Quectel EM120R-GL eSIM Linux?

Technical Subjects
1

Disclaimer: I don’t have a lot of knowledge about hardware and cellular networks so these concepts are quite new for me, I apologize for the lack of knowledge however I’m eager to learn more and make this work!

I’m attempting to achieve a LTE connection on the Raspberry PI 4 using an eSIM.

List of requirements:
-Raspberry PI 4
-eSIM module (M.2 connector)
-M.2 to usb adapter
-WWAN antenna, optionally a GPS antenna

For the eSIM module i decided to use the Quectel EM120R-GL which has built in eSIM support it’s used in some Lenovo Thinkpads and people have gotten it to work with Linux, since kernel version 5.13 it should work with the mhi_pci_generic driver. The WWAN antenna is listed in reference.

Reference:

Can only post 2 links… :frowning: lol

The M.2 connector has a B key, so our USB to M.2 adapter needs to have B key compatibility. I mainly chose to connect it via an M.2 connector since it’s easy, no need to solder anything or fiddle around with things and well with a USB to M.2 adapter it would be easily portable to other devices as well. So I decided to use below M.2 to USB adapter, it supports B key cards and the exact dimension our Quectel EM120R-GL has.

Reference:
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbypower-NGFF-Adapter-card-Module/dp/B01I9JTHVG

So all that’s left to do is to plug the card in the M.2 to USB adapter and screw it down then plug it in, now this should work and this module should be connected / recognized. We also connect the LTE / GPS antennas and now we should be ready to configure our eSIM profiles / connect. On Android there are API’s for managing eSIMs, however on Linux as far as my knowledge goes there are no API’s like that around so I suppose one must manually setup eSIM profiles via AT commands?

Has anyone had success using the Quectel EM120R-GL on Linux? And managing eSIM profiles on Linux?

I have searched a lot on the internet but it seems to me like there is quite a lack of information about eSIMs especially for IoT devices, I really hope someone can help or at least guide me in the right direction! Thank you!

2

Thanks for your query in Quectel forums.
Sorry, esim is not our product, so there is no measure to configure eSIM. The eSIM card information is usually configured by the operator. It is recommended that you consult the operator of the eSIM card, thank you.

1 Like
3

Could you elaborate please, I’m sorry I don’t understand do you mean that it’s not possible at all to configure eSIMs manually via AT commands or do you mean that I have to ask my cellular operator for which specific set of AT commands I need to issue?

The Lenovo X1 Gen 9 has this exact same WWAN card they run Windows which has a LPA for managing eSIM profiles, internally this also issues AT commands correct.

I understand that every cellular operator has different settings that need to be issued, but it’s still possible right?

Thank you!

4

Hi,
The esim file of Lenovo X1 notebook terminal is usually configured by Lenovo itself or sold by Lenovo to guide customers to configure it. Our module does not have an AT command to import the esim file. I hope it can help you, thank you.

1 Like
5

Please referer to page 20 and 24
https://forums.quectel.com/uploads/short-url/upApHXTmhXkHz9o3rbV547cQd9z.pdf
What is the state of this project? Has this already been implemented in some of the modules?

Please referer to page 19, which modules support the following structure?

Thank you!

6

I apologize, I linked the wrong document.
Following is the correct one,
https://forums.quectel.com/uploads/short-url/aCFNp1v9fRZtWU9mucGbJy3N0rq.pdf

Are there any modules as of currently which support the Quectel LPA Architecture (LPAe) (page 22)?

Sorry for the amount of questions, I’m new to eSIMs. Thank you!