PLEASE help with ZTE K5161z

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Dear Experts,

Now being under time pressure, I bought a USB modem / dongle from Vodafone. It turned out to be ZTE K5161z. Please kindly advise how to make it working (if hopefully possible):

# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 015: ID 19d2:1405 ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0951:1665 Kingston Technology Digital DataTraveler SE9 64GB
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Here I was happy, that it is being recognized by the system!

# lsusb -t
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-platform/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 15, If 0, Class=Communications, Driver=, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 15, If 1, Class=CDC Data, Driver=, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 15, If 2, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M

Unfortunately, I have no cdc* or ttyUSB* files in /dev

In dmesg I see, that it is (probably) detected as a CD-ROM:

[   70.921352] scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM            ZTE      USB SCSI CD-ROM  2.3  PQ: 0 ANSI: 2

I have installed the following packages:

opkg install uqmi
opkg install usb-modeswitch
opkg install kmod-usb-serial-option
opkg install kmod-usb-serial-qualcomm

And those are my USB devices:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices

T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480  MxCh= 1
B:  Alloc=  0/800 us ( 0%), #Int=  1, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0002 Rev= 4.09
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 4.9.120 ehci_hcd
S:  Product=EHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=ehci-platform
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=256ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=480  MxCh= 4
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=05e3 ProdID=0608 Rev=85.36
S:  Product=USB2.0 Hub
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=100mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   1 Ivl=256ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  3 Spd=480  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0951 ProdID=1665 Rev= 2.00
S:  Manufacturer=Kingston
S:  Product=DataTraveler 2.0
S:  SerialNumber=001A4D5D52A81011F9240A26
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#= 15 Spd=480  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=02(comm.) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=19d2 ProdID=1405 Rev=58.13
S:  Manufacturer=DEMO,Incorporated
S:  Product=DEMO Mobile Boardband
S:  SerialNumber=1234567890ABCDEF
C:* #Ifs= 3 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr=500mA
A:  FirstIf#= 0 IfCount= 2 Cls=02(comm.) Sub=06 Prot=00
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=02(comm.) Sub=06 Prot=00 Driver=(none)
E:  Ad=87(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  16 Ivl=32ms
I:* If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=0a(data ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=(none)
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 1 #EPs= 2 Cls=0a(data ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=(none)
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
I:* If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=125us

Please kindly let me know how to get this working ? It looks much more difficult than anticipated... Thanks a lot!

2

Follow this:

3

Many thanks, AndrewZ!

How do I figure out the correct AT command(s) for my modem ?

 This is an example for popular Quectel modems:

AT+QCFG="usbnet"	# check the current mode
AT+QCFG="usbnet",1	# set ECM mode
4

You have no com port, so there are no commands.

Some modems require manual switching into ECM mode by using AT commands.

Your modem is already in ECM mode.

5

Dear AndrewZ,

I have installed kmod-usb-net-cdc-ether.
I could see the following line in dmesg:

cdc_ether 1-1.2:1.0 eth1: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-ehci-platform-1.2, ZTE CDC Ethernet Device, 34:4b:50:00:00:00

Does it mean, that my dongle is eth1 ? So I have to configure this device ? Many thanks for the info!

6

I have configured it against eth1. Now I see an IP address on eth1.
Is this correct ?
If yes, I don't know how to continue. The next (and hopefully last) step should be modifying the firewall. Could you please kindly advise the exact steps to do that, I as I have no clue :frowning:
My /etc/config/firewall file looks totally different that the example in the link you have sent me...

P. S.: Somewhere (but I can't find where), I have read that there are 2 scenarios - to use mobile data as a main connection and to use mobile data as a fallback in case the main line fails. I would be interested in the second scenario.

Many thanks for your help!

7

Hello, could please anyone reply quickly ? I was planning to return the Vodafone stick today, if I cannot make it work on OpenWRT. I am in time pressure and I need to move ahead. Many thanks!

8

Yes, eth1 is your interface, you just need to follow the wiki, read "Using Luci" section there.
You don't need to manually modify your firewall configuration.

9

Go to Network->Interfaces and edit the wan. Change the Device from whatever it is now to be eth1. Do the same thing with wan6.

1 Like
10

MANY THANKS !!!! This has worked !!!!
However, when I was swithing back to the wired internet connection, I observed one phenomenon. It would be really nice of yours, if you could explain that.

For the test, I had pulled out the data cable from the OpenWRT router. When I switched back from eth1 (lte) to eth0.2, I was wondering why there was no internet, as I had forgotten about the disconnected cable.
I have rebooted the OpenWRT router and despite having the old configuration and the cable pulled out, there was internet connection, which could only come over the LTE stick. Many thanks!