ThinkPad T495 & Fibocom L850-GL LTE modem?

SOLUSfiddler

Hi everyone,

I got this new, original Lenovo LTE modem Fibocom L850-GL that I would like to use in my ThinkPad T495 (AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U w/ Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx).
The modem is listed by Lenovo as a working LTE modem for the T495 but it seems that it only works under Windows.

The T495 I use mainly to test it against my main machine, a T480 (with an Intel Core i7-8650U CPU) that itself has another Fibocom model inside which works perfectly well with my SIM card.

Is there anyone who has got the Fibocom L850-GL working running Solus, or even better is there anyone around who has got it working under Solus on a ThinkPad T495?

And if none of you can help:
Where can I find more information about this specific and rather stupid problem with the Fibocom L850-GL modem and possible solutions?

Thanks for your help!

brent

fiddler this has been a wasted half hour for me so I can imagine how you feel.
our forums are bare. as is dev tracker with much of this hardware.
even though lenovo spec sheet (https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T495/ThinkPad_T495_Spec.PDF) says "linux" and "ubu linux" compatibility (top of page one) I can find no ubu forums. What I'm finding are a reddit/arch forums where people have limited success with T480-T495 but it takes an act of go* and some heavy lifting with kernel maneuvers stc.
I see no evidence it works oob with linux even though it says it does.
also bottom page 3 says your T495 was already born with the 850 inside it. So yours must be different?

SOLUSfiddler Where can I find more information about this specific and rather stupid problem with the Fibocom L850-GL modem and possible solutions?

how maddening. no combination of search terms help. just recurring arch semi-success threads. Give it a day--someone on this forum has an 850 installed I would think.

SOLUSfiddler

Hi,
thanks for your replies!
brent
The T495 wasn't born with the L850-GL inside, it had an empty WWAN slot with antennas pre-installed and all. Made me think "just pop the modem right in there, connect the antennas and restart the laptop". Now I know more...
I bought the L850-GL on ebay-kleinanzeigen.de, a sort of German version of Craigslist.
It had been installed only once, by a Lenovo service person working on a laptop that had problems self-disconnecting from a mobile/cellular network. The new modem didn't resolve the problems and they decided to replace the whole motherboard instead.
The former owner of the modem gave me the original delivery note by Lenovo, with the delivery date and his name on it, so I know it's genuine.
And I bought it because Lenovo's PSREF sheet mentions it specifically as the supported mobile/cellular modem.
I've read about possibly needed kernel mods I might have to go through if I wanted to make the modem work on my Solus laptop.
But, no, I won't mess with my working Solus installation just to prove that Lenovo was right in saying that the modem works in the T495.
I might get the original Windows SSD out that the T495 came with (and that I kept) just to tinker and see if the modem actually does work and the antennas are installed correctly etc..
But I might just sell the modem again to someone who might need it more than I do.
What I'm curious about:
Why does my T480 (Intel CPU, my main machine) come with a Fibocom modem that works running Solus and the modem by the same manufacturer in the T495 (AMD CPU) does not?
What kind of thinking is going on there with the developers of those ThinkPads? Don't get it... ☹️

Axios

guess I am bored ..lol appears to me from quick read that you got to get modem to show as usb and some issues with something called fcclock that has to be dealt with. BUT JUST READ A WARNING FROM THE SOFTWARE DEV ON DRIVER THAT IT WAS POSSIBLE TO BRICK LAPTOP SO NOT POSTING fcclock is for the rf powerissues is why it dont work now i guess. Prob not worth effort got to be reconfigured each time you reboot could be a hassel

(just info)
Please clarify what exactly do you mean by this statement. As far as the community is aware, the chipsets on these modems are connected to BOTH buses, but they appear to make a one-time choice which bus to speak upon power-up. It should be possible for Lenovo firmware engineers to add a BIOS-level option to disable or otherwise block the PCIe bus on this slot, thereby forcing the modem to select the USB bus. (dell and hp is selectable in bios lenovo is not)

brent

Axios Please clarify what exactly do you mean by this statement

me or him?

Axios

brent neither was just a copy and paste from an article talking about it... hmm i didnt notice that..sorry if it confused.

brent

Axios since covid era i am confused twice as much🙂 . all good! I over-read sometimes! all my 'community' reading only focused on the pcie/bus once, the rest focused on kernel manipulation. re: arch. what you found out was much more valuable as you traced the actual devel/bugs. hold out hope someone here runs solus on the 850 because the more I see the less I think it's doable..

brent

SOLUSfiddler It does sound like a catch22 like Axios said. In my reading I saw some fcclock business but my eyes glazed over🙂

Axios

Its catch 22 they support it totally in windows but from what I read something about fcclock because linux cant automatically adjust rf or something that board from what I read is like they can ship it anywhere thing cuts down on costs I guess but lenovo locked it out for that issue.