Argh! Nevermind, just figured it out.
It's actually documented in the original NEWS file, but it's
not very obvious to the user, why suddenly the modem disappears.
This is the solution:
ln -sft /etc/ModemManager/fcc-unlock.d
/usr/share/ModemManager/fcc-unlock.available.d/*
and it's also documented quite nicely on the modemmanager.org
website. Maybe debian should add a prominent Warning, because
this will break modemmanager heavily for a lot of non-technical
people:
------------------------- cite from NEWS.gz ---------------------------
ModemManager 1.18.4
-------------------------------------------
* A new FCC unlock operation management via external scripts is
introduced,
which will avoid to automatically unlock FCC locked devices unless
the user
has configured the operation manually, or unless an official
vendor-provided
FCC unlock tool is found in the system.
Please refer to the following URL for full details:
https://modemmanager.org/docs/modemmanager/fcc-unlock/
The following changes should be taken into account by distribution
packagers:
** A set of FCC unlock scripts named as the specific vendor 'vid'
will be
installed in ${datadir}/ModemManager/fcc-unlock.available.d.
** A set of symlinks is created named as the specific device
'vid:pid', and
pointing to the per-vendor 'vid' files, in the same location inside
${datadir}.
** A new ${sysconfdir}/ModemManager/fcc-unlock.d directory is
created, where
users will manually install additional symlinks to the scripts
shipped in
${datadir}.
** A new ${libdir}/ModemManager/fcc-unlock.d directory is created, where
vendors will install their own official FCC unlock tools.
** Both fcc-unlock.d directories should be empty on a new install,
and their
contents (if any) should not be removed on ModemManager upgrades.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Have a nice weekend.
Bjørn