Sierra Wireless HSDPA WWAN
Sierra Wireless HSDPA WWAN ModuleThis is a Sierra Wireless WWAN Adapter that is installed in a Mini-PCI Express slot. There are tree versions that mainly differ in the supported bands. The MC8765 is meant for the North American market, while the MC8755 and MC8775 are meant for the rest of the world. They are also known in Lenovo literature as
NOTE!
Specific versions of this card may come pre-configured for a certain carrier (AT&T, Vodafone)
Features
MC8755
MC8765
MC8775
|
Lenovo Partnumbers
- FRU PN 42T0801 (MC8755 Vodafone)
- FRU PN 42T0835 (MC8755 Vodafone)
- FRU PN 42T0804 (MC8776 Cingular/AT&T)
- FRU PN 42T0931 (MC8775 Vodafone)
- FRU PN 42T0933 (MC8775 Cingular/AT&T)
- FRU PN 42T0901 (MC8775 Sim Unlocked)
- Option PN 43R1821 (MC8775 Vodafone)
Linux support
Should be automatically detected by NetworkManager with any recent Linux distribution (Fedora 12, Ubuntu 9.10) and allow for easy configuration.
Links
ThinkPads this adapter may be found in
MC8755
MC8765
MC8775
Old text, to be cleaned up
North American ThinkPads have the Sierra Wireless MC8765 card. European ThinkPads have the Sierra Wireless MC8755 card.
The only difference between the two is the frequency at which they support WCDMA. The MC8765 supports WCDMA800 and WCDMA1900, while the MC8755 supports only WCDMA2100.
Both models support GPRS and EDGE at 850, 900, 1800, and 1900MHz.
Both models are category 11/12 UMTS devices, meaning they support up to 1.8Mbps downstream using QPSK modulation. They do not support 16QAM modulation.
According to the T61 hardware maintenance manual, the T61 uses the MC8775, which is quad band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900) and tri band HSDPA (850/1900/2100).
Sierra Wireless MC8765 1199:6805 support
The model 2613-ETU T60p (and possibly others) has one of these cards which the linux sierra device driver does not automatically recognize (as of kernel 2.6.24.4, at least). While it's the same device in every other respect the PCI id isn't standard, presumably because IBM/Lenovo use their own PCI ids to restrict the use of arbitrary 3rd party cards. Using the 2.6.23+ hotplug infrastructure, we can cause the driver to claim it anyway and register serial devices in /dev for it.
To do this using the udev subsystem, edit or create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/98-local.rules file and add:
######
## Sierra Wireless MC8765 1199:6805 support
##
## My model 2613-ETU T60p contains a WAN device which the linux sierra
## device driver does not automatically recognize. Using the 2.6.23+
## hotplug infrastructure, we can cause the driver to claim it.
##
## The 3-port interface works with this device, but there's not much point
## in registering the 2nd and 3rd since they are used for control purposes
## that we don't currently use under linux.
######
#SUBSYSTEM=="drivers", \
# ACTION=="add", \
# ENV{DEVPATH}=="/bus/usb-serial/drivers/sierra3", \
# RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo 1199 6805 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/sierra3/new_id'"
SUBSYSTEM=="drivers", \
ACTION=="add", \
ENV{DEVPATH}=="/bus/usb-serial/drivers/sierra1", \
RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo 1199 6805 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/sierra1/new_id'"
# TODO: fix this:
# This isn't quite right for sierra3, since it will always symlink
# wan_modem to the last created device; in the 3-port case that's not the
# device we actually want to refer to for modem interaction (we want the
# first device). We could limit this using ENV{PHYSDEVDRIVER}="sierra1",
# but udev warns that this is deprecated and will be removed from a future
# kernel.
KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", \
SYSFS{manufacturer}=="Sierra Wireless*", \
SYMLINK+="wan_modem", \
GROUP="uucp", \
MODE="0666"
Further configuration
Some further information on using this device with Linux can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SierraMC8775
