# Troubleshooting Cellular - no connection found **URL:** \ **Category:** Product support\ **Tags:** network\ **Created:** [April 12, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316 "2021-04-12T18:05:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eweimholt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/77aa72/32.png) [@eweimholt](https://forums.balena.io/u/eweimholt)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/1 "2021-04-12T18:05:09Z")
> **[Why cellular and IoT isn't as hard as you think](https://www.balena.io/blog/cellular-iot-isnt-as-hard-as-you-think/)** > > Add a stock cellular modem and SIM to a Raspberry Pi and get up and running with cellular networking in less than 30 minutes. I am following the steps in the above tutorial. Here are the hardware components I’m using: - Raspberry Pi 4 Model B - SIM card activated on Twilio’s Super SIM (APN=super) - Quectel Modem EC25-A - 4G Antenna - SixFab Raspberry Pi 3G-4G/LTE Base HAT The cellular file found on the device in HostOS: ``` root@bbcf9ff:/mnt/boot/system-connections# cat cellular [connection] id=cellular type=gsm autoconnect=true [gsm] apn=super auto-config=true [serial] baud=115200 [ipv4] method=auto [ipv6] addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy method=auto ``` However, once I boot up the device, there’s no IP address for a cellular connection, just the ethernet. ``` root@bbcf9ff:/mnt/boot/system-connections# nmcli connection show NAME UUID TYPE DEVICE Wired connection 1 4e4af7a3-4e99-3068-b7ee-428c7014e1bb ethernet enp1s0u1u4 supervisor0 6679a202-5ba0-4c2f-9329-b6e9c6862f26 bridge supervisor0 Wired connection 2 4b423ef9-80c2-3c53-9af6-5070abd949fe ethernet -- ``` The antenna is connected to MAIN on the Quectel Modem. Any other tips for troubleshooting cellular connections? ---
**Author:** ![rosswesleyporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@rosswesleyporter](https://forums.balena.io/u/rosswesleyporter)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 12:54am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/4 "2021-04-13T00:54:05Z")
Hello @eweimholt, Welcome to the forums! Thank you for clearly describing the problem. You asked for troubleshooting tips, so let’s start with the docs: - [Cellular Modem Setup](https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/OS/network/2.x/#cellular-modem-setup) - [ModemManager](https://www.balena.io/docs/learn/manage/ssh-access/#modemmanager) And some additional thoughts: `mmcli -L` to see a list of available modems `mmcli -m 0` hopefully under Status you’ll see state:connected `nmcli device show` and check GENERAL.STATE I hope this is helpful. Please let us know what you find. ---
**Author:** ![rosswesleyporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@rosswesleyporter](https://forums.balena.io/u/rosswesleyporter)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 1:19am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/12 "2021-04-13T01:19:36Z")
Hello again @eweimholt, One of my colleagues just mentioned that he has somewhat similar hardware (e.g. a Pi4, Twilio Super SIM) and offered to do a test tomorrow. So you may hear from him as well. ---
**Author:** ![eweimholt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/77aa72/32.png) [@eweimholt](https://forums.balena.io/u/eweimholt)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/13 "2021-04-13T01:20:50Z")
Thanks for the pointers! Here’s the output from those commands. Under Status, the state is registered, not connected… I am not sure how to change the state. `nmcli device show` shows only the ethernet connection. ``` root@bbcf9ff:~# mmcli -L /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/Modem/0 [QUALCOMM INCORPORATED] QUECTEL Mobile Broadband Module root@bbcf9ff:~# mmcli -m 0 ----------------------------------- General | dbus path: /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/Modem/0 | device id: df4e20c78d327216b59c6615d5aa5a0ca26f6f77 ----------------------------------- Hardware | manufacturer: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED | model: QUECTEL Mobile Broadband Module | firmware revision: EC25AFAR05A06M4G | carrier config: ROW_Generic_3GPP | carrier config revision: 05010824 | h/w revision: 10000 | supported: gsm-umts, lte | current: gsm-umts, lte | equipment id: 861641043007193 ----------------------------------- System | device: /sys/devices/platform/scb/fd500000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3 | drivers: option1, qmi_wwan | plugin: quectel | primary port: cdc-wdm0 | ports: cdc-wdm0 (qmi), ttyUSB0 (qcdm), ttyUSB2 (at), | ttyUSB1 (gps), wwp1s0u1u3i4 (net), ttyUSB3 (at) ----------------------------------- Status | lock: sim-pin2 | unlock retries: sim-pin (3), sim-puk (10), sim-pin2 (10), sim-puk2 (10) | state: registered | power state: on | access tech: lte | signal quality: 78% (recent) ----------------------------------- Modes | supported: allowed: 3g; preferred: none | allowed: 4g; preferred: none | allowed: 3g, 4g; preferred: 4g | allowed: 3g, 4g; preferred: 3g | current: allowed: 3g, 4g; preferred: 4g ----------------------------------- Bands | supported: utran-4, utran-5, utran-2, eutran-2, eutran-4, eutran-12 | current: utran-4, utran-5, utran-2, eutran-2, eutran-4, eutran-12 ----------------------------------- IP | supported: ipv4, ipv6, ipv4v6 ----------------------------------- 3GPP | imei: 861641043007193 | operator id: 310410 | operator name: AT&T | registration: home ----------------------------------- 3GPP EPS | ue mode of operation: csps-2 ----------------------------------- SIM | dbus path: /org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/SIM/0 root@bbcf9ff:~# nmcli device show GENERAL.DEVICE: enp1s0u1u4 GENERAL.TYPE: ethernet GENERAL.HWADDR: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX GENERAL.MTU: 1500 GENERAL.DEVICE: enp1s0u1u4 GENERAL.TYPE: ethernet GENERAL.HWADDR: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX GENERAL.MTU: 1500 GENERAL.STATE: 100 (connected) GENERAL.CONNECTION: Wired connection 1 GENERAL.CON-PATH: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/1 WIRED-PROPERTIES.CARRIER: on IP4.ADDRESS[1]: 192.168.0.33/24 IP4.GATEWAY: 192.168.0.2 IP4.ROUTE[1]: dst = 0.0.0.0/0, nh = 192.168.0.1, mt = 100 IP4.ROUTE[2]: dst = 192.168.0.0/24, nh = 0.0.0.0, mt = 100 IP4.DNS[1]: 75.75.75.75 IP4.DNS[2]: 75.75.76.76 IP4.DOMAIN[1]: hsd1.il.comcast.net IP6.ADDRESS[1]: xxxx:xxx:xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/xx IP6.ADDRESS[2]: xxxx:xxx:xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/xx IP6.GATEWAY: fxxxx:xxx:xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/xx IP6.ROUTE[1]: dst = 2601:241:300:afd0::/60, nh = fe80::b2b9:8aff:fe06:7e62, mt = 100 IP6.ROUTE[2]: dst = 2601:241:300:afd0::/64, nh = ::, mt = 100 IP6.ROUTE[3]: dst = ::/0, nh = fe80::b2b9:8aff:fe06:7e62, mt = 20100 IP6.ROUTE[4]: dst = fe80::/64, nh = ::, mt = 100 root@bbcf9ff:~# nmcli device show GENERAL.DEVICE: enp1s0u1u4 GENERAL.TYPE: ethernet GENERAL.HWADDR: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX GENERAL.MTU: 1500 GENERAL.STATE: 100 (connected) GENERAL.CONNECTION: Wired connection 1 GENERAL.CON-PATH: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/1 WIRED-PROPERTIES.CARRIER: on IP4.ADDRESS[1]: 192.168.0.33/24 IP4.GATEWAY: 192.168.0.1 IP4.ROUTE[1]: dst = 0.0.0.0/0, nh = 192.168.0.1, mt = 100 IP4.ROUTE[2]: dst = 192.168.0.0/24, nh = 0.0.0.0, mt = 100 IP4.DNS[1]: 75.75.75.75 IP4.DNS[2]: 75.75.76.76 IP4.DOMAIN[1]: hsd1.il.comcast.net IP6.ADDRESS[1]: xxxx:xxx:xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/xx IP6.ADDRESS[2]: xxxx:xxx:xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/xx IP6.GATEWAY: xxxx:xxx:xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/xx IP6.ROUTE[1]: dst = 2601:241:300:afd0::/60, nh = fe80::b2b9:8aff:fe06:7e62, mt = 100 IP6.ROUTE[2]: dst = 2601:241:300:afd0::/64, nh = ::, mt = 100 IP6.ROUTE[3]: dst = ::/0, nh = fe80::b2b9:8aff:fe06:7e62, mt = 20100 IP6.ROUTE[4]: dst = fe80::/64, nh = ::, mt = 100 ``` ---
**Author:** ![rosswesleyporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@rosswesleyporter](https://forums.balena.io/u/rosswesleyporter)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/15 "2021-04-13T02:25:49Z")
Hi @eweimholt, Thank you for running the commands. That is helpful diagnostic information. Given what you found, please also try ``mmcli -b 0```. ---
**Author:** ![eweimholt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/77aa72/32.png) [@eweimholt](https://forums.balena.io/u/eweimholt)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/17 "2021-04-13T02:43:48Z")
Here is the output: ``` root@bbcf9ff:~# mmcli -b 0 error: couldn't find bearer at '/org/freedesktop/ModemManager1/Bearer/0': 'not found in any modem' ``` ---
**Author:** ![eweimholt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/77aa72/32.png) [@eweimholt](https://forums.balena.io/u/eweimholt)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/18 "2021-04-13T20:23:12Z")
I am able to manually create a connection by doing the following: First, I connected to the device using ethernet, and opened a HostOS terminal. looking at `nmcli d`, we see that the `gsm` connection is disconnected. ``` root@c210748:~# nmcli d DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION enp1s0u1u4 ethernet connected Wired connection 2 supervisor0 bridge connected (externally) supervisor0 cdc-wdm0 gsm disconnected -- wlan0 wifi disconnected -- eth0 ethernet unavailable -- balena0 bridge unmanaged -- br-ee348fe92228 bridge unmanaged -- resin-dns bridge unmanaged -- lo loopback unmanaged -- resin-vpn tun unmanaged -- ``` I added a connection, naming it “twilio-connection” with the apn for Twilio Super SIM: ``` root@c210748:~# nmcli con add type gsm ifname cdc-wdm0 con-name twilio-connection apn super Connection 'twilio-connection' (31c3e9a8-27d4-4237-bf96-448cc045a62a) successfully added. ``` Now, I have a cellular connection. I unplugged the ethernet cable to confirm that cellular is working. ``` root@c210748:~# nmcli d DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION cdc-wdm0 gsm connected twilio-connection supervisor0 bridge connected (externally) supervisor0 wlan0 wifi disconnected -- eth0 ethernet unavailable -- balena0 bridge unmanaged -- br-ee348fe92228 bridge unmanaged -- resin-dns bridge unmanaged -- lo loopback unmanaged -- resin-vpn tun unmanaged -- ``` My follow-up question is, how can I add this to the boot image so that I don’t have to manually create a cellular connection on each device? Note: I followed this post: [raspberry pi - Modem on Raspbian not connecting with `nmcli` - Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63518968/modem-on-raspbian-not-connecting-with-nmcli), but I did not have to run `nmcli con up `, it connected automatically once I added it ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/19 "2021-04-13T20:31:55Z")
Hi @eweimholt, I am starting to test this now… Just got my Twilio Super SIM installed and bringing up the board. I’ll report back with my findings shortly. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/37 "2021-04-13T23:00:47Z")
Hi @eweimholt, I think I have narrowed down the issue to some degree as a bug that has crept in to more recent OS releases. I don’t know _exactly_ when it was introduced quite yet, but flashing an older version of the OS to an SD Card, setting the connection profile info exactly as you outlined above, and booting up resulted in an automatic connection as is expected. This was done using the Pi4 + SixFab HAT + Quectel EC25-A + Twilio Super SIM. We will start investigating precisely where things got off track, but in the meantime I am going to test more OS versions and we can at least get you on a path forward. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eweimholt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/77aa72/32.png) [@eweimholt](https://forums.balena.io/u/eweimholt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 12:52am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/42 "2021-04-14T00:52:25Z")
Sounds good! I am using balenaOS v2.73.1+rev1 ---
**Author:** ![rosswesleyporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@rosswesleyporter](https://forums.balena.io/u/rosswesleyporter)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/44 "2021-04-14T19:35:22Z")
Hi @eweimholt, dtischler now has a working setup using the current version of balenaOS. He started as you did from the blog post. He pasted directly from the blog into the cellular file. He then removed all extra spaces at the end of lines, specifically including removing extra spaces at the end of method=auto (the last line). Please give this a try. The hypothesis here is that NetworkManager is newly sensitive to extra spaces in some circumstances. That is, since the time of the blog post, balenaOS has been updated, which includes an updated NetworkManager. For clarity, you did all the right things. Please let us know how your test goes. ---
**Author:** ![eweimholt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/77aa72/32.png) [@eweimholt](https://forums.balena.io/u/eweimholt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/46 "2021-04-15T14:04:53Z")
I added a cellular file with removed spaces, and then rebooted the device. Still no luck. ---
**Author:** ![vipulgupta2048](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a183cd/32.png) [@vipulgupta2048](https://forums.balena.io/u/vipulgupta2048)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/47 "2021-04-15T15:02:48Z")
Thanks for reaching back, can you tell us a bit more about how you re-added the cellular file with the suggested changes. Did you follow instructions on the docs to [change network at runtime](https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/OS/network/2.x/#changing-the-network-at-runtime) or did you reflash the device? ---
**Author:** ![eweimholt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/77aa72/32.png) [@eweimholt](https://forums.balena.io/u/eweimholt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/49 "2021-04-15T15:09:23Z")
I am on macOS, I created the cellular file through terminal and saved it to the system-connections/ folder on resin-boot, and then ejected the SD card and reflashed the device. Looking at it from HostOS, here’s the file. ``` root@bff648e:/mnt/boot/system-connections# cat cellular [connection] id=cellular type=gsm autoconnect=true [gsm] apn=super [serial] baud=115200 [ipv4] method=auto [ipv6] addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy method=auto root@bff648e:/mnt/boot/system-connections# ``` ---
**Author:** ![rosswesleyporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@rosswesleyporter](https://forums.balena.io/u/rosswesleyporter)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2021, 4:46am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/50 "2021-04-19T04:46:48Z")
Hi @eweimholt, Thank you the update. It sounds like you repeated the [blog post](https://www.balena.io/blog/cellular-iot-isnt-as-hard-as-you-think/) process, starting from “Click the Add Device button”. Which is indeed a good way to do this. In other words, I’m assuming that you reflashed your uSD card from a balenaOS download, then used your Mac to add the cellular file (with all extra spaces removed), and then provisioned your Pi by booting from the just-updated uSD card. Thus from the perspective of that instance of the OS, that was the first boot (which is relevant to the process). Did I correctly understand what you did? If the above is correct, then the next step is for me to confer with some colleagues and get back to you. I remain confident that together we’ll get this to work for you, as we have many customers that are happily using cellular at scale. Thank you for all of the clear information and tests so far! ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/troubleshooting-cellular-no-connection-found/290316/53 "2021-04-19T17:28:40Z")
Hi @eweimholt, let me walk you through the process I took, just to see if there are any discrepancies with your setup… First and foremost, I am on a Mac as well, and from balenaCloud I download my balenaOS image file, and flash it with Etcher like usual. Upon completion of the flashing process, I take the SD Card out of my laptop, then, re-insert it right back in. My Mac automatically mounts the ‘resin-boot’ partition. I then navigate to the ‘system-connections’ folder, and open up the ‘resin-sample.ignore’ demo configuration file that is already in the folder, with TextEdit. (on my machine, I have to right-click and “Open With…”) Now I have the file open for editing, and I simply delete everything in there, and then copy/paste in the code block from the blog post containing the Twilio cellular connection info. Next, I have to go line-by-line and delete any extra spaces at the end of each line. On my machine, there were about 5 or 6 lines that had extra spaces at the end, that I had to trim off. Once all of them are cleaned out, I save the file and close TextEdit. Next, in the Finder, I right-click and rename the file, changing it from ‘resin-sample.ignore’ to ‘cellular’. Once that is complete, I eject the SD Card, put it in the Pi, and it boots up… After a few moments it shows up in my balenaCloud dashboard, once the Twilio connection is established, the device checks in to balena, etc. Hope that helps a bit!