LTE USB Stick not working since Core Update 190

Dear Community,
i’m using a ZTE MF831 LTE USB Stick (Tether Mode - not Factory/Modem Mode) as RED IF since many years on my IPfire installation.
Since update to Core 190 from 189 i get the message Interface usb0 doesn’t exist when bringing up the Interface.
I tried a new installation - same issue.

About my hardware: I’m using a KVM virtualized machine, the modem is forwarded USB-Host Device and in ipfire i edit /var/ipfire/ethernet/settings (RED_DEV=usb0 and RED_TYPE= static cause portfowarding from the modem)

Strange for me is that on a working backup image (core 188) in /dev there is also no usb device, but it worked.
Any ideas how i can bring back work with core 190?
Thanks to any suggestions!

Does it work with a physical machine (Core 190)?

Can you perform the following test

  1. turn off IPFire
  2. disconnect the usb modem
  3. start IPFire
  4. connect the usb modem
  5. after connecting the usb modem, wait for several seconds then do a reboot
  6. check if it works

Regards

It’s difficult to start the virtual machine without the stick present cause it needs to be forwarded, and when the machin is running i can not forward the stick anymore.
But what i tried is to change the interface when the machine was running (with missing usb0) to the network card the stick offers. That works, but only until i reboot the machine cause the usb tether has different MAC after reboot.

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To try with a physical machine i need another physical disk which is not available at the moment. But for next step i will try.

Here some pics
Bildschirmfoto zu 2024-12-28 20-05-19
with lsusb i can see the the stick and it also has an “emulated” network interface


which i can connect to red

but after a reboot the MAC of the “emulated” interface changes and so it is not recognized anymore - maybe there is another way to connect those tether devices now? My solution to edit the setting file is running since many years caused by a comment i this forum :slight_smile:

IPFire can’t be blamed for USB Tethering dynamic MAC addresses. This is related to the USB device and/or your hv. I wonder that you haven’t had that problem before. You may define a fixed MAC with your hv.

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Why bother with VMs? Router based operating systems are not compatible with them plus it provides an attack surface for hackers. Reduces performance and limits the capabilities that the Os has when running in a VM.