This did not work out-of the box for me with Kubuntu 9.10.
`lspci` showed me that the wireless device was:
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)
This is messed up. The driver provided by the manufacturer worked fine with the previous kernels and the previous releases of kubuntu (kernel 2.6.28 ). After some googling I found a broadcom driver in the Ubuntu ‘restriced’ repos which is provided by the package `bcmwl-kernel-source`.

So if you have the “restricted” repositories turned on in your machine this will work fine. You’ll just need a reboot sudo aptitude install bcmwl-kernel-source

The modem used is Huawei E620 or E1550. I’m not sure why it has 2 names, but it’s the same thing as far as I can see.

This is specifically for DiGi, but anything else on the same modem would work as well

1. make sure the device registers as a 3g modem and not a storage device. lsusb and look for:

Bus 002 Device 005: ID 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E620 USB Modem

# Huawei E1550
DefaultVendor = 0x12d1
DefaultProduct = 0x1446
MessageEndpoint = 0x01
MessageContent = "55534243000000000000000000000011060000000000000000000000000000"

4. plug in the modem and run `sudo usb_modswitch`. do another `lsusb` to make sure the device is registered properly as in step 1. `vim /etc/udev/rules.d/45-huawei1550.rules` and paste the following line:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="1446", SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1", RUN+="/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch"

< == Leave This Line Empty ==>
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 230400
Init1 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","3gdgnet"
Init3 =
Area Code =
Phone = *99***1#
Username = digi
Password = digi
Ask Password = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Force Address =
Idle Seconds = 0
DialMessage1 =
DialMessage2 =
ISDN = 0
Auto DNS = 1
Check Def Route = 1

0. Take note that I use aptitude, apt-get will serve the same function.

1. edit /etc/apt/sources. list and add the following lines:

deb http://getswiftfox.com/builds/debian unstable non-free

2. Go to a terminal and type:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install swiftfox-prescott

3. You’re done. Look below for instructions on how to setup Java on Swiftfox

Note: Your best place to look for swiftfox and .deb is still here

OK Fine, it’s really Swiftfox, but the problem is really inherent to Firefox.

My Swiftfox 3.0 kills my KDE4 Desktop Effects. Which pisses me off because I love my shinny objects.

Everytime I accidentally drag select some text and then accidentally attempt to move the selected text, everything hangs up and poof. There goes effects.

I solved this by disabling the drag-drop feature in firefox but I’m still not happy.

Workaround:

There are important packages that don’t come default with kubuntu which I would need for development. So after setting up a new installation of Kubuntu this is what I’d do:

sudo aptitude install openssh-server build-essential vim kdesvn mysql-server-5.0

These are needed as of kubuntu 9.04 – Jaunty and as you can see installs:

• openssh-server – which will immediately listen on port 22
• build-essential – compilers, etc
• vim – because I don’t like using vi
• kdesvn – Cuz can be easier to diff my devels
• mysql-server – well… i need it and Mysql 5.1 does not have great reviews.

Even if you don’t want kdesvn, I’d take kompare any day. The best diff front end for KDE. Although kdiff3 (sudo aptitude install kdiff3) isn’t too bad.