How to get my 3G ZTE MF XXX / Prolink PHS XXX dongle working in Linux

Question

Some of these devices either aren't naturally detected or are not usable in Ubuntu and other GNU/Linux operating systems.

Solution

There are two approaches.

1) Sakis3g

Sakis3g is an open source program, which is capable of connecting a wide range of USB modems to the Internet. Sakis3g is easy to use. At the time of writing it does not offer SMS & USSD features.

Installation
Open the Terminal and execute each command in order:

sudo apt-get install net-tools usb-modeswitch
wget "http://raspberry-at-home.com/files/sakis3g.tar.gz"
tar -xvzf sakis3g.tar.gz
chmod +X sakis3g
./sakis3g --interactive

Alternatively you can copy the entire code below to Terminal and run:

sudo apt-get install net-tools usb-modeswitch; eject sr1; wget "http://raspberry-at-home.com/files/sakis3g.tar.gz"; tar -xvzf sakis3g.tar.gz; chmod +X sakis3g; ./sakis3g --interactive

To start the program, execute:

./sakis3g --interactive

2) ZTE Mobile Connect

ZTE Mobile connect is a proprietary modem manager program for most of the ZTE & PROLiNK mobile broadband devices. There is a higher chance that you can find this software inside your mobile broad band device. (If not, here is my one)

This software requires 32bit versions of the following dependencies:

• libaudio2
• libqt3-mt
• wvdial

To install, execute this command in your Terminal:

sudo apt-get install libaudio2:i386 wvdial

wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/q/qt-x11-free/libqt3-mt_3.3.8-b-8ubuntu3_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i libqt3-mt_3.3.8-b-8ubuntu3_i386.deb

sudo apt-get install -f

Once you have installed the dependencies, navigate to the directory of ZTE Mobile connect folder and execute the installation script:

chmod +X install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

(or simply type "sudo bash " without the quotes, then drag & drop install.sh file on your Terminal)

After the installation, execute the below command to start the program:

Connect_Manager

You will get an application launcher as well.

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Can't Mobile Connect detect your dongle?

The dongle must be flipped into the modem mode in order to use with this software. Therefore you might want to do it by the command below:

eject sr1

(sr1 is chosen assuming that you have a single optical disc reader. If you have two, make it sr2. If you have none, make it sr0) To automate the flipping process, install usbmode-switch package.

If that doesn't work, then Mobile Connect doesn't support your device. You may want to try sakis3g.