Tethering 3G cell phone in Lubuntu 19.04

Ok, I was curious about Lubuntu 19.04 cause it now uses LXQt instead of LXDE desktop. Hey I like it, maybe my favorite currently in Ubuntu family though it doesnt offer the one button hotpsot trick that Ubuntu has. That one button hotspot trick to share an internet connection via wifi is coolest trick. The downside, things must been rushed getting Lubuntu 19.04 out the door, as the Network Manager applet it uses in tray is pretty crude looking and doesnt offer a mobile broadband option.

Puppy uses wvdial so finding Lubuntu comes with wvdial, I tried adjusting wvdial.conf file for my phone data account. Nope, wvdial wouldnt read it, kept calling header malformed then skipped the file and used some mystery default that of course failed to connect. I even connected to Ubuntu hotspot and used apt-get to remove wvdial and its dependencies, then redownload and install them. No difference.

Long story short, after lot hair pulling and head banging, seems at least in Lubuntu, you cant just create a wvdial.conf file. Lubuntu is still Ubuntu and Ubuntu likes to play big brother and do the "mother may I" game.

Meaning you cant directly create a /etc/wvdial.conf file. You have to delete any wvdial.conf file you find, then "sudo wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf" command. Then this causes search for the modem (cell phone). It talks to it and when its happy tries to modify wvdial.conf file, when it finds no current wvdial.conf file, so creates a wvdial.conf (configuration file) that wvdial can read without error. Must be some odd formatting?? Now however you have to become root again and edit it putting in necessary info for your phone data account. Easiest way is to open file manager as root. Click on the configuration file, edit it and save. Luckily I already found a configuration file that works in wvdial for my phone as modem. I just erased all the crap below the [Dialer Defaults] header that was auto created and pasted in the file with correct readings in correct places. Save. Now "sudo wvdial" and it can read this configuration file so connects! I can surf.

I swear it took me the longest time to figure out why wvdial wouldnt use my created from whole cloth configuration file. Its a Ubuntu thing. Either that or I am just old and remember wvdial from the dialup days long ago when I could create a configuration file manually and have it recognized and functional without the hoop jumping.

Now I did find another way to do this from about ten years ago using what was called sakis3g. You can do search on Ubuntu forum and get some mentions of it. The website supporting sakis3g disappeared back in 2013, but with lot searching you can still find copy of it compiled and the sources for it if you want to compile it. I got it running via command line but it crashed trying to use the gui. Didnt put time into seeing if I could make it work completely in command line. Probably could. Do a google and there are people still using it with Raspberry PI computers, though their directions tend to leave something to be desired.

Also the tray connection applet in Lubuntu is just a crude cobbled together front end for Network Manager (since slick frontend for it in Ubuntu is GNOME based) so think there is also way to use Network Manager via command line. Again I didnt follow up on that as I was frustrated not getting my familiar wvdial to work and wanted answer to that most of all.