Sierra Wireless LTE Modem Guide: Automated Flashing of the EM7455/MC7455 with a Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LiveCD

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I've written a bash script to automate the entire process of setting up any of the EM/MC74XX series modems (Generic, Dell, Lenovo). This assumes you have the Sierra card inserted into a USB enclosure.

This post is part of my Sierra Wireless LTE Modem Guide Series. If you prefer to skip the blog nature of these guides and just grab the bare features and commands, my GitHub repository will serve as the authoritative source for this entire series. Any changes or updates will occur there first.

From the script description:
- Only for use on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS LiveUSB
- All Needed Packages will Auto-Install
- Sets MBIM Mode with AT Commands Access
- Changes all models of EM74XX/MC74XX Modems to the Generic Sierra Wireless VID/PID
- Clears Band Restrictions and Places Modem in LTE only mode.
- Flashes the Current Generic Firmware as of 2018-07-18

Link to script:
https://github.com/danielewood/sierra-wireless-modems/blob/master/autoflash-7455.sh

If you are feeling brave you can run the script with:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielewood/sierra-wireless-modems/master/autoflash-7455.sh && sudo bash autoflash-7455.sh


Video of the entire process:


Comments

  1. alexMarch 15, 2019 at 3:31 PM

    hi.can you help me?i got this error

    Flashing SWI9X30C_02.30.01.01_Generic_002.045_000 onto Generic Sierra Modem...
    loading device information before the update...
    setting firmware preference:
    firmware version: '02.30.01.01'
    config version: '002.045_000'
    carrier: 'GENERIC'
    rebooting in download mode...
    error: error waiting for TTY: waiting for device at '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb4/4-1' timed out
    Firmware Update failed, exiting...

    ReplyDelete
  2. MatthiasSeptember 14, 2019 at 2:23 AM

    Hello,

    why you write it is just for USB enclosure and not if you have a installed card (Dell notebook)?
    is there any way to use this also for attached cards?

    ReplyDelete
  3. popeyeMay 10, 2020 at 4:37 AM

    Thanks so much. Saved my card which wouldn't connect after a failed flash attempt with windows. I believe the comm ports where scrambled and had tried everything I knew before finding this. Didn't use the full usb enclosure but a cheap $7 bare board. It all went perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. wifi guySeptember 5, 2020 at 7:09 PM

    Hi Daniele

    I just wanted to let you know the script in ubuntu 18 LTS fails at the CURL trying to pull the latest Sierra firmware from Sierra website, can you please see why when you get a chance? It says file either too large or too small, and then the script craps out.

    Thank you very much

    James.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Graham GuySeptember 12, 2020 at 2:01 PM

    Hi Everyone,

    Note that you need to run this script as root@ubuntu:~#

    You can use the following command

    pkexec su -
    password: (setup your password)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Graham GuySeptember 12, 2020 at 2:03 PM

    Hi Everyone,

    Note that you need to run this script as root@ubuntu:~#

    You can use the following command

    pkexec su -
    password: (setup your password)

    ReplyDelete
  7. SP9AMGSeptember 13, 2020 at 1:00 AM

    Hello

    Daniel Wood

    You can update the link in the script to FW sierra, it crashes when you try to download
    Thanks and regards

    ReplyDelete
  8. abiSeptember 29, 2020 at 2:49 AM

    Hi

    I am facing QMI Protocol error (14) callfailed with sierra wireless EM7455

    Thanks & Regards,
    M.Abinaya

    ReplyDelete
  9. RajibOctober 11, 2020 at 8:06 AM

    Many thanks for this great tutorials, My EM7455 is now working as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  10. sutibunDecember 8, 2020 at 2:57 PM

    Thanks for putting this together, however I am getting the error:

    loading device information before the update...
    error: couldn't open QMI device: Failure
    firmware update failed, exiting...

    does this not work for onboard cards? or only usb?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sutibunDecember 8, 2020 at 3:40 PM

      I downloaded ubuntu 18.04.5 instead of the current version and it was able to complete but I am still not able to get online, nor will the firmware for my provider will not install. I must have a bad card.

      Delete
  11. mutalibDecember 29, 2020 at 10:51 AM



    Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
    100 60.7M 100 60.7M 0 0 64929 0 0:16:21 0:16:21 --:--:-- 79149
    Archive: SWI9X30C_02.33.03.00_GENERIC_002.072_000.zip
    inflating: SWI9X30C_02.33.03.00.cwe
    inflating: SWI9X30C_02.33.03.00_GENERIC_002.072_000.nvu
    ---
    Flashing SWI9X30C_02.33.03.00.cwe onto Generic Sierra Modem...
    reseter operation finished successfully
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Found 413c:81b5
    error: couldn't parse option context: Unknown option --update-download
    Firmware Update failed, exiting...
    ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

    ReplyDelete
  12. DougFJanuary 17, 2021 at 4:10 PM

    Getting same error, Did you find a solution?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Indy75March 3, 2021 at 12:13 PM

    For me, it ends with cat: /DEV/TTYUSB3 : Not such file or directory

    And the modem is not operational afterwards, so I guess something failed, but I don't understand what and where…

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indy75March 3, 2021 at 2:01 PM

      The above-mentionned error was for Ubuntu 20.

      Under Ubuntu 18, I got the same mistake as mutalib and Dougf :(

      Delete
  14. Grant WardMarch 23, 2021 at 7:18 AM

    Change the command to --update-qdl in the script and it should work.

    ReplyDelete
  15. George NApril 3, 2021 at 12:08 AM

    Current setting is already '8'
    QMI msg '0x0023' returned status = 1
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    ---
    Reseting modem...
    cat: /dev/: Is a directory
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    ---
    Current modem settings:
    cat: /dev/: Is a directory
    cat: /dev/: Is a directory
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    ---
    Download of zip failed.
    File size on server is too small, something is wrong, exiting...
    Attempted download URL was: https://source.sierrawireless.com/~/media/support_downloads/airprime/74xx/fw/7455/zip
    curl info:
    ---

    can someone help me?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownApril 5, 2021 at 1:36 PM

      The source website is down at the moment: https://forum.sierrawireless.com/t/sierra-wireless-source-website-is-down/23287

      Delete
    2. UnknownApril 6, 2021 at 7:11 AM

      Thank you. Any rumors on how long will it be down?

      Delete
  16. George NApril 16, 2021 at 1:54 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  17. George NMay 16, 2021 at 6:20 AM

    I did managed to flash it on my Sierra Wireless AirPrime EM7455 from Lenovo (PN: SW10H24567) with this result:

    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Found 1199:9078
    downloading cwe image: SWI9X30C_02.33.03.00.cwe (64,4 MB)...
    finalizing download... (may take more than one minute, be patient)
    successfully downloaded in 58,08s (1,1 MB/s)
    downloading cwe image: SWI9X30C_02.33.03.00_GENERIC_002.072_000.nvu (3,3 kB)...
    finalizing download... (may take more than one minute, be patient)
    successfully downloaded in 0,05s (61,6 kB/s)
    rebooting in normal mode...
    firmware update operation finished successfully
    cat: /dev/ttyUSB2: No such file or directory
    Done!

    Is it OK?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Johan KarlsteenMay 9, 2022 at 12:10 AM

    Had been googling basically the whole Internet before finding this blog post from your GitHub repo.

    I bought an em7455 on Ebay and realized it was Dell branded. Managed to flash it using a Ubuntu 22.02 Live USB stick. I had to run it once manually to just do the rebranding part since that didn't work when running it without arguments, not sure why but in the end it worked out great.

    Thank you so much for putting in the effort to providing this!

    Cheers,
    Johan

    ReplyDelete
  19. HooverJuly 8, 2022 at 12:34 PM

    From looking at the script it gets to around line 412, and then I get this:
    Max FW images: 4
    Active FW image is at slot 255
    TYPE SLOT STATUS LRU FAILURES UNIQUE_ID BUILD_ID
    Max PRI images: 50
    OK
    AT
    OK
    AT!IMAGE=0
    OK
    AT!IMAGE?
    TYPE SLOT STATUS LRU FAILURES UNIQUE_ID BUILD_ID
    FW 1 EMPTY 0 0 0
    FW 2 EMPTY 0 0 0
    FW 3 EMPTY 0 0 0
    FW 4 EMPTY 0 0 0
    Max FW images: 4
    Active FW image is at slot 255
    TYPE SLOT STATUS LRU FAILURES UNIQUE_ID BUILD_ID
    Max PRI images: 50
    OK
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    ---
    Download of zip failed.
    File size on server is too small, something is wrong, exiting...
    Attempted download URL was: https://source.sierrawireless.comzip
    curl info:
    ---

    ReplyDelete
  20. Alia parkerOctober 2, 2022 at 7:57 AM

    If you are planning a trip abroad, a travel SIM card can be a useful way to stay connected. These SIM cards are designed specifically for use while traveling and can offer many benefits, including lower rates for international calls and data usage. Travel SIM cards can be purchased from many different carriers, so it is important to compare rates and features before choosing one. Travel SIM Card

    ReplyDelete
  21. EgorDecember 14, 2022 at 6:21 PM

    Hi guys , have an error during running of the script on (Kernel: 5.15.0-56-generic x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.4.12 Distro: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa). Please see below :

    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    ---
    Reseting modem...
    Setting MBIM Mode for Modem
    Interface bitmask: 0000100D (diag,nmea,modem,mbim)
    ---
    Running Modem Mode Switch to usbcomp=8
    Can't locate IPC/Shareable.pm in @INC (you may need to install the IPC::Shareable module) (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.34.0 /usr/local/share/perl/5.34.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl5/5.34 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl-base /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.34 /usr/share/perl/5.34 /usr/local/lib/site_perl) at ./swi_setusbcomp.pl line 9.
    BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./swi_setusbcomp.pl line 9.
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    ---
    Reseting modem...
    cat: /dev/: Это каталог
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    ---
    Current modem settings:
    cat: /dev/: Это каталог
    cat: /dev/: Это каталог
    Waiting for modem to reboot...
    Already downloaded SWI9X30C_02.38.00.00_GENERIC_002.082_000.zip...
    Archive: SWI9X30C_02.38.00.00_GENERIC_002.082_000.zip
    inflating: SWI9X30C_02.38.00.00.cwe
    inflating: SWI9X30C_02.38.00.00_GENERIC_002.082_000.nvu
    ---
    Flashing SWI9X30C_02.38.00.00.cwe onto Generic Sierra Modem...
    error: reseter operation finished: No devices found to run reset operation
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...
    Waiting for modem in boothold mode...

    Any thoughts ?

    ReplyDelete

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