I got myself a nice little Samsung N210 netbook the other day.
With it came a subscription to “Telenor Mobile Broadband”.
I also got Windows 7 pre-installed, of course – which I didn’t want, of course.

So – I went on a quest for the most sexy of all linux distros, and ended up giving Jolicloud a go. I only encountered one problem with Jolicloud – my mobile broadband wouldn’t work out of the box…

After a bit of playing around on both Google and in the Terminal, I figured out a quick solution I thought I’d share in case someone encounters the same problem I did.

This guide should work on both Jolicloud 0.9 and Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 – but of course – times can change, so I can’t promise anything…

Background info: The problem is that Jolicloud seems to think the USB dongle is a mass storage device – like a regular USB stick, so we need to change that perception.

Here’s what you do:

1. Open up a Terminal session (Click on “Terminal” in the Accessories pane)
2. Write sudo aptitude install usb-modeswitch and hit Enter
3. Then write sudo gedit /etc/usb-modeswitch.conf and hit Enter
   You will now face an open, empty document.
4. Copy the following text and paste it into the document:

   #

   ######################################## ################
   # Huawei E1752
   #
   # Contributor:

   DefaultVendor= 0x12d1
   DefaultProduct= 0×1446

   TargetVendor= 0x12d1
   TargetProdct= 0×1001

   MessageEndpoint= 0×01

   MessageContent= “555342430000000000000000000000110600000 00000000000000000000000″

5. Save the document (ctrl+s) and quit the application (ctrl+q).
6. Plug the Huawei E1725 USB dongle into your computer
7. Go back to the Terminal window and write sudo usb_modeswitch and hit Enter

Now all you’ve got to do is sit back, relaxe, and give your computer a minute or so to fix shit – and VOILA – your 3G Mobile Broadband connection should be good to go!