Sierra Wireless HSDPA WWAN

Sierra Wireless HSDPA WWAN Module

This 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

Integrated Cingular HSDPA 3G
Vodafone HSPA Embedded Mobile Broadband Option

NOTE!

Specific versions of this card may come pre-configured for a certain carrier (AT&T, Vodafone)

Features

Chipset: Sierra Wireless MC8755, MC8765, MC8775
Quad band GSM, GPRS, EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900)

MC8755

Market: World Wide (excl North America)
USB ID: 1199:6804
HSDPA UMTS (2100MHz)
Max speed 1.8Mbps

MC8765

Market: North America
USB ID: 1199:6805
Dual band HSDPA UMTS (850/1900MHz)
Max speed 1.8Mbps

MC8775

Market: World Wide
USB ID: 1199:6813
Tri band HSDPA UMTS (850/1900/2100MHz)
Max speed 3.6Mbps

Sierra Wireless MC8775 WWAN Adapter

Lenovo Partnumbers

NOTE!

Not all ThinkPads listed below can have this option installed, check if yours is WWAN upgradable first. Also installing the wrong card type in a ThinkPad that never officially supported it may give a Error 1804 on boot and refuse to continue until the card is removed. As such it is best to check the HMM (Hardware Maintenance Manual) for your ThinkPad first.

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

Technical sheet for MC8775 Vodafone

ThinkPads this adapter may be found in

MC8755

MC8765

MC8775

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

Sierra Wireless HSDPA WWAN