Sierra 313U

izrod79

Hello,

Apologies if this is not in the right place. I am trying to get a Sierra 313u to work with the pfSense 2.1.4 (or 2.1.5, have not installed it yet). From what I read it is not a supported modem in BSD, hence not supported in pfSense… yet. My question is:
1. What can I do to get it working? I am sorry, I realize this may be too broad of a question.
2. Can you please dumb it down for me a bit. I extremely new to pfSense and BSD and may miss the completely obvious even if it is staring me in the face.

Thank you very much in advance!

stephenw10

Collect as much info as you can. Check for any reports at the FreeBSD forums (or PC-BSD). Look for information at the usb-modeswich forum.
Once pfSense has booted plug the modem in then check what appears in the system log. You will have a new USB device shown, probably something like ugen0.2. At the command line run:

 usbconfig -d ugen0.2 dump_device_desc

Or whatever is appropriate for your device.

Also see: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=57383.0

Steve

izrod79

@stephenw10:

Collect as much info as you can. Check for any reports at the FreeBSD forums (or PC-BSD). Look for information at the usb-modeswich forum.
Once pfSense has booted plug the modem in then check what appears in the system log. You will have a new USB device shown, probably something like ugen0.2. At the command line run:
 usbconfig -d ugen0.2 dump_device_desc
Or whatever is appropriate for your device.

Also see: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=57383.0

Steve

Hi,

sorry for the delay and thank you for your response. Here's the output:

ugen4.2: <aircard 313u="" sierra="" wireless,="" incorporated=""> at usbus4, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON

bLength = 0x0012
bDescriptorType = 0x0001
bcdUSB = 0x0200
bDeviceClass = 0x000
bDeviceSubClass = 0x000
bDeviceProtocol = 0x000
bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0040
idVendor = 0x0f3d
idProduct = 0x68aa
bcdDevice = 0x0006
iManufacturer = 0x0003 <sierra wireless,="" incorporated="">
iProduct = 0x0002 <aircard 313u="">
iSerialNumber = 0x0004 <0126115000632456>
bNumConfigurations = 0x0001</aircard></sierra></aircard>

This is the output of the command.

I actually have been to that page you pointed me to but I have not found any information on actually how to accomplish this.

Thanks

stephenw10

The device already appears to be in target mode:

idVendor = 0x0f3d
idProduct = 0x68aa

That seems to be the modem mode for Sierra devices. See:
http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=845&hilit=0x68aa&sid=b9751a6d7d4845154aaf1507effd2cf9

Do you see any new USB serial ports listed in /dev? They will appear as cuaU*

If you check the system logs via the webgui then plug in the modem then re-check the logs you will have some new entries. Those should tell us what's happening. As referenced in the other thread that modem may already be supported. It does seem to have a slightly odd way of talking to it though as referenced in the usb-modeswitch forum thread.

Steve

stephenw10

You might also try a pfSense 2.2beta image as that will have all the modem definitions from FreeBSD 10.

stephenw10

Looking at the relevant source files in FreeBSD 8.3:
@https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/release/8.3.0/sys/dev/usb/usbdevs?revision=234063&view=markup:

vendor AIRPRIME 0x0f3d AirPrime, Inc.
….
vendor SIERRA 0x1199 Sierra Wireless
....
/* AirPrime products /
product AIRPRIME PC5220 0x0112 CDMA Wireless PC Card
....
/ Sierra Wireless products */
product SIERRA AC313U 0x68aa Sierra Wireless AirCard 313U
product SIERRA TRUINSTALL 0x0fff Aircard Tru Installer

Hmmm. The default mode should be VID:0x1199 PID:0x0fff and the target (modem) mode correctly 0x0f3d:0X68aa. However that's listed as 'Airprime' not sierra. u3g won't recognise that combination of IDs:
@https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/release/8.3.0/sys/dev/usb/serial/u3g.c?revision=234063&view=markup:

U3G_DEV(SIERRA, AC313U, 0),

Thus I would guess it's switching it it from the default mode, Sierra VID and PID, but not assigning any serial ports to it because the result is not recognised.
In the FreeBSD 10 source a combination device exists:
@https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/release/10.0.0/sys/dev/usb/serial/u3g.c?revision=260789&view=markup:

U3G_DEV(AIRPRIME, AC313U, 0),

I would expect this to work in pfSense 2.2.

Steve