Fibocom L850-GL installation on Ubuntu 18.04

I have a new gen 6 X1 carbon with a 4G connection. But, unfortunately, I could not install it in Ubuntu 18.04. I appreciate if anybody can help to install Fibocom L850-GL.

PS: I want to use the 4G network in both Windows and Linux environments. Solution to work the 4G modem on Ubuntu only is not an option for me.


Fibocom L850-GL now works on Linux on ThinkPad laptops, see https://github.com/abrasive/xmm7360

The related solution post on lenovo forum: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-Linux-Discussions/WWAN-Fibocom-L850-GL-and-Linux-support/m-p/4561524#M13843


Fibocom L850-GL works in LMDE 3 Cindy in Clevo P651SA (motherboard P65_P67SA).

PCIe interface in the M2 LTE slot is not supported in this laptop, therefore the modem automatically works with the USB 3.0 interface that his modem also supports on Linux.

Mind you, this is a laptop from 2014 (year of launch) or rather 2015 (when the laptop was sold with LTE antenna on board from different OEMs around the world).

This modem was designed to be a transitional modem for laptops that had no PCIe support in the M2 LTE interface slot.

From 2016 laptops had PCIe support in the M2 interface (connection slot).

These newer laptops need the newer modem Fibocom L860-GL to work on Linux, as they came with PCIe interface support only.

The older Fibocom L830-EB that came with USB 2.0 support only, will also work in Linux on any laptop that have the M2 interface, that being older or newer laptops.

Hope this helps :)


Fibocom L860-GL only has support for PCIe interface (No USB 2.0 and no USB 3.0 interface support). As long as your laptop is 2016 or newer and support PCIe in the m2 LTE interface slot (consult your laptops manual to verify), the modem will work on any Linux newer than 2017. The driver is built into the Linux kernel of your Linux distro.

Both L860-GL and L850-GL is based on Intel chips, contrary to many Huawei modems that are usually based on Qualcomm chips.

But L850-GL has support for both PCIe (PCIe only supports Windows 10 for this modem) and USB 3.0 support. As explained already L850-GL works in my 4 1/2 year old laptop only because my laptop does NOT suport PCIe in the m2 LTE connection slot. My laptop only support SATA in the m2 LTE connection slot.

Therefore when I installed Fibocom L850-GL it automatically worked because the laptop automatically detects no PCIe support and switches to USB 3.0 that the L850-GL also supports.