Modem Manager set bearer and connect automatically

Question

I'm trying to set up a Huawei E3276 LTE stick with German Telekom and Modem Manager on Raspberry Pi (latest Raspbian), and basically it works but I'm failing to create a configuration that is deployable to the RPi via ansible.

When I connect the LTE stick, ModemManager sets everything up correctly and I end with a wwan0 interface and a 169.254.0.0/16 address assigned to it. Afterwards, I always have to run sudo mmcli -m 0 --simple-connect="apn=internet.t-d1.de,user=t-mobile,password=tm,number=*99#" which triggers network manager to get me somehow an IP. Everything's fine.

Since I want to automate this, I want to get rid of manually executing the mmcli command but am currently failing.

• Option 1: cronjob and script - ugly but most likely to work. I want to avoid this
• Option 2: Configuration file for modem manager / mmcli. I did not find any configuration file where I can place this data

• Option 3: udev rule executing the command

  pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/90-lte.rules 
  ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", ATTR{address}=="0c:5b:8f:27:9a:64", RUN+="/usr/local/bin/lte_setup.sh"
  pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /usr/local/bin/lte_setup.sh
  #!/bin/sh
  
  sleep 2
  mmcli -m 0 --simple-connect='apn=internet.t-d1.de,user=t-mobile,password=tm,number=*99#'
  

This doesn't work and I don't actually know why.

So, the basic question: What is the simplest way to deploy this configuration/scripts via ansible to the Raspberry Pi in order to just get a public IP automatically via Modem-/NetworkManager after pluging the E3276 in?

One last thing: I am not searching for a solution using wvdial or other tools. I spent days trying to use them using "working" configurations from the Internet just to find out they are not working. ModemManager and NetworkManager have proven to work, so I'm just trying to complete the setup without building the ugly cronjob workaround.

Solution

You can register your connection using the NetworkManager instead.

I dont have the same setup. I am on Ubuntu with a gsm modem.

Create the connection

sudo nmcli c add con-name "mycon" type gsm ifname "*" apn "internet.t-d1.de"

Set autoconnect

sudo nmcli c mod mycon connection.autoconnect yes

Username and password

sudo nmcli c mod mycon gsm.username "t-mobile"
sudo nmcli c mod mycon gsm.password "tm"

On Ubuntu, the NetworkManager config file are in the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ folder.

sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/mycon

Start the connection

sudo nmcli c up mycon

The connection should start automatically now.

Comments

[edermi]

Seems like I have to use this workaround, I hope this is somehow scriptable with ansible...

[Hayden Thring]

autoconnect is default yes when you add a connection