If you have trouble with a USB HSDPA modem being stolen away by the usb mass storage device (you get the windows drivers in a disk on the desktop, but not the device in network manager) then try usb_modeswitch. Which is available in lucid but there are updated packages in Odyx’s ppa if those don’t work for you:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:odyx/usb-modeswitch
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch
Make sure the device isn’t plugged in, and then try and plug it in. If that doesn’t fix it, try a restart. If that fails then message here and we’ll see what we can do to fix it.
We’re trying to stop the complex guides for enabling various devices. Ubuntu is about computers for people, not only for the courageous command line users. Part of that is turning guides into workable and permanent solutions. If you see a guide that is making you compile things, stop and ask the guide writer if there is a ppa or other solution yet and if not could that be worked on?
Once we have a ppa that works, it’s MUCH easier to get the fix into the next version of Ubuntu than with a guide online. We also have to fix and remove old guides which make Ubuntu out to be very complex.