HP 8540w + LinuxMint 13 + un2420 Mobile Broadband Module

My HP EliteBook 8540w comes with un2420 Qualcomm Mobile Broadband Module which requires Gobi 2000 firmware and drivers. Next image shows how does it look like in Windows 7 Device Manager:

 In Windows/Linux dual boot environment if one starts Windows first (with installed drivers for un2420), Windows will preload firmware into un2420 module and it will work fine under Windows. Restarting machine (not truning it off), and starting Ubuntu afterwards will enable Ubunutu to see un2420 module in functional state since the firmware will survive restart and stay loaded inside module.

The problem is when Ubuntu is started first (after machine was turned off), then firmware is not preloaded in un2420 and linux cannot see module ready for communication.

Before loading Gobi firmware into un2420 module LinuxMint 13 Mate recognizes un2420 as (VEN=03f0,DEV=241d):

$lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 03f0:241d Hewlett-Packard Gobi 2000 Wireless Modem (QDL mode)
...

un2420 module LinuxMint setup

First of all one has to copy Gobi 2000 firmware binaries from Windows to LinuxMint. Gobi 2000 dirvers are three binary files;

C:\Program Files\QUALCOMM\Images\HP\0\uqcn.mbn
C:\Program Files\QUALCOMM\Images\HP\UMTS\amss.mbn
C:\Program Files\QUALCOMM\Images\HP\UMTS\apps.mbn

In Ubuntu create /lib/firmware/gobi/ folder and copy firmware files in it.

Then install gobi_loader;

$ sudo apt-get install gobi_loader

Now when you have Gobi 2000 firmware binaries and gobi loader tool installed you can manually load firmware into un2420 device with the following command:

$ sudo /lib/udev/gobi_loader -2000 /dev/ttyUSB0 /lib/firmware/gobi

Now after loading firmware into un2420 module Ubuntu recognizes it as (VEN=03f0,DEV=251d):
:

$lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 03f0:251d Hewlett-Packard Gobi 2000 Wireless Modem
...

Loading of firmware into un2420 will take few seconds and after that the dialog to insert SIM card PIN will pop up.



Now you can setup your WWAN device in Network Manager: