Is anyone else tethering their laptop to a mobile phone and having issues?

I recently upgraded from Fedora 14 to 15 and have a new version of the kde networkmanager plasmoid, but it is now unable to activate mobile broadband on my Nokia N900.

Selecting 'activate mobile broadband' simply freezes for approx 10sec & it is impossible to activate mobile broadband at all.

The settings (APN etc) are all correct (don't appear to have changed from when they worked prior to the upgrade), yet when I select 'manage connections' I get an error 'No agents were available for this request'. The settings panel then appears ok anyway...

Am I missing some vital package perhaps? Anyone else with a similar problem?

Versions:
Fedora 15
KDE 4.6.3
kde-plasma-networkmanagement 0.9-0.50.20110601git.nm09 (from kde-unstable!)
kdenetwork is 4.6.3-1

Maybe this is my punishment for trying the kde unstable repos!??

Plasma NM has one issue with Nokia N900, which I have never been able to debug correctly since I do not own a Nokia N900 and everything works with my Samsung i8910 and Sony MD300. It seems you have a different problem, at least not a crash. Can you enable debug for all network related entries with kdebugdialog command, reproduce the error and send me your /var/log/messages and ~/.xsession-errors files?

The 'No agents were available for this request' message comes from NetworkManager 0.9 and in my case it happens because my operator's password is empty. Most of the time that password is not used, so if you fill it in the connection's configuration dialog the message will go away.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this.

Here is the events in /var/log/messages log after I attempt to enable the N900 tethering:

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Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop modem-manager[925]: <info>  (ttyACM0) opening serial port...
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop modem-manager[925]: <info>  Modem /org/freedesktop/ModemManager/Modems/0: state changed (disabled -> enabling)
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> Activation (ttyACM0) starting connection 'Vodafone - Postpaid'
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> (ttyACM0): device state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none') [30 40 0]
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> Activation (ttyACM0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> Activation (ttyACM0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> Activation (ttyACM0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop modem-manager[925]: <info>  Modem /org/freedesktop/ModemManager/Modems/0: state changed (enabling -> disabled)
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop modem-manager[925]: <info>  (ttyACM0) closing serial port...
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop modem-manager[925]: <info>  (ttyACM0) serial port closed
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <warn> GSM modem enable failed: (32) Modem is already being flashed.
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> (ttyACM0): device state change: prepare -> failed (reason 'modem-init-failed') [40 120 28]
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> Marking connection 'Vodafone - Postpaid' invalid.
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <warn> Activation (ttyACM0) failed.
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> (ttyACM0): device state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none') [120 30 0]
Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <info> (ttyACM0): deactivating device (reason: 0).


Looks like some sort of timeout is happening but I have no idea how to make it wait longer before deciding the N900 isn't responding...

~/.xsession-errors only has one entry when I try enabling the N900 & looks unrelated to my problem:

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QPixmap::scaled: Pixmap is a null pixmap

Hope this helps someone!!

It seems that ModemManager fails to setup the device properly.

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Jun 18 13:59:13 stuslaptop NetworkManager[846]: <warn> GSM modem enable failed: (32) Modem is already being flashed.

This seems to be a modem manager bug unfortunately. Is any other software trying to use your N900? Which mode to you have it set to? (Storage, Data Suite, etc)

Your NetworkManager is stepping on ModemManager's toes, it is not waiting for MM to enable the modem before trying to connect. Which NetworkManager and ModemManager versions do you use?

Is your 3G connection set to automatic? If not and if the "Enable mobile broadband" checkbox is unticked try ticking it first, wait some seconds (about 30 is enough for my 3G modem) and try connecting only when the checkbox is ticked (NM can untick the checkbox if something goes wrong when enabling mobile broadband).