Hi everyone
I have Raspberry Pi 4 2GB and I have configured GSM modem file like it says here: Network Setup on balenaOS - Balena Documentation
When I go in console of device in Balena I can run mmcli -m 0 and it shows the modem is connected online with 35% signal quality on the network. But it does not show up in ifconfig and if I disconnect the WiFi the device goes offline and does not try to use cellular connection even though it is available.
What can I do?
Anyone has 3G connection working in Balena? Thanks
Hello @superdave welcome to the balena community!
Could you please share here the results of your nmcli commands? Could you please confirm that you have credits on the sim card?
Meanwhile when you are connected through WiFi could you please try ping -I <name of your gsma interface> google.com to check that the cellular connectivity works?
Hi, thank you for reply.
root@9e53916:~# mmcli -L
/org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/Modem/0 [huawei] E220
root@9e53916:~# mmcli -m 0
-----------------------------
General | path: /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/Modem/0
| device id: acde4c693cb4777d46ab2c1dbcb9f757f0d9799f
-----------------------------
Hardware | manufacturer: huawei
| model: E220
| firmware revision: 11.117.08.05.156
| supported: gsm-umts
| current: gsm-umts
| equipment id: 358193015605893
-----------------------------
System | device: /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.1
| drivers: option
| plugin: huawei
| primary port: ttyUSB1
| ports: ttyUSB0 (at), ttyUSB1 (at)
-----------------------------
Numbers | own: +447*********
-----------------------------
Status | unlock retries: sim-pin (3), sim-puk (10), sim-pin2 (3), sim-puk2 (10)
| state: registered
| power state: on
| access tech: umts
| signal quality: 38% (recent)
-----------------------------
Modes | supported: allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: none
| allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: 2g
| allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: 3g
| allowed: 2g; preferred: none
| allowed: 3g; preferred: none
| current: allowed: 2g, 3g; preferred: 3g
-----------------------------
IP | supported: ipv4, ipv6
-----------------------------
3GPP | imei: 35819301*******
| operator id: 23420
| operator name: 3 UK
| registration: home
-----------------------------
SIM | primary sim path: /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/SIM/0
I have removed phone number and part of IMEI for safety.
I don’t know how to specify this interface with ping because it does not show up as an interface
root@9e53916:~# ifconfig
balena0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 02:42:76:87:46:6D
inet addr:10.114.101.1 Bcast:10.114.101.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
br-7f43c4f551d3 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 02:42:88:38:08:DC
inet addr:172.17.0.1 Bcast:172.17.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:4C:36:03:14
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:990 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:990 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:144270 (140.8 KiB) TX bytes:144270 (140.8 KiB)
resin-dns Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 96:64:5D:6C:1D:E6
inet addr:10.114.102.1 Bcast:0.0.0.0 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
resin-vpn Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
inet addr:10.246.85.22 P-t-P:52.4.252.97 Mask:255.255.255.255
inet6 addr: fe80::fd81:a493:dc57:4a51/64 Scope:Link
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:198 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:208 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
RX bytes:19126 (18.6 KiB) TX bytes:22445 (21.9 KiB)
supervisor0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 02:42:5E:57:ED:C1
inet addr:10.114.104.1 Bcast:10.114.104.127 Mask:255.255.255.128
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr E4:5F:01:3C:51:C9
inet addr:10.1.121.117 Bcast:10.1.121.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::c6fa:7b88:ed2a:e763/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:107239 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:13090 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:154738245 (147.5 MiB) TX bytes:1453053 (1.3 MiB)
PS. I did this tests on Raspberry Pi Zero 2W because original Pi 4 is already used in other project. On this Pi Zero I just flashed a Balena Dash image and did not even make network config file for USB 3G modem but it still works
@superdave try nmcli devices (or ncmli d) and there you might have the list of the interfaces.
On this Pi Zero I just flashed a Balena Dash image and did not even make network config file for USB 3G modem but it still works
This is great 
Let us know if we can help you more!
Hi, sorry for confusion, when I said “it works” I meant it shows up correctly in mmcli etc and it is connected to the provider without specifying APN. In fact when I was testing with previous Pi 4 I was testing with 2 different SIM cards from different providers, and mmcli still showed SIM 1 was connected to the provider even when I had APN settings for provider 2 in the config file. Now I am testing with Pi Zero I have not even created config file and it is still connected to provider 1 so I assume it has detected the APN settings automatically.
I will test nmcli commands later today.
root@9e53916:~# nmcli d
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
wlan0 wifi connected balena-wifi-01
supervisor0 bridge connected (externally) supervisor0
ttyUSB1 gsm disconnected --
eth0 ethernet unavailable --
balena0 bridge unmanaged --
br-7f43c4f551d3 bridge unmanaged --
resin-dns bridge unmanaged --
veth9a23318 ethernet unmanaged --
vethe65ab72 ethernet unmanaged --
lo loopback unmanaged --
resin-vpn tun unmanaged --
Hello @superdave is this working properly? i see the gsm disconnected.
Let us know if we can help you more
Hi, can you suggest what I can do to test more? I am not sure where to go from here. I know this modem and SIM card works, because I used it before on Windows and also on Raspberry Pi with sakis3g.
Thanks
Did you check this tutorial?
There are examples!
El dj., 22 de des. 2022, 15:07, superdave via balenaForums <notifications@balena.discoursemail.com> va escriure:
Hi
I created cellular config file on system-connections folder again. Now in nmcli devices I can see it is connected:
root@9e53916:~# nmcli d
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
wlan0 wifi connected balena-wifi-01
supervisor0 bridge connected (externally) supervisor0
ttyUSB1 gsm connected cellular
ppp0 ppp disconnected --
So I check with curl and it can successfully use the 3G:
root@9e53916:~# curl --interface ppp0 myip.wtf/json
{
"YourFuckingIPAddress": "[xxx.xx].224.133",
"YourFuckingLocation": "Glasgow, SCT, United Kingdom",
"YourFuckingHostname": "[xxx.xx].224.133.threembb.co.uk",
"YourFuckingISP": "Three",
"YourFuckingTorExit": false,
"YourFuckingCity": "Glasgow",
"YourFuckingCountry": "United Kingdom",
"YourFuckingCountryCode": "GB"
}
So it seems that now it is working.
Thanks