fdad4d636d
Setting access technologies from registration state as part of the registration checking in the CDMA Interface code fights with custom implementations in each modem subclass, which causes the access technologies to ping-pong between more specific (custom implementation) and less specific (generated from registration state during registration checking). If the modem class has more specific access technology knowledge, we should use that and not override it on the next registration state poll. So instead, implement the generic access technology update from registration state in the broadband modem base class' load_access_technologies() hook. Thus, modem classes with more specific checking (which override MMBroadbandModem's implementation) will never fight with generic checking, while modems that don't (and thus actually need the generic checking) still get some basic access technology handling.
ModemManager. The problem ModemManager tries to solve is to provide a unified high level API for communicating with (mobile broadband) modems. While the basic commands are standardized, the more advanced operations (like signal quality monitoring while connected) varies a lot. Using. ModemManager is a system daemon and is not meant to be used directly from the command line. However, since it provides DBus API, it is possible to use 'dbus-send' command to control it from the terminal. There's an example program (tests/mm-test.py) that demonstrates the basic API usage. Implementation. ModemManager is a DBus system bus activated service (meaning it's started automatically when a request arrives). It is written in C. The devices are queried from udev and automatically updated based on hardware events. There's a GInterface (MMModem) that defines the modem interface and any device specific implementation must implement it. There are two generic MMModem implementations to support the basic operations (one for GSM, one for CDMA,) which are common for all cards. Plugins. Plugins are loaded on startup, and must implement the MMPlugin interface. It consists of a couple of methods which tell the daemon whether the plugin supports a port and to create custom MMModem implementations. It most likely makes sense to derive custom modem implementations from one of the generic classes and just add (or override) operations which are not standard. There's a fully working plugin in the plugins/ directory for Huawei cards that can be used as an example for writing new plugins. Writing new plugins is highly encouraged! API. The API is open for changes, so if you're writing a plugin and need to add or change some public method, feel free to suggest it!