question

Dear all,

This message is to everyone involved with systems that use either our GX GSM or GX LTE 4G modems together with a GX device, and use a SIM-card that has PIN protection enabled.

The new firmware version released last Monday, v2.80, has a bug: in such system it will not be able to connect to the internet due to an issue with the pin code handling.

Today, Wednesday Feb 2nd., we released v2.81 that fixes that bug.

For systems that are now stuck at v2.80 without internet connection, there are three solutions:

Solution 1: revert to the previous firmware

In most cases this will be the fastest and easiest solution. No sdcards, phones or usb sticks necessary.

Steps:

1. In the menu, go to Settings -> Firmware -> Online updates
2. There, disable automatic updates updating. Set it to “Check only”, or “Disabled” instead. Note that for many systems it is in general better to keep auto-updating disabled.
3. Now go up one menu, and to Stored backup firmware
4. Select the previous version, often v2.73, and click to restore that.
5. Now, go to Settings -> GSM Modem
6. Re-enter the pin code, it was removed while running v2.80.
7. Check if it resumes connection. First in that same GSM menu, and there after in the Settings -> VRM Portal menu.

Now, if required, update to v2.81; in which this SIM PIN issue is solved. This update can be done using the usual procedure, see Settings -> Firmware -> Online updates.

Solution 2: remove the PIN protection from the sim-card

Steps:

1. Remove the sim card from the GX, and put it in a phone
2. On the phone, disable the PIN protection
3. Re-insert the SIM card into the modem
4. Either restart the GX device or power cycle the modem. Both will do.

Solution 3: update to v2.81, and re-enter the PIN code

Steps:

1. Update the GX device to v2.81 using a USB stick or SD-card, or in case available besides the modem, WiFi or ethernet, using the online update mechanism. Detailed instructions for both methods are in the manual.
2. After the update, make sure to re-enter the PIN code in the Settings -> Modem menu. While running v2.80, the PIN code will have been removed.

To conclude: clearly this should not have happened. After fixing the problem, we'll look at our release procedures as well as all automatic testing to make sure this won't happen again. My apologies to those that ended up with a disconnected system!

Matthijs Vader