Option Quicksilver 3G modem freezes 9.10

I located a website that apparently has achieved some success in getting the AT&T Quicksilver modem by Option to work in some flavors of *nix, and there was a similar bug reported by another user: http://www.pharscape.org/forum/index.php/topic,802.msg3346.html#msg3346 ... perhaps the thread there can help someone figure out what the issue is. I tried installing 9.04 in my system since apparently the modem works there, but my computer kept hanging on the install window, so I went back to 9.10 and I hope that someone can find a solution or other workaround within 9.10.

I found a workaround for this problem in the linked bug's comments. I'm pasting them here for others to use, as his workaround was successful for me on 9.10. (I had a couple of DNS issues that needed to be worked out, but that's a topic for another thread.) The workaround requires the removal of GNOME's network manager and modem manager, replacing it with wicd.

As a workaround you can go to the following URL

http://www.pharscape.org/Quicksilver.html

There are three packages you will need to download from the Pharscape
site. Don't build/install then yet, just find and download them to a
directory on your system for now.

 1) ozerocdoff ( udev.tar.gz )
 This uses udev to auto-disable the zero cd on Option devices.

 2) hsolink_1.0.118-1_i386.deb
 Scripts & stuff needed for the hsoconnect gui tool

 3) hsoconnect-1.2.18.tar.gz
 The gui tool to control the Quicksilver HSDPA modem.
 ( Remember ubuntu 9.10 had python 2.6 so you need the
 beta package which is the tarball above not the *.deb )

Remember to get everything needed to build the packages above.

sudo apt-get install build-essential libusb-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Now we will eliminate the lockup.

Fire up Synaptic package manager find and install the following package

 1) wicd

find the following packages in Synaptic and mark for complete removal

 1) gnome network manager
( this should have been auto-removed when wicd was installed - verify )

 2) modem manager
( This is what actually causes the lockup - mark for complete removal )

This will stop the total system lockup on USB insertion of the
Quicksilver device and replace the Gnome Network Manager / Modem Manager
combination with a usable alternative ( wicd ) which does not suffer
from Delusions of Grandure demanding total control of devices they have
no idea how to operate.

Now to get the Quicksilver running

Read the web pages on the Pharscale site for how to build/install each
of the three packages downloaded above. NOTE: To make hsoconnect
successfully manually pre-create the following two directories.

/usr/share/hsoconnect
/usr/share/hsoconnect/hsoc

Build and install the 3 Pharscape downloaded packages in the same order
they were downloaded above.

This will ultimately give you wicd in control of all wired and wifi
network links, while only the hsoconnect package gui tool will be in
control of the AT&T Quicksilver 3G GSM/HSDPA modem device and links.

I have given up any hope of straightening out the Gnome Network Manager
and Modem Manager combination, they have no idea nor it seems any
concern their packages are causing the total lockup of systems, leaving
the only way forward as their complete removal and replacement by wicd.

I forgot to give credit to the person who discovered the workaround: Pat Hickel. (phickel)

The HSOconnect package also has some problems where every time you start the network using HSOconnect you end up with /etc/resolv.conf having the incorrect file mode 600 ( -rw---------- ) where it should be 644 ( -rw-r--r-- ) which causes a lot of problems for non-root network applications ( firefox, evolution, thunderbird, etc. ).

To address this "sudo apt-get install resolvconf" fixes the problem nicely.

The HSOconnect stuff knows how to work with the resolvconf package and even though not specifically listed as a dependancy requirement, I have found it to be absolutely essential to fix the /etc/resolv.conf file permissions issue.

Pat Hickel