Question

I am trying to connect multiple USB 3G modem (two, in my case) programatically in Ubuntu 12.04. I can do it graphically through the Network Manager, but I’d like to replicate the process on the command line.

Here is the process that I am trying to emulate.

1. Connect two 3G dongles, both huawei, Model No: E173Bu-1 (Service provider: Airtel) and Model No: E173u-1(Service Provider: MTNL).
2. The connections that I configured shouldn’t have “connect automatically” checked in the Network Manager GUI.
3. Now, from the Network Manager GUI, I am able to connect to both of them manually one after the other.
4. I could see ppp0 and ppp1 connections established when I run ifconfig and also the routing table populated appropriately.

So far, so good.

When I connect two 3G dongles, the connections shouldn’t have “connect automatically” checked in the Network Manager GUI.

From the command line, I tried the following command: $ nmcli con up id "Airtel"

It gave the following error:

$ nmcli con up id "Airtel"
Active connection state:
activating Active connection path:
/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/2 state: unknown
Error: Connection activation failed.

I tried it again, and got this error:

$ nmcli con up id "Airtel"

** (process:3184): WARNING **: Could not initialize NMActiveConnection /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3: Method “GetAll”
with signature “s” on interface “org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties”
doesn’t exist

Active connection state: unknown Active connection path:
/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3

** (process:3184): WARNING **: Could not create object for /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3: Method “GetAll”
with signature “s” on interface “org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties”
doesn’t exist

The exact same thing happens if I try the same for the connection “MTNL.”

---

The first time I try gives the decent looking first error. i.e.,

$ nmcli con up id "Airtel"

Active connection state: activating
Active connection path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/2
state: unknown
Error: Connection activation failed.

and on successive tries i keep getting the wierd looking error. i.e.,

$ nmcli con up id "Airtel"

** (process:3184): WARNING **: Could not initialize NMActiveConnection /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3: Method “GetAll”
with signature “s” on interface “org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties”
doesn’t exist

Active connection state: unknown Active connection path:
/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3

** (process:3184): WARNING **: Could not create object for /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3: Method “GetAll”
with signature “s” on interface “org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties”
doesn’t exist

I am using Ubuntu 12.04 on an Asus Eee PC seashell series notebook. (I only need a solution for this configuration only).

Answer 1

Wvdial helped me solve above problem.

Here is the wikipedia page for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wvdial