Precise: Optus mobile broadband broken

I was uploading Precise Puppy 5.5, but ran out of credit on my Vodafone Pocket WiFi mobile broadband. I went to their website, but when I tried to recharge, after entering my credit card details, got an error message -- this is nothing new, their website performance is appalling, very slow, error prone, confusing (links that don't work, for example), has been like this for a long time.

Normally, I go to the local Vodafone shop and purchase a recharge voucher, but right now it is just after midnight, early Sunday morning.

So, I plugged in my Optus mobile broadband USB stick. The usual green popup appeared, that the modem has been recognised, but, oh dear, I find that /dev/ttyUSB0 has not been created -- or, strangely, it might have been created briefly, then deleted.

So, I booted up Racy 5.5, plugged in the Optus stick, and now I am posting here.

I need to check this out. Precise Puppy 5.5 will not now be uploaded.

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Comments

Home page
Username: mavrothal
If you rebuild precise 5.5 do check lobster's link in /usr/share/doc/home.htm. The site does not exist anymore and is up for sale. Is not nice the first link on the jump-off page to be broken.

Lobster?
Username: BarryK
"mavrothal, I have been wondering what has become of Lobster. He hasn't posted to the Forum for awhile. OK, I'll fix that page. Process of elimination... I am now using the Optus stick on Precise 5.4.91, posting this comment. 5.4.91 has the same 3.2.29 kernel, but does not have Frisbee ...that was a hunch. Well, I shall build 5.5 without Frisbee and see what happens.

Optus stick testing
Username: BarryK
"Now I am running a pristine Precise 5.5, this time the Optus stick is working. Hmmm. I think that I can rule out Frisbee -- I don't see how that could cause the problem anyway, I was clutching at straws. Some weird interaction with my Vodafone Pocket WiFi? That is a standalone unit with wireless router, talks to my laptop via wlan0. I unplugged the Optus modem, then connected to the Vodafone Pocket WiFi, disconnected, then plugged in my Optus stick, and it works. I don't know what caused the earlier problem. I shall go ahead and upload Precise 5.5.

Morning
Username: BarryK
"This morning, arose, had breakfast, booted Precise 5.5, plugged in the Optus stick, it connected, using it now. So, I don't know. One of those mysterious gremlins that get into the system sometimes. If I have got to blame something, my best bet is the kernel.

Tags: puppy