I have updated this review, as at 26th February 2007, which you can find on my new site here: Telecom New Zealand 3G CDMA under Linux (Sierra Aircard 580).
Since it works so straightforwardly nowadays I have put more detail there into debugging issues with getting ppp working too.
Meanwhile, for posterity, here is the original review that I did back in 2004....
The Sierra Aircard 580 is a "broadband" mobile data card for CDMA networks, supporting the CDMA 1xEV-DO standard for download speeds of around 500kbps and greater.
The card internally configures itself as a USB hub, with two USB serial devices. The first USB serial device is the "modem", and the second is unused under Linux, but is possibly a control data port.
The Aircard 580 is very similar to the AirPrime 5220, and when I asked Sierra Wireless for help getting the card going under Linux they pointed me to this page about using the AirPrime 5220 on Linux which gave me enough clues to get the Aircard 580 going also.
Although the main difference with the AirPrime 5220 is the actual USB vendor and product IDs, I will describe a slightly different setup than the one Phil Karn discusses, since I also use other USB serial devices from time to time. On the other hand Phil very nicely covers off lots of things about building and loading modules and so forth that I am going to assume either (a) you know already, and/or (b) just happen, because you're using a distribution that handles this all properly.
For the impatient, the basic installation needs are:
(It's possible you won't need to do one or both of the following commands, but as of kernel 2.6.9 and udev 046 I need both)
If anyone wants to send me the details for how to connect on their network, I will add those to this page as well.
If you are using "hotplug" as I think most laptop users will be these days, you can automate the procedure somewhat further by adding a line to
/etc/hotplug/usb.usermapthat looks like this:
# Sierra Aircard 580 AirCard580 0x0003 0x1199 0x0112 0x0000 0x0000 0xff 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00000000
That will make hotplug want to run a script in
/etc/hotplug/usb/AirCard580whenever you pop the card in. In that script I just have the lines from above, to ensure that the necessary support gets added in when I insert the card the first time, and not before:
#!/bin/sh # Run everything in a subshell, so we can redirect the output # more easily. ( # Load the module the right way /sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1199 product=0x0112 # Make the device node for the modem mknod /dev/ttyUSB0 c 188 0 ) 2>&1 | logger -t aircard
... and that needs to be made executable, of course.
Possibly that script could be taken a bit further, and the ppp daemon started and told to connect when you plug the card in. I haven't done this, because you will need to stop the ppp daemon before you remove the card. if you don't you will get strange locking problems and it won't work next time. No doubt that could all be scripted around, but for the moment I'm doing things manually.
Chris Teachworth sent me some information on setting the card up for ACS Alaska under Ubuntu Warty, as follows:
Thanks for the pointers on setting up the 580 under linux. Got it working under Ubuntu warty using your page and Phil Karn's. I'm on ACS' network up here in Anchorage, AK. Here's some additional info you might find helpful/interesting.
ACS' username/password scheme is as follows:
username: your_10_digit_aircard_phone_number@acsalaska.net
password: your_10_digit_phone_numberTo get it I installed windump under windows and disabled everything but PAP on the RAS connection for the card then I just sniffed the connection as it was trying to connect.
Under Ubuntu warty using udev version 026 appending:
usbserial vendor=0x1199 product=0x0112
to the end of /etc/modules is enough to get the /dev/ttyUSB* devices created automagically upon hotplugging the card.
More of Andrew's Linux Stuff if you're curious.