3G Support: Qualcomm Gobi chipset - Overview

One of the main reasons to get a Z series Vaio is the internal WWAN module. When I ordered the brand new Z31 model I was not aware that it included Qualcomms new Gobi chipset. Problem is that chipset is not supported with any stock kernel on any distribution. There is a kernel module called qcserial which is the correct one. Unfortunately it will only come with kernel 2.6.30 and newer. Therefore it needs to be manually compiled and installed for any current Linux distribution. Another problem is that the Gobi chipset also needs to load a provider-specific firmware before the driver can operate.

The good news is: it can be done. It is a 3-step process:

1. compile and install qcserial kernel module
2. compile and install gobi firmware loader by Matthew Garrett
3. obtain and install the correct firmware

I go through these steps during my next posts.