Using an Alcatel X200 under Linux

I recently purchased an Alcatel Onetouch X200¹ 3G USB modem, to be able to use internet on various locations where there is no wired or wifi available. Works fine under Windows/Mac OS X, bit more of a hassle under Linux.

Here are some hints on how to get it to work:

• You need to install usb-modeswitch to switch the card from it’s builtin usb-storage mode to the USBModem mode. Configuration is done in /etc/usb_modeswitch.conf
• Use /dev/ttyUSB2. The other two ports that your modem will give don’t really work well.
• Also, use atleast kernel 2.6.31. Earlier ones might not work.
• Disable PIN authentication on your SIMcard! This one thing was what kept it from working decently - I tried tons of things, and when I disabled the PIN, it worked nearly instantaneously.
  The command to do PIN auth is AT+CPIN=1111 (changing 1111 by your actual PIN), but when issuing this command the modem accepts it, but very often freaks out afterwards. Weird.
  You can find a nice list of GSM modem AT codes on gsm-modem.de.

Thats about it!

1. Internet Archive snapshot. Original URL: http://www.my-onetouch.com/global/content/view/full/1850  ↩︎