My Mobile Internet connection is disabled even though it is enabled

Question

I don't know how to better formulate the question. I have enabled the Mobile Broadband, and the system correctly detects that I have a Vodafone CZ HSUPA connection available on the SIM card. However, the item is non-clickable. I suppose it may be a problem of permissions to the device, but I have no idea whether this is correct.

Some technical information:

• system: Fedora 20 with Mate 1.8.1
• computer: Toshiba Satellite with Intel i5
• modem: Huawei K5150 (It is in the correct mode even though the log below shows it's in the mass storage mode; the mode handling has changed recently in the kernels, but the modem itself blinks blue for modem mode not green for mass storage mode).
• ifconfig does not contain anything relevant

• lsusb item: Bus 003 Device 006: ID 12d1:1f16 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. K5150 LTE modem (Mass Storage Mode)

• relevant dmesg output:

[ 4024.990549] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 4025.310773] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=12d1, idProduct=1f16
[ 4025.310780] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=5, Product=4, SerialNumber=7
[ 4025.310784] usb 3-2: Product: K5150
[ 4025.310787] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Vodafone (Huawei)
[ 4025.310790] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
[ 4025.338971] usb-storage 3-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 4025.339306] scsi host9: usb-storage 3-2:1.0
[ 4025.920204] usb 3-2: usbfs: interface 0 claimed by usb-storage while 'usb_modeswitch' sets config #2
[ 4027.145408] cdc_mbim 3-2:2.0: setting rx_max = 16384
[ 4027.145687] cdc_mbim 3-2:2.0: setting tx_max = 16384
[ 4027.145918] cdc_mbim 3-2:2.0: cdc-wdm0: USB WDM device
[ 4027.146361] cdc_mbim 3-2:2.0 wwan0: register 'cdc_mbim' at usb-0000:00:14.0-2, CDC MBIM, ba:e5:ae:06:91:46
[ 4027.146867] usb-storage 3-2:2.2: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 4027.147086] scsi host10: usb-storage 3-2:2.2
[ 4027.152825] cdc_mbim 3-2:2.0 wwp0s20u2c2: renamed from wwan0
[ 4027.162171] systemd-udevd[3978]: renamed network interface wwan0 to wwp0s20u2c2
[ 4028.149589] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Vodafone Storage(Huawei)  2.31 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 4028.150502] sd 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[ 4028.151351] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 4073.780156] DCCP: Activated CCID 2 (TCP-like)
[ 4073.780169] DCCP: Activated CCID 3 (TCP-Friendly Rate Control)

Answer 1

What you are seeing is the Operator Name as retrieved by the modem once it gets registered in the network. This operator name is just the name ModemManager provided. Beware! The operator name may not match your real operator, if a) you're roaming or b) your operator is a virtual operator using other operator's network (that is not yet fully handled in ModemManager).

If you want to get connected, you need to add a new Connection in networkmanager, and you can do that clicking in the "New mobile broadband connection..." button in the applet menu. Once you click there you should get a wizard to create a new connection setting: you select your country, then you select your operator and finally you select the APN that the operator told you to use. If you don't know the APN, call them and they'll tell you the correct one. Choosing wrong APN may end up costing you extra money, so make sure you select the correct one.

Once you have created the connection setting via the wizard, you'll get a clickable item in addition to the non-clickable one. The clickable item will be the NM Connection setting, the non-clickable one the current operator info. Just click in the clickable item and you should get connected.