How To Install usb_modeswitch on CentOS 8

usb_modeswitch is USB Modeswitch gets mobile broadband cards in operational mode

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install usb_modeswitch on CentOS 8.

What is usb_modeswitch

USB Modeswitch brings up your datacard into operational mode. When plugged in they identify themselves as cdrom and present some non-Linux compatible installation files. This tool deactivates this cdrom-device and enables the real communication device. It supports most devices built and sold by Huawei, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Option, ZTE, Novatel.

We can use yum or dnf to install usb_modeswitch on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install usb_modeswitch.

Install usb_modeswitch on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install usb_modeswitch using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install usb_modeswitch

Install usb_modeswitch on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install usb_modeswitch using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install usb_modeswitch

How To Uninstall usb_modeswitch on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the usb_modeswitch package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove usb_modeswitch

usb_modeswitch Package Contents on CentOS 8

/etc/usb_modeswitch.conf
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/9e
/usr/lib/.build-id/9e/8fee8622fe40dbe72b325868ac5d113172f77e
/usr/lib/systemd/system/[email protected]
/usr/lib/udev/usb_modeswitch
/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch
/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch_dispatcher
/usr/share/doc/usb_modeswitch
/usr/share/doc/usb_modeswitch/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/usb_modeswitch/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/usb_modeswitch/README
/usr/share/doc/usb_modeswitch/device_reference.txt
/usr/share/man/man1/usb_modeswitch.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/usb_modeswitch_dispatcher.1.gz

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install usb_modeswitch on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.