Is there any actively maintained "stable" PPA that will update usb-modeswitch-data for Ubuntu 12.04? I do see the daily network-manager trunk ppa:

https://launchpad.net/~network-manager/+archive/trunk

But, is this stable for a casual user? (I am setting this up for "low tech ESL beginners to Ubuntu" that don't have their modem properly detected in the 2012-01-20 version of usb-modeswitch-data still the default for Ubuntu 12.04, but the specific modem, 2077:000f IS listed in newer versions of usb-modeswitch-data).

Maybe instead it is "more stable" to just build the new version of usb-modeswitch manually according to the instructions? I could probably walk them through this (then it won't pull in newer versions of network-manager, etc).

I have tried to look for recommended advice here on the forum but haven't found it: so in summary what is recommended for beginning users using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS that need an updated version of usb-modeswitch?

Thanks for any advice.

(FWIW, I'm the usb-modeswitch Debian maintainer)

I've just made the most recent usb-modeswitch Debian versions available on this PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~odyx/+archive/usb-modeswitch

For now, there are recent versions built for Precise and Trusty.

I welcome feedback on odyx@debian.org.

Cheers, OdyX

Thanks - I have included a link to your post in the static documentation page for usb_modeswitch !!