Librem5 5G is here! Modem Sim8202g tested successfully

Hardware Librem 5
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44

Yes, it works! I got the modem to give 5G in PureOS byzantium backports (didn’t have non-backports available, but shouldn’t be a problem if kernel and modemmanager are recent enough [no idea how recent], so update first). Needed steps are (but they are not persistent, so need to do after every reboot - not sure how, as first tries didn’t take):

  1. Load missing kernel modules with sudo modprobe option && sudo modprobe qmi_wwan && sudo modprobe cdc_wdm
  2. Authorize usb device with echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1.2/authorized [specific device path used (that 1-1.2) is identified from lsusb and logs from turning modem HWKS on/off/on and doing sudo dmesg | tail - 50]
  3. Set up udev rules with sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-modem-authorize.rules where add the line
    ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="1e0e", ATTR{idProduct}=="9001", ATTR{authorized}="1" and can now reload rules with sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger
  4. Flick the modem HWKS off and back to on, check with ls /dev/ttyUSB* that there are USB devices 0-4. Modem should appear in a few seconds later (it’s not the fastest to appear).
  5. Check mobile network settings from Settings (or from top slider if newer phosh) and enable mobile data (LTE) to remove the orange marker from the mobile connection icon (may need a proper SIM card).

And just to note: this is how I got it to work, but it’s manual and this may not be the most efficient way. The modprobes and rules re-load and trigger, and maybe modem power cycling, need to happen at boot to get this persistent… if anyone has suggestions…

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