X55 T99W175 modem

[PaddyX]

Hmm, I'm thinking it's some issue with firmware maybe?
......
Edit:
I have done literally everything possible with the help of someone to get it working (got it into some special modes, changed firmware, tried doing some other hardware etc) and it appears to have a bootloop issue that cannot be fixed, so it's probably a hardware issue after all... RIP

Apologies, things have been crazy busy my side so not managed to catch up or do much more on my system..
What firmware were you on and what are you using now?
I have the Hp and did a lot of reading on the lenovo side. Had massive issues with firmware from the begining! And only recently managed to get a high enough version..
If you have managed to upgrade to the latest then it should be more stable. On the older builds I had massive issues with the modem crashing out.. but seem to recall for some of them it would actualy mention in the log a firware crash so mayby grep the logs for firmware.,.. I mentioned this earlier in this post:
got my modem on: T99W175.T0.0.0.4.1.GC.003.028
Had seen mention as high as T99W175.F0.1.0.0.9.TO.006.079 and mention and other issues with versions bellow 075.. So anything 75 or above should be better..

Tried looking up the error and found some mention in https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-b ... issues/644
didnt have the time to do a final re-check but there was some mention of the wrong sim slot being selected or a sim issue.. I know i had some fun when using two levels of adapters as both had sim slots so had to make sure the sim was on the same converter that held the modem..

RE Are those fixes included in the GitHub MHI or are they something else?
From what we got from testing most of the fixes had made it into the later kernels/mhi but what had not made it in was the async one and for me this was the one that if anything happened and the modem crashed it would never be able to restart withough a hard boot of everything! For it you have to compile +++ b/drivers/bus/mhi/pci_generic.c
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ static void mhi_pci_recovery_work(struct work_struct *work)
if (err)
goto err_try_reset;

- err = mhi_sync_power_up(mhi_cntrl);
+ err = mhi_async_power_up(mhi_cntrl);
if (err)
goto err_unprepare;
Also double check as there are two places that look similar and you need to mod the correct one.. Will try to check in again soon..

EDIT: One item to clarify.. The Firmware! I tried a lot of firware versions along the way, partly due to for a long time there was no stable version.. Also what needs to be reminded, things can get re-broken! Have seen it so many times and we even found it on other aspects of issues with the over all issues arround this.. Problems re-occuring and crazy amount of time to get fixes in!! What we have seen is things are getting better but its slow!

[xristos]

Hi guys! I’m new here!

I have a T99W175 HP variant working perfectly on OPENWRT.

I would like to order one more to put on my LHGG CAT6 antenna from Mikrotik.

In order for a modem to work with ROS it needs to support MBIM over usb. I have mini pcie to m2 b key adapter but I would like your opinion on this one.

I don’t know if it’s safe to give it a try or if I will break the modem or even worse the LHGG.

Some help would be greatly appreciated

[PaddyX]

Hello Xristos

Interesting to hear "I have a T99W175 HP variant working perfectly on OPENWRT."
What is the version of openwrt?
What is the router hardware?
-Quick lookup: or is it working in the Mikrotik Router OS?
Was it an openwrt from microtec or came with the router?

RE: "In order for a modem to work with ROS it needs to support MBIM over usb. I have mini pcie to m2 b key adapter but I would like your opinion on this one"

The HP/Lenovo ones usualy have USB channels hard disabled so would not work with any USB in the works.. hence the wating to know hardware above..

RE: "I don’t know if it’s safe to give it a try or if I will break the modem or even worse the LHGG."
It should not damage the modem. It just wont be seen.
Further USB converters, I have an old one and a new one and my other 1gig modem did not work in the old one so does seem like there is some new config in the new usb convertes so double check what the specs are.. Also have tested my HP T99W175 in the USB converter and was not seen at all and since moving it to a PC with m.2 it works fine and have moved it back and forth without issue.. Just be cairful of static and dont touch any contacts etc!

[samaeqe0]

Hi guys! I’m new here!

I have a T99W175 HP variant working perfectly on OPENWRT.

Where are you using it? On what hardware? Can you please share the Openwrt version you're using?

Thank you

[PaddyX]

Not seen any update from him

On the good side I had another issue were they didnt support my main router hardware at alll and can see now in the latest future test builds it got added! So have to hope that the change was made in one of those latest builds.

Have been trying to find some time to get down time on the router to play with it but things have been too busy

If have a suported router maby try gettting on the latest test builds and try it.
I need to get my other router stable and setup so can free the main up for testing.

Keep us posted

[eskaryo]

The main change for the not recovering for restart was the following change and then compile with it..
+++ b/drivers/bus/mhi/pci_generic.c
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ static void mhi_pci_recovery_work(struct work_struct *work)
if (err)
goto err_try_reset;

- err = mhi_sync_power_up(mhi_cntrl);
+ err = mhi_async_power_up(mhi_cntrl);
if (err)
goto err_unprepare;

make sure to find the correct entry as there is another similar..
/* MHI bus does not power up the controller by default */
err = mhi_prepare_for_power_up(mhi_cntrl);
if (err) {
dev_err(&pdev->dev, "failed to prepare MHI controller\n");
goto err_unregister;
}

err = mhi_async_power_up(mhi_cntrl);
if (err) {
dev_err(&pdev->dev, "failed to power up MHI controller\n");
goto err_unprepare;

I'm coming back to this and was wondering if you could post your mhi_pci_generic.ko file so I can try dropping it on my system to any level of success. I don't know why but I have this mental block telling me doing the build from scratch is going to take too fricken long.

Also- how can we ask the OpenWRT group to maybe update their mhi_pci_generic kmod to include?

/edit:
I have been unsuccessful in the LXC container idea. I can't get it to be recognized in mmcli even when I've given the container root privileges. I can hit it up with qmicli but I think I just want to stick to modemmanager.

[samaeqe0]

So, for now there is no way to use this T99W175 on openwrt? I have the lenovo variant, and I've been unable to use it since I purchased it because I have USB3.0 adapters everywhere and never had the occasion to work with PCIE mode, neither I have the hardware (custom router / expensive lenovo laptop) to use it.

Anybody has something to suggest for capable hardware to run this modem with OpenWRT?

[eskaryo]

The modem works with openwrt. Your problem is that the modem doesn't use USB protocol and you don't have something that will operate with MHI.

Grab a lenovo or hp sff PC with an available M.2 and you should be on the path. I had to adapt the slot to fit the T99 form factor and those parts are mentioned somewhere in this thread.

[PaddyX]

Hello eskaryo, sorry for the delay, things have been crazy and trying to find my power supply after a massive tidy up
RE: could post your mhi_pci_generic.ko file
When managed to get it up will try to get this for you. Note the version I will have is based on linux os and not openwrt..
Still have not found time to get my internet backonto my old router so can get playing with this again.

RE: Also- how can we ask the OpenWRT group to maybe update their mhi_pci_generic kmod to include?
Think in the latest builds they do have it but the challenge is you generaly get it as they give it.. App there is a way to compile but have not managed to figure it out..

[PaddyX]

Hello eskaryo

Attaching the file as requested. it is based on 6.1.7 kernel and have seen a number of changes as the versions go up..

Now that have the system back will see about moving to the latest and test /check again as they have already got upto 6.6. rc5 so has been while since was last able to work on this. As mentioned with the attached file had it stable and no problems with reboots and re-iterate make sure the firmware on the modem is high enough as there was crashing issues on old firwares!!
Also if the async is not in place then any firmware crash or soft reboot will break everything untill a hard reboot!

Note: I have ordered to make my life a little easier a lenovo ver of the modem.. hope to have it by Jan
-Also looking into getting another micro system, likly a lenovo with full m.2 slots also to make my life a little easier as my one needs more than 1 converter stacked so hope with a proper m.2 to go back to just 1 and a good one at that..

[geraigerai]

So there is Lenovo/HP/Dell versions. Dell seems to be the cheapest, but the least hassle is with the Lenovo - is that correct?

[geraigerai]

And one more How do you know if the adapter is with PCIE lines ? E.g. if I would need a full PCIE adapter (not miniPCIE) would this work https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=599012341033 ?

[eskaryo]

I haven't looked out for prices on these in some time. It felt to me like the prices were highly variable and finding the module under certain search terms (such as sdx55) yielded less expensive models.

At this point the only thing that I'd say is difficult is the fact that OpenWRT does not yet have a release with a patched mhi_pci_generic module which is needed to ensure clean power-on of the modem.

@geraigerai I don't know for sure that the adapter won't work, but PCIe x1 has enough bandwidth to support it. Adapting this thing tends to be tricky but that looks like it should do it.

@PaddyX thanks for posting that module by the way. I'm sorry to admit I haven't done anything with it.

[PaddyX]

@eskaryo no problem good to see you still arround and keeping busy

@geraigerai For a couple of reasons would aim for lenovo! I got an HP as was better price and took ages to get needed fixed firmware and still have to hack the files for linux! While Lenovo has been far ahead on the firmware and better supported! Also keep an eye on ebay as desided to get a 2nd and found a lenovo one on ebay for $24! Amazing price and must have got very lucky! Just trying to get it back to me now hope to have a path for it to get to me in Jan!

[geraigerai]

At this point the only thing that I'd say is difficult is the fact that OpenWRT does not yet have a release with a patched mhi_pci_generic module which is needed to ensure clean power-on of the modem.

So how can I build the OpenWRT with the patched version? I've checked out the master branch of the openwrt, but it does not seem to contain the `pci_generic.c` file nor did I find anything with `mhi_sync_power_up` or `mhi_async_power_up`.
And also on the master the TESTING kernel version is 6.1, so openwrt is not there yet with 6.2 ? What am I missing?

I've bought the Lenovo version for 50eur shipped with taxes (Dell was 40eur, but it was marked as prototype, so was a bit afraid to buy that) and planing to put that into x86 Fujitsu Futuro S920 thin client. So while waiting for the hardware I thought I'd compile the openwrt from source with the patches

EDIT:
Ok, it seems I need to build first, and then use quilt for patch applying, not as straight forward as I thought

[mtl26637]

The latest stable version has support (23.05). It actually has for awhile now really. The only trick is having to install some of the software after installing openwrt to your device. The quickest and easiest way to get up and running is to install openwrt on your device. Connect an internet connection to your device and go to the /system/software tab and search and install everything usng the following searches:
"mbim"
"qmi"
"mhi"
"modemmanager"

Not sure if every package that you will see is needed but since your running on x86 machine storage shouldn't come into play anyway. This will also work with the latest snapshots but you will need to add "luci" to the software list and will need to install it from command line first.

Once, installed you will need to link/copy the fcc-unlock information to the appropriate location and restart. Once this is completed restart and you should be good to go with Lenovo versions. The HP version still has not been added to the list so it still requires building. The Dell and other brands I have not tried.

You may have to mess around with dns/dhcp lan/gateway settings initially to get a working internet connection to download the software but once you have downloaded and installed it should work. Just don't forget to change things back to their default settings before restarting. There are potential issues along the way like latest modem firmware not playing nice with fcc-unlock but it is doable as I've been running a couple of these since August, 2022. I've never ran into any of the power issues that others mention and have never had to 'patch'. I did see some kernel faults along the way in the past but they seem to have went away for me, can't explain that one.

[PaddyX]

Futher install everything usng the following searches:
"mbim"
"qmi"
"mhi"
"modemmanager"

I would offer one item, there was a stability issue mentioned on lenovo site about if had two of the protocols at the same time, they both try talk to the modem and it hangs it up.. if recall it was if both MHI and QMI active they both try to talk to the modem so confuse it.
If recall if using pci then is mhi route while if is other usb side could be qmi or mbim..
Question would be what is the output of lsusb and lspci
mbim would be if is mbim mode and that would be seen via lsusb aka the pci would not use it..

Generaly the lenovo/hp would be pci so mhi is the must..
Them modemmanager

had a fantastic new round of learning curve arround those as got another 4g modem and had a load of fighting to get it working including removing the fcc-lock perminetly at the modem level on it and some other fun!

[Hikaru_]

Futher install everything usng the following searches:
"mbim"
"qmi"
"mhi"
"modemmanager"

I would offer one item, there was a stability issue mentioned on lenovo site about if had two of the protocols at the same time, they both try talk to the modem and it hangs it up.. if recall it was if both MHI and QMI active they both try to talk to the modem so confuse it.
If recall if using pci then is mhi route while if is other usb side could be qmi or mbim..
Question would be what is the output of lsusb and lspci
mbim would be if is mbim mode and that would be seen via lsusb aka the pci would not use it..

Generaly the lenovo/hp would be pci so mhi is the must..
Them modemmanager

had a fantastic new round of learning curve arround those as got another 4g modem and had a load of fighting to get it working including removing the fcc-lock perminetly at the modem level on it and some other fun!

you only need to install the last two. lsusb wouldn't output anything. it's mbim and qmi over pcie.

[Hikaru_]

And one more How do you know if the adapter is with PCIE lines ? E.g. if I would need a full PCIE adapter (not miniPCIE) would this work https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=599012341033 ?

That would definitely work You can see on the PCB that it has the traces.
I got my adapters from them too.

[eskaryo]

For OpenWRT users who need auto-reconnect on this thing:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/support-4g- ... /165025/51

My trouble with this device was keeping it connected. Periodically my modems will lose connection even when service is still online. It's really frustrating. I tend to soft restart the router to reconnect, but the mhi_pci_generic module in use encounters problems when attempting to online the modem because the modem never went through a power cycle process itself- and there seems to be something missing in the module to attempt a power sense/cycle to recover from that scenario. My disconnects were common enough that I grew tired of physically removing power from the host to recover but I found this script above and wondered if it might help so I'm giving this ol' T99 another whirl

I really should just pony up like PaddyX and build my own OpenWRT release and fixup the module but I'm really being lazy and idealistic and don't want to spend the time on it nor do I want to have an OpenWRT instance with kernel headers and gcc bloating it all up. Anyway, here's to hoping that script does the trick!

[geraigerai]

I really should just pony up like PaddyX and build my own OpenWRT release and fixup the module but I'm really being lazy and idealistic and don't want to spend the time on it nor do I want to have an OpenWRT instance with kernel headers and gcc bloating it all up. Anyway, here's to hoping that script does the trick!

I've built Openwrt with the power patch and 6.1 kernel.It was not that hard and long (perhaps the first time compile took a bit longer) and some time to figure out how to apply the patch via quilt.
Though I'm still waiting for my T99W175 to arrive, I've flashed the image to new mini pc and plugged the USB with T77W968 - all well.

[PaddyX]

To many anoying hangups in the modem world. have had more than my fair share!
-24hrs, this is a royal pain, as takes awhile to realise was actuly arround the same time the day before the things stalled out and changed as somtimes takes time to realise things have stalled.. - Setup timer power socket for 2 am restart = sweet sarenity! (seeing this on my range extender now days so have to re-plug before starting work each morning..
-T99W175 async / sync issue, any time there was a re-conect, firmware crash or restart the modem would not come up propely! pain and only way to work arround was reboot untill the mhi was fixed!!
-Firmware, so many issues it is not funny!
-LTE band!! This is a fun one, we have some dead bands here and some are poor, have had it a good few times and tonight was bad! Modem comes up fine and connected over 3 bands and 10 min later conection is dead and is only on a single band. Removed that band from the list and locked and back to nice and satable..

Further the small pc. it has not been without its own fun!! Plenty problems with 3 layers of network managers messing up latency like crazy and DNS! and after lots of cleanup and still left with it loses DNS settings. And bazar thing is i vi the config file and just save it without change and presto it works again.. When have time will be looking at trying a later kernel..
5G - still have yet to have joy with it and come across some that mentioned some locations faux 4g to look like 5g. Hope to get a 5g phone soon so can double check. but other projects are taking priority.

[eskaryo]

PaddyX you could set up a pihole+unbound server for local dns for more reliability. I've been running with local dns resolution for a long time and haven't experienced that dns issue you mentioned.

RE: Module crashes, I found flashing the module in Windows to be the most reliable way to succeed. I'm running firmware from earlier in the year and it's been nice and stable since my latest go at using this module, been online for 4 full days now without a drop. Prior to adding in the auto-reconnect I mentioned above I'd lose connection most nights.

[PaddyX]

Oh thanks will check out the dns items!!

RE Firmware, for sure, the latest versions have finaly brough the much needed stability! Well worth trying to update to latest!

[geraigerai]

How do I send AT commands to this modem? And can anyone share the PDF from Thales? I see /dev/wwan0at0 but at least cannot directly connect with picocom

Edit:
And how do you upgrade the firmware on lenovo version on linux? Currently I have T99W175.F0.1.0.0.7.GC.004 027

[eskaryo]

I did all of my AT commands either through mmcli and maybe qmicli, I think.

The only way I know to update the device in linux is through fwupd, on older versions of the firmware the update process would cause the module to crash and then the update would fail. No damage done to the module, a power cycle and it's back to normal. I gave up trying to get the module firmware updated on linux and just made a windows env for it and ran the official updater by OEM.

[mtl26637]

I've found minicom to be the easiest. I posted how to use it on page 1 of this thread, about ~40th post.

Note, sometimes for whatever reason when you open minicom and enter an AT command you wont get a response, just close out of minicom and reopen and try again. I usually start with "ATI" to make sure everything is working and I get a valid response.

[Rich Hathaway]

I usually start with "ATI" to make sure everything is working and I get a valid response.

Or use" ATE" to enable terminal echo so you can see what you type, it should work on minicom I think.

[geraigerai]

Ok, what got me confused is that you have to type everything uppercase not like for T77W968 which seems to be case insensitive, e.g.:

Code: Select all

root@OpenWrt:~# mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^CA_INFO?"
response: 'LTE serving information :
PCC info: Band is LTE_B1, Band_width is 20.0 MHz
SCC1 info: Band is LTE_B3, Band_width is 20.0 MHz
SCC2 info: Band is LTE_B7, Band_width is 20.0 MHz
PCC info: Band is NR5G_N78, Band_width is 200.0 MHz'
root@OpenWrt:~# mmcli -m 0 --command="at^ca_info?"
error: command failed: 'GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.Error.Connection.NoCarrier: No carrier'

Minicom worked, but it seemed to cut of the output (possibly because modemanager was also using that port, and picocom simply did not work at all.

It seem quite some commands are supported from T77W968. E.g. to disable certain LTE bands you can do AT^SLBAND:

Code: Select all

 root@OpenWrt:~# mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^SLBAND?"
response: ' WCDMA,Enable Bands :1,2,4,5,6,8,9,19,
 WCDMA,Disable Bands:
 LTE,Enable Bands :1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,14,17,18,19,20,25,26,28,29,30,32,34,38,39,40,41,42,46,48,66,71,
 LTE,Disable Bands:
 NR5G,Enable Bands :1,2,3,5,7,8,12,20,25,28,38,40,41,48,66,71,77,78,79,
 NR5G,Disable Bands:'
root@OpenWrt:~# mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^SLBAND=LTE,1,28"
response: ''
root@OpenWrt:~# mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^SLBAND?"
response: ' WCDMA,Enable Bands :1,2,4,5,6,8,9,19,
 WCDMA,Disable Bands:
 LTE,Enable Bands :1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,14,17,18,19,20,25,26,29,30,32,34,38,39,40,41,42,46,48,66,71,
 LTE,Disable Bands:28,
 NR5G,Enable Bands :1,2,3,5,7,8,12,20,25,28,38,40,41,48,66,71,77,78,79,
 NR5G,Disable Bands:'

Or you can just select the ones you want by only enabling those:

Code: Select all

root@OpenWrt:~#  mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^SLBAND=LTE,2,1,3,7"
response: ''
root@OpenWrt:~# mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^SLBAND?"
response: ' WCDMA,Enable Bands :1,2,4,5,6,8,9,19,
 WCDMA,Disable Bands:
 LTE,Enable Bands :1,3,7,
 LTE,Disable Bands:2,4,5,8,12,13,14,17,18,19,20,25,26,28,29,30,32,34,38,39,40,41,42,46,48,66,71,
 NR5G,Enable Bands :1,2,3,5,7,8,12,20,25,28,38,40,41,48,66,71,77,78,79,
 NR5G,Disable Bands:'

For the changes to take effect you must restart the modem (rebooting the machine might not be enough if power is not interrupted)

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root@OpenWrt:~# mmcli -m 0 --command="AT+RESET"

other possible commands of interest

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#print various network info
mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^DEBUG?"

#print CA info:
mmcli -m 0 --command="AT^CA_INFO?"

speedtest shows me ~670-700Mbit/s (both speedtest result & OpenWRT realtime graphs) but using curl on http I was not able to go above 300Mbit/s even with parallel streams. Iphone shows 1Gbit/s using speedtest
My RSRP seems to be quite low, so probably need to work on placing the modem somewhere or adding better antennas

Code: Select all

 nr_rsrp:-94.4dBm rx_diversity: 15 (-93.7dBm,-105.2dBm,-93.4dBm,-90.3dBm)

So far on Linux OpenWrt 6.1.62 with that power patch applied seems to have been stable for 24+ hours, so probably I'll just leave the firmware as is.

Overall for the price - cannot complain