HOW TO make a GSM data card (like Airtel, Vodafone data cards) work in linux

It all started when one of my friends Prakhar who has an Airtel data card wanted to shift entirely from windows to linux... but the only problem was that the data card wasn't working... we tried to make it work , tried googling to figure out on how to make it work but it was of no use..we could not get all d useful info in one place where the whole process was given to install it on linux.. then we went to our champ friend LYNUS (something is there in the same i guess)for help... he worked for around 2-3 hrs and figured out everything and made it to work.... :)

LYNUS at work- click here to download one of his projects

The process:

plugin the datacard and type : ls /dev/ttyUSB*
check if the following files are listed
/dev/ttyUSB0 /dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/ttyUSB2 /dev/ttyUSB3
if not then

Download the file : huaweiAktBbo.c
(http://www.kanoistika.sk/bobovsky/archiv/umts/huaweiAktBbo.c)
type lsusb and check the output ...

It should b something like this:

rishi@rishi-laptop:/proc$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E620 USB Modem
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

line number 5 shows the vendor ID is 0x12d1 and product ID is 0x1001

now open the c file and search for
vendor = 0x12d1;
product = 0x1003;
and replace dem with your values...
vendor = 0x12d1;
product = 0x1001;
in my case

The libusb-dev package is required to compile the c file..
to install it Ubuntu or Debian users Type:
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev

Compile:
gcc huaweiAktBbo.c -o huaweiAktBbo -lusb
Run:
sudo huaweiAktBbo

Download the GUI from betavine:
https://forge.betavine.net/frs/?group_id=12&release_id=116
pick your choice from the list whichever is applicable for you and download the software..

chmod +x vodafone-mobile-connect-card-driver-for-linux-2.0.beta2-ubuntu-installer.run
./vodafone-mobile-connect-card-driver-for-linux-2.0.beta2-ubuntu-installer.run
On running the setup it might get stuck for a while downloading dependencies ... so get a cup of coffee and get back...if it is still not done then wait ..if dere is a message Installation complete den everthing is fyn..

once the software is installed then run it from the applications--> internet --> vodafone ...
a windows will pop up listing the devices found ..press ok if your device is listed ....den make a new profile ...

give a profile name... username and password (if it is not to authenticate your account den give some random values)...choose your connection type and authentication mode and den give the APN... for example , for airtel india users it is airtelgprs.com... check it with your service provider...
its done.. now connect and enjoy....


yoyo...happy surfing... :)