3g/4g dongles known to work well with Ubuntu?

[Peter Flynn]

On 27/12/2020 17:02, Chris Green wrote:
> Do 3G/4G dongles 'just work' with Linux nowadays or are there some
> brands to avoid and others to prefer?
> 
> I need one that will work well with a headless system where I don't
> have access all the time. So, once configured, I want it to connect
> without any interaction when the system is [re]started.

I think it depends on how good the hardware support is, and whether the 
network-detection software (Network-Manager?) is smart enough to handle 
it all by itself.

I don't have a 3G/4G dongle but I do have a wifi USB dongle, and Mint 20 
on a HP Optiplex 745 does NOT detect the presence of my wifi network at 
boot time. Once it's booted, you can pull out the USB and stick it in 
again, and it immediately detects wifi and connects to it. But I don't 
know if this is because NM is looking in the wrong place, or because 
whatever USB-detection software is used doesn't detect it early enough 
for NM to see it (ie a timing problem).

Peter