Using HSDPA dongles on Ubuntu Linux 10.04 (May 2010)

Featuring Dell 5510 (aka Merlin XU870) and Huawei E220 dongles)
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The 5510 were sold by Dell UK with a Vodafone SIM for over £200,but I went to Ebay and picked up an UNLOCKED sample for £35 plus postage.

I had read quite complex linux terminal sequences and kernel rebuilds on ealier Linux so would I be able to get it working in Ubuntu??
they do work on Ubuntu 10.04 - out of the box!

Both adapters worked easily, they were automatically detected with no special action required. The drivers for all the devices are already in this 2010 Linux kernel.

To connect, the action was the same in all cases:

Make sure you know the correct APN for your SIM card - that is most important.

1. Insert the SIM card in the device (With PIN number de-activated first) and plug the device into the laptop. The Dell device is a 34mm PCI Express card, the other two were USB devices.
In all cases it should start to blink blue or green (blue is 3G, green is GPRS).
2. Left Click on the Network Icon (in the top panel) and select "New Mobile Broadband (GSM) Connection" click Forward and skip to Step 8.
If that invitation does not appear because there is already a mobile connection set up, perform steps 3 thru 7 instead of step 2.

3. Right-click on the network icon in the System Tray
4. Select Edit Connections.
5. Click on the Mobile Broadband tab.
6. Click on Add.
7. Select the device from the drop-down and click Forward - it will appear in the list if the device has been recognised by Ubuntu.

8. Select country (Britain UK in my case)
9. In the Select your provider, I selected "I can't find my provider...." and typed in "My Vodafone" and hit Forward.
10. In APN I typed "PPBUNDLE.INTERNET" for Vodafone 3GB PAYG service (yours will be different if not Vodafone. Google for it or ask your ISP.
11. Confirmed next 2 pages. The dial number was correct so I made no changes.

To connect Left click on the Network icon and select the connection "My Vodafone" you just added.
If you use another ISP then you need to Google for the APN details. or fire up the Windows app in a windows machine and look for the APN details in the Profile settings.

Vodafone VMC Although there is a vodafone project to provide VMC type interface on Ubuntu, avoid avoid - it will screw Ubuntu 10.04. You will not get SMS or dashboard access to usage etc using the above method as they are VMC features, however registering with vodafone.co.uk "My Account" will give you all the usage/credit info you need. Register a credit card and you should have the under-18 content control removed too.