Qualcomm Gobi 2000

Qualcomm Gobi 2000 This is a Qualcomm WWAN Adapter that is installed in a Mini-PCI Express slot NOTE! Specific versions of this card may come pre-configured for a certain carrier (AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone UK) Features Chipset: Qualcomm Gobi 2000 USB ID: 05c6:9204 (loader) USB ID: 05c6:9205 (modem) EV-DO/CDMA (800 & 1900Mhz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800 & 1900MHz) HSPA/UMTS (800, 850, 900, 1900 & 2100MHz) GPS, AGPS Up to 7.2Mbps download, 5.76Mbps upload (HSPA/UMTS) Up to 3.1Mbps download, 1.8Mbps upload (EV-DO)

Qualcomm Gobi 2000 WWAN Adapter

Lenovo Partnumbers

• ThinkPad AT&T® Gobi 2000 Broadband Option 78Y1398
• ThinkPad Gobi 2000 Broadband Option 78Y1399

Firmware

The firmware for this device is not publicly downloadable. It consists of 3 files:

• amss.mbn (firmware stage 1)
• apps.mbn (firmware stage 2)
• UQCN.mbn (firmware stage 3 - includes configuration and carrier specific settings)

Obtaining the Firmware

There are two ways of obtaining the firmware files:

1. From the pre-installed Lenovo Windows installation. Or from a clean Windows installation in a virtualizer that supports USB after installing the Qualcomm Gobi 2000 Wireless WAN Driver. The default location for the firmware files is C:\Program Files (x86)\QUALCOMM\Images\Lenovo\
2. Using Wine to execute the Qualcomm Gobi 2000 Wireless WAN Driver installer that simply unpacks the real installer named GobiInstaller.msi. Then just extract[1] the firmware images from the MSI file by $ wine msiexec /a ~/.wine/drive_c/DRIVERS/WWANQL/Driver/GobiInstaller.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\\DRIVERS\\GOBI.

Hint:

For enabling GPS, you will need a Windows installation with the Qualcomm Gobi 2000 Wireless WAN Driver installed, anyhow.

Choosing the Right Firmware

The firmware images are located in 11 directories. In general, each "officially" supported carrier has its own directory, as depicted in table "Firmware Images". The revision can be found in every file. The amms and apps files have the same revision and this one is reported by the AT I command. The internal name of the UQCN file shows whether the firmware is for UMTS or CDMA2000. If your UMTS carrier is not listed, the default firmware and the generic UMTS firmware should work as their revisions match. The table "Non-listed Carrier Compatibility" summarizes the experiences of the Talk page.

Firmware Images (Version 1.1.250/2.0.7.4 (7XWC48WW) Released 2011-07-05)

Dir	Carrier	Image	MD5 message digest	Revision	Internal UQCN name
0	Vodafone	amss.mbn apps.mbn UQCN.mbn	691a4da480076e239e8bfcfcd817d0de 661249ddae2b63e2eaac93594a21e409 cbae9a769f459b77910c2bbdf8a8c464	D1025-STUTABFD-3604	02-umts_vod-01024-014
1	Verizon	amss.mbn apps.mbn UQCN.mbn	06f76ed398458dad7b91c2d99a85a0a7 88a60ed745d75fb1b92c539574ecc972 e4d8d4dbd0a10d17f01f7f3bbd2ea734	D1055-STUTDSVD-3580 D1055-STUTDSVD-3580 D1055-UQCNDSVD-2021	02-c2k_vzw-00256-021
2	AT&T	UQCN.mbn	19eaec6cea1dc9b702b429dcb6032aa4	D1025-UQCNASDD-2016	02-umts_att-00768-016
3	Sprint	amss.mbn apps.mbn UQCN.mbn	d25f247cbe0fa481378d9f92c65c3e5e 46fcb2423c31fd96e4645a90956264d2 025293e44bd7f6a7800aa7eec9a00dad	D1055-STUTCSFD-3710 D1055-STUTCSFD-3710 D1055-UQCNCSFD-2025	02-c2k_sprint-00512-025
4	T-Mobile	UQCN.mbn	b186fe81731e17e59ca16b92cb2069b6	D1025-UQCNABLD-2011	02-umts_tmo-01280-011
6	Generic UMTS	UQCN.mbn	bdf27325ebb63251c1310cd3a8f7bab6	D1025-STUTABGD-3600	02-umts_gen-02304-018
7	Telefónica	UQCN.mbn	0e38dc59f7b3891b3605d9120a0ab149	D1025-UQCNABHD-2012	02-umts_tellfon-03072-012
8	Telecom Italia	UQCN.mbn	0300af5e51c387d64c48db71169b5b23	D1025-UQCNABID-2011	02-umts_telital-03584-011
9	Orange	amss.mbn apps.mbn UQCN.mbn	00c612a8a827dbef746f514e939fa77d 7d12b38ec6851bef5039b74bffffd423 735db64a57802e252ca4ff05d06b2f10	D1025-STUTABOD-3601 D1025-STUTABOD-3601 D1025-STUTABOD-3601	02-umts_orange-02816-012
12	DoCoMo	amss.mbn apps.mbn UQCN.mbn	4d6203bf9fe8ae1af439d4d163e91596 385a22740f80c0d00f8acdd9ad637032 e868df00bfa88596d588a52f872ff703	D1025-STUTABED-3587 D1025-STUTABED-3587 D1025-UQCNABED-2009	02-umts_doco-03328-009
UMTS	Default Firmware	amss.mbn apps.mbn	80fcfbb41a7d4331d4b7145972f5f3c4 00cbd411048cdadc3e4caf0d89d14fca	D1025-STUTABGD-3600 D1025-STUTABGD-3600

Non-listed Carrier Compatibility

Dir	Image	Works with
0	Vodafone	E-Plus Germany
1	Verizon
2	AT&T
3	Sprint
4	T-Mobile
6	Generic UMTS	O2 UK? O2 Germany Mobitel Slovenia
7	Telefónica
8	Telecom Italia
9	Orange
12	DoCoMo
UMTS	Default Firmware	UMTS unlocked, O2 UK? O2 Germany E-Plus Germany

Loading the Firmware

The firmware for this device must be loaded prior to using the device. It persists in the memory of the device until the next cold boot. Then, it has to be loaded again. The firmware can be loaded automatically via udev using the gobi_loader application[2]. This application expects the firmware image files (amss.mbn, apps.mbn, and UQCN.mbn) in /lib/firmware/gobi/. Thus, create this directory as root, when it does not exist, and copy the appropriate firmware files into the directory. The previous section helps you to obtain the correct files.

Technically, the firmware loading interface is exposed over USB as id 05c6:9204 which can be accessed as a character (ttyUSB) device under Linux using the qcserial driver. After successfully loading the firmware, the device switches to the USB id 05c6:9205 and exposes three character devices (ttyUSB).

Modem

After the firmware is loaded, the modem is exposed over USB as id 05c6:9205 which can be accessed as a character (ttyUSB) device. Normal dial-up software can be used to create a 3G connection.

GPS

Since kernel 2.6.37, or with a small kernel patch (submitted upstream: [3]), two additional serial ports are available: Diagnostics Monitor and NMEA GPS. The three serial ports are:

       # /dev/ttyUSB0 -> Diagnostics
       # /dev/ttyUSB1 -> 3G Modem
       # /dev/ttyUSB2 -> NMEA GPS port

There is a PPA for the qcserial module for Ubuntu 10.10 which uses DKMS: ppa:dveeden/thinkpad-fixes.

If you have another serial USB device activated before the Gobi the ttyUSB-numbers will certainly change.

The Diagnostics Monitor uses Qualcomm's DM protocol; I used libqcdm (ModemManager) to talk to it, found it working, but at least DM commands 12 and 64 are not implemented on my device (Thinkpad x100e).

The GPS port and how to enable it has been confirmed now in the Gobi 3000 source code at: https://www.codeaurora.org/patches/quic/gobi/ Enable/disable GPS with:

       echo "\$GPS_START" > /dev/ttyUSB2
       # use GPS
       echo "\$GPS_STOP"  > /dev/ttyUSB2

NOTE!

Preconditions: this has only been tested with and without a 3G SIM card attached to the device and the firmware successfully loaded. It is not necessary though to be connected via 3G to be able to use GPS.

Also before you can use "$GPS_START/$GPS_STOP" feature, "Auto tracking" has to be enabled in the Options of the ThinkVantage GPS Windows application. The ThinkVantage GPS Windows application works with a clean Windows installation in a virtualizer that supports USB. However, it requires the Qualcomm Gobi 2000 Wireless WAN Driver to be installed.

You will need to enable it only once.

To verify if the device is in the right mode use gpscat

$ gpscat /dev/ttyUSB2
6,,,,26,,,,13,,,*70
$GPGSV,4,2,16,14,,,,25,,,,08,,,,09,,,*7B
$GPGSV,4,3,16,32,,,,24,,,,,11,,,*73

You could use gpsctl to verify if gpsd detected the device correctly:

$ gpsctl
gpsctl: /dev/ttyUSB2 identified as Generic NMEA at 9600

Detection can take a few minutes.

If gpsd didn't detect the serial port the use the following line:

sudo /lib/udev/gpsd.hotplug add /dev/ttyUSB2

Use xgps or cgps to verify if the GPS has a fix. If it does have a fix you could use TangoGPS or any other GPS tool which uses gpsd.

To use GPS for time synchronization add the following lines to /etc/ntp.conf:

server 127.127.28.0 minpoll 4 prefer
fudge  127.127.28.0 time1 0.183 refid NMEA

The 0.183 is for NMEA 0183

If it works it will look like this:

# ntpq -c peers
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
*SHM(0)          .NMEA.           0 l   15   16  317    0.000  -49.965   5.312

Carrier specific configurations

Each device is intended to be used with a specific carrier, and is shipped with firmware to support that carrier. Notebooks are often also shipped with a pre-installed SIM. Other carriers may work by loading a different firmware version. The 'generic UMTS' stage 3 firmware is known to with with O2, an unsupported UK carrier. See above for a list of known firmware files.

NOTE!

It may be illegal or a breach of contract in various countries to bypass a carrier lock

Troubleshooting

Some users have experienced the modem entering a strange state in which it refuses any attempt of loading the firmware. There seem to be at least two ways to reset the modem to get it working as normally again:

1) try to disable WWAN in BIOS and boot your computer. Then shut down it, and enable WWAN again. OR:

2) remove the AC adapter as well as the battery pack and then hold the power button for some time (approx 30 sec. - 1 min.). Then insert the battery again and boot as usual.

See discussion page (22 - 23 January 2011) for further details. --stman 10:10, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Links

• Gobi 2000 Product Sheet
• AT Command Set in Gobi
• Gobi Connection Manager FAQ

ThinkPads this device may be found in

AT&T service contract may be required

• Edge 14", Edge 15"
• T410, T410s, T510
• W510
• X100e

Verizon service contract may be required

• Edge 14", Edge 15"
• L412, L512
• T410, T410s, T410si, T510
• X201, X201 Tablet

Gobi 2000 WWAN upgradable

NOTE!

not every ThinkPad listed here can actually be upgraded

• Edge 13"
• T410, T410s, T410si, T510
• W510
• X100e, X201, X201 Tablet