luci-app-5gmodem

Русская версия · 简体中文

A LuCI app for 4G/5G modems on OpenWrt. It merges 3ginfo-lite, sms-tool-js and some pieces of modemband into a single app.

Installation

Grab the .apk (OpenWrt 25.12.x) or .ipk (24.10.x) link from the Releases page then issue a command:

.apk (OpenWrt 25.12.x)

apk update && apk add curl
curl -L https://github.com/fildunsky/luci-app-5gmodem/releases/download/v2.4.24/luci-app-5gmodem-2.4.24-r1.apk > /tmp/luci-app-5gmodem.apk
apk add /tmp/luci-app-5gmodem.apk --allow-untrusted

For eSIM (optional) install our patched lpac too — pick the build for your platform from the lpac-build release. Example for MediaTek Filogic (e.g. WH3000):

curl -L https://github.com/fildunsky/lpac-build/releases/latest/download/lpac-25.12.5-mediatek-filogic.apk > /tmp/lpac.apk
apk add /tmp/lpac.apk --allow-untrusted

That same Filogic build is mirrored in this repo, so you can swap the URL for https://github.com/fildunsky/luci-app-5gmodem/raw/master/dist/lpac-25.12.5-mediatek-filogic.apk if you would rather not go to the lpac-build release. Other platforms are only in the release.

.ipk (OpenWrt 24.10.x)

opkg update && opkg install curl
curl -L https://github.com/fildunsky/luci-app-5gmodem/releases/download/v2.4.24/luci-app-5gmodem_2.4.24-r1_all.ipk > /tmp/luci-app-5gmodem.ipk
opkg install /tmp/luci-app-5gmodem.ipk

The regular package pulls in the full set (sms-tool, comgt, qmi-utils, modemmanager, QMI/MBIM protocols, USB-serial kmods) — upgrade it over any earlier version and nothing gets removed.

For low-flash devices (MT7628 boards with 8 MB, where the full set will not install at all) there is a separate -lite.apk in the release: it requires only sms-tool. Metrics, SMS, USSD, band control and the AT console all work; you lose the QMI/MBIM interface protocols and the phone number read through mmcli. Do not use the lite build as an upgrade on a router that runs a QMI or MBIM modem — the package manager would drop those packages as orphans.

Features

• Easy create modem interface button (Modem Settings) — sets up a network interface for the modem automatically.
• Dual modem mode and uplink switcher
• Dual sim and eSIM switch tested and working with the Fibocom FM350-GL (AT) and Foxconn T99W175 / Thales MV31-W (MBIM) — install our patched lpac for your platform from the lpac-build releases (see the eSIM / lpac section below)!
• Network — advanced signal level, operator, technology with carrier aggregation (e.g. LTE-A | B1 + B40 / B7 / B3), interface IPv4/IPv6, connection statistics and modem temperature (if the modem reports it).
• Band & mode management — pick the network mode (Auto / 2G / 3G / 4G / 4G+5G / 5G) and toggle individual LTE/NR bands.
• TTL fixing — force incoming/outgoing IPv4 TTL and IPv6 hop-limit on the modem interface (via an nftables include in fw4).
• Cell tower map — the Cell ID is a button that opens the tower on 4cells.ru.
• Modem restart — one-click soft radio restart AT+CFUN=4,1 and modem reset AT+CFUN=1,1.
• SMS Inbox / Send, USSD and AT tabs, each with a collapsible per-tab settings panel. Optional e-mail forwarding of incoming SMS and LED/notification support.
• Telegram bot — incoming SMS reach the chat from every modem, and /sms, /status and /modem work from the chat.
• Neighbour cells — a table under carrier aggregation: the serving cell and its neighbours with PCI, channel and levels (Fibocom FM350-GL, QMI modems).
• APN database update button — refresh the world operator database (GNOME MBPI + AOSP) without reinstalling the app.
• Port auto-detect — the AT port and network interface are detected automatically; can be set manually.
• USB sticks that have no AT ports (Huawei HiLink and relatives) are supported too — see below.
• Telemetry for smart homes — a flat JSON at /tmp/5gmodem_tele.json (signal, operator, mode, aggregation, rates, SMS count) plus optional MQTT publishing with Home Assistant auto-discovery; see docs/telemetry.md.
• 5gtop — a terminal dashboard with the same data, for when you are on SSH and not in a browser.

Tested:

I've added new features to them (compared to 3ginfo and modemband)

• Fibocom FM350GL
• Fibocom L850
• Compal RXM-G1
• Telit LM960A18
• SIMCOM SIM7100E
• SIMCOM SIM7600E-H
• Quectel EC21-E
• MeigLink SLM770A-R
• Huawei E3372 (HiLink)
• Many more untested, but should support all the modems handled by the upstream forks.

USB sticks with no AT ports (HiLink)

Sticks like the Huawei E3372 keep the IP stack themselves: the router only sees an Ethernet card, and everything else lives behind the stick's own web interface. There are no AT ports at all, so the usual polling has nothing to talk to.

The app handles them anyway:

• the modem is recognised by its USB descriptor (a stick that simply has no driver bound yet is not mistaken for one) and gets a DHCP interface;
• metrics, SMS and the operator name are read over the stick's HTTP API;
• if the stick can expose serial ports (Huawei calls it debug mode), the app switches it there automatically and then drives it like any other modem — which is where TAC, band, EARFCN, USSD and the AT console come from. The mode is reset whenever the modem reboots, so it is re-applied on every appearance. There is a checkbox in Modem Settings if you would rather it did not.

Bands and network mode for such a stick are changed through its API rather than AT^SYSCFGEX: the AT route makes the modem drop its USB composition and fall out of debug mode.

Buttons

5gtop

A terminal dashboard, for when you are on SSH rather than in a browser. Same data as the web pages, same backend — no extra polling of the modem.

5gtop        # English
5gtop ru     # Russian

Tabs: Network, Cell info, Modem, SMS, USSD, AT console, and eSIM when an eUICC is present. Keys are single-press (no Enter): the highlighted letter in each tab name switches to it, Tab cycles modems in dual modem setups, t runs the speed test, r refreshes, q quits. The layout follows the terminal width and falls back to a narrow mode on small screens.

eSIM / lpac

The eSIM tab (download / enable / disable / delete profiles, notifications) needs lpac. The official OpenWrt 25.12 lpac (2.3.0) has a broken stdio backend, so we ship a patched build — fildunsky/lpac-build — with the native AT-driver robustness PRs, bare-CCHO support, and a loader fix for OpenWrt. It is a general-purpose build carrying every APDU backend (AT, QMI, uqmi, MBIM), so the app picks the right transport per modem: AT for Fibocom FM350-GL, MBIM/QMI for Qualcomm SDX55 modules such as Foxconn T99W175 / Thales MV31-W.

.apk files are named lpac-<openwrt>-<target>-<subtarget>.apk; 24.10.x builds are .ipk. Older releases used an lpac-fm350-* prefix.

Download your platform's .apk from the latest lpac-build release:

File	Arch	Typical devices
lpac-25.12.5-mediatek-filogic.apk	aarch64_cortex-a53	WH3000 & new WiFi6 routers with USB
lpac-25.12.5-rockchip-armv8.apk	aarch64	NanoPi R2S/R4S/R5S
lpac-25.12.5-bcm27xx-bcm2711.apk	aarch64_cortex-a72	Raspberry Pi 4
lpac-25.12.5-armsr-armv8.apk	aarch64_generic	VMs / containers / generic ARM64
lpac-25.12.5-armsr-armv7.apk	arm	generic ARM32
lpac-25.12.5-ramips-mt7621.apk	mipsel_24kc	Xiaomi / GL.iNet / Netgear
lpac-25.12.5-ath79-generic.apk	mips_24kc	older MIPS routers with USB
lpac-25.12.5-x86-64.apk	x86_64	mini-PC / VM routers

curl -L https://github.com/fildunsky/lpac-build/releases/latest/download/lpac-25.12.5-<your-platform>.apk > /tmp/lpac.apk
apk add /tmp/lpac.apk --allow-untrusted

Tested modems

Modem	APDU transport	What was verified
Fibocom FM350-GL	at (native AT driver)	full cycle — read eUICC, download / enable / disable / delete profiles, notifications
Foxconn T99W175 / Thales MV31-W	mbim (via mbim-proxy)	eUICC read: EID, chip info, profile list, free memory. Profile download not confirmed yet

The transport is picked automatically from the interface protocol, so you normally do not set it by hand. On the MBIM path the eUICC is reachable regardless of which SIM slot is active, so the physical SIM stays online while you work with the eSIM.

lpac is an optional dependency — the eSIM tab appears only when it is installed and an eUICC is present; the rest of the app works without it.

Build from source

The package builds with the standard OpenWrt SDK. As a feed:

# in your OpenWrt — "modem" here is just a feed name you pick
echo "src-git modem https://github.com/fildunsky/luci-app-5gmodem.git" >> feeds.conf.default
./scripts/feeds update modem
./scripts/feeds install luci-app-5gmodem
make package/luci-app-5gmodem/compile V=s

CI (.github/workflows/build.yml) builds .ipk/.apk on every tag and attaches them to the release; it can also be triggered manually from the Actions tab.

Permissions

The app runs as root and exposes its capabilities through the ACL group luci-app-5gmodem (/usr/share/rpcd/acl.d/). That group is root-equivalent, which matters before granting it to anyone but a full administrator:

• it allows sending any AT command to the modem (via atcmd.sh - the AT console needs that by design). The sms_tool binary itself is no longer in the ACL: through it the browser could also run send, delete all and reach foreign /dev/*, with nothing able to check the arguments;
• writing /etc/crontabs/root — removed. That right existed only for the SMS-notifier restart schedule; smscron.sh now owns it, touching just its own line and validating the interval. Other cron jobs are neither read nor changed. A full administrator still has that capability - through LuCI's own "Scheduled Tasks" page, which is where it belongs;
• reading the 5gmodem config exposes the SMTP password for SMS forwarding if one is set (OpenWrt keeps passwords in /etc/config in clear text, the same way it keeps the Wi-Fi key).

Do not grant this group to a restricted role such as "an operator who may only look at the modems". There is no way around it: argument filtering lives in the page, and the page runs in the user's browser. Such a role would need its own set of narrow calls, not a subset of this group.

Credits

Based on the work of Rafał Wabik (IceG) and Cezary Jackiewicz. Signal-bar math adapted from koshev-msk. Licensed under GPL-3.0.