I was able to use the key six months ago, with betavine. Now I am no more (after kernel updates?) I tried to reinstall betavine 2.99.14 (beta 5), after removing bcm, usb-modeswitch and usb-modeswitch-data from previous installs.
Symptoms:
the "Enable mobile broadband" switch appears in the network applet of the gnome panel, and i can initially select it. Then I left click on the applet, find a Vodafone Mobile Internet option, but, soon after I click on it, it replies "GSM network- you are now disconnected" (of course I checked that a windows machine can link at my home) Now "Enable mobile broadband" is deselected and cannot be selected any more My connection parameters set automatically by the wizard are all empty, Only number: *99# and APN: mobile.vodafone.it, no user no pass no network no PIN (maybe that's the problem? The italian vodafone site is no use for linux, why?)
Sorry all, I found by myself: the wizard sets mobile.vodafone.it but, surprisingly, the correct APN is web.omnitel.it. Now it works!
