How To Install usb-modeswitch on Ubuntu 20.04

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install usb-modeswitch on Ubuntu 20.04.

What is usb-modeswitch

usb-modeswitch is:

Several new USB devices have their proprietary Windows drivers onboard, especially WAN dongles. When plugged in for the first time, they act like a flash storage and start installing the driver from there. If the driver is already installed, the storage device vanishes and a new device, such as an USB modem, shows up. This is called the “ZeroCD” feature.

On Debian, this is not needed, since the driver is included as a Linux kernel module, such as “usbserial”. However, the device still shows up as “usb-storage” by default. usb-modeswitch solves that issue by sending the command which actually performs the switching of the device from “usb-storage” to “usbserial”.

This package contains the binaries and the brother scripts. Task: ubuntu-desktop-minimal, ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-desktop-core, ubuntustudio-desktop, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop

There are three methods to install usb-modeswitch on Ubuntu 20.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install usb-modeswitch Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install usb-modeswitch using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install usb-modeswitch

Install usb-modeswitch Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install usb-modeswitch using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install usb-modeswitch

Install usb-modeswitch Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install usb-modeswitch using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install usb-modeswitch

How To Uninstall usb-modeswitch on Ubuntu 20.04

To uninstall only the usb-modeswitch package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove usb-modeswitch

Uninstall usb-modeswitch And Its Dependencies

To uninstall usb-modeswitch and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 20.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove usb-modeswitch

Remove usb-modeswitch Configurations and Data

To remove usb-modeswitch configuration and data from Ubuntu 20.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge usb-modeswitch

Remove usb-modeswitch configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove usb-modeswitch configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge usb-modeswitch

References

• usb-modeswitch website
• usb-modeswitch on packages.ubuntu.com

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install usb-modeswitch package on Ubuntu 20.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.