol via Luci.
