Switching USB Modem to Serial Manually

Without having to use usb-modeswitch switching the USB modem can be done easily. In this example I use USB CDMA modem with vendor ID 201e and product ID 1023 (when detected as CD-ROM storage) and product ID 1022 (when detected as USB modem or USB storage).

Requirements

Most of these module are present in all modern linux distro.

• Kernel module: option (USB Driver for GSM modems)
• Kernel module: usbserial (USB Serial Driver core)

Step 1: Detach the CD-ROM Storage

When you first plug your USB modem it might detected as CD-ROM storage. To identify the modem you can use dmesg and lsusb commands. Make sure running these commands as root.

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Sending On/Off Signal to USB devices in Linux

Some devices like USB modem get stuck when it failed to connect and just hang up forever when trying to dial a number. The solution is unplug and plug it again, weird but it works. But seriously, that is not "a geek way". Rather than plug/unplug we could do it via shell to send the device "on" or "off" signal.

Recognizing the USB Devices

These steps is used to get information about device that we want to send the signal to. A Tool used for this task is lsusb. Here's example of output in my system, make to sure run as root.

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b290 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0cf3:3005 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR3011 Bluetooth
Bus 002 Device 018: ID 201e:1022 <-- WE WANT TO SEND SIGNAL TO THIS DEVICE
Bus 002 Device 016: ID 03f0:ae07 Hewlett-Packard 
Bus 002 Device 012: ID 0458:00ee KYE Systems Corp. (Mouse Systems)

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