Blackberry 8830 with Network Manager

[Christopher A. Williams]

On Sat, 2008-12-06 at 10:24 -0500, Robert L Cochran wrote:

> Christopher A. Williams wrote:
> > On Wed, 2008-12-03 at 11:11 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> >   
> >> Christopher A. Williams wrote:
> >>     
> >>> I'm trying to figure out how to get my tethered Blackberry 8830 to work
> >>> as a modem with Network Manager. Sprint is my carrier and I have their
> >>> Linux modem setup document. It's straight forward.
> >>>
> >>> The only thing missing is that Network Manager doesn't recognize my BB
> >>> as a modem.
> >>>
> >>> I know I could set up kppp or gnome-ppp to make the connection, but I
> >>> would prefer to use Network Manager.
> >>>
> >>> Ideas on how to make this work?
> >>>       
> >> I use XmBlackBerry for this purpose, but I'm on Verizon and was running
> >> it under F8.  Haven't tried F9 or F10 with it yet.  I do have F9 on my
> >> laptop (where I used the Blackberry as a wireless modem), but
> >> XmBlackBerry is still installed there.  I'd have to do some checking.
> >>
> >> You most certainly will need the barry and barry-libs RPMs to have the
> >> device recognized by hal and such.
> >>     
> >
> > I have the barry packages installed from the F10 repos. When I ran F9, I
> > used barry as well and configured it for my carrier (Sprint) using
> > Gnome-ppp. It then "magically" showed up in NetworkManager and just
> > worked.
> >
> > On F10, Gnome-ppp seems to have been pulled. Barry now sets the modem up
> > on /dev/pts/0 (or 1 or 2 - seems to be on the fly). Then I'm unable to
> > use kppp to connect. Configuring directly through NetworkManager has not
> > worked for me at all.
> >
> > There's a script that comes with Barry that allegedly connects up Sprint
> > automatically. After running it, it appears to connect, but none of my
> > apps seem to be able to use it.
> >
> > It seems hal-info has what it needs to recognize the sdram card as a
> > drive, and even put mp3s on it. But we're sitting at squat for using it
> > as a broadband modem. Maybe I should Bugzilla that part. Not sure if
> > that will help though - my other hal-info bugzilla bug for my Sierra
> > Wireless broadband card (AT&T USB Connect Mercury) is still sitting
> > unassigned despite my being asked to create it.
> >
> > If I could just figure out how to create an entry in modems.fdi
> > (in /etc/hal/information/). Ideas???
> >

<re-ordering to correct top-posting...>

I too have the Blackberry 8830 (World Edition) and have an interest in
> this thread.
> 
> Bob

OK - Here's where I am on this in terms of progress:

I have installed Barry from the Fedora repositories. My system now
recognizes and charges my 8830.

BUT... It is only recognized as a disk drive for storing data (like
MP3s) to the memory card! It is NOT recognized by Fedora (assuming
hal-info) as a modem.

Barry does something under the covers to set up a modem to a random
device on /dev/pts. Using the scripts provided by barry for ppp, it then
connects and gets an IP address, but I do not get DNS and also am unable
to have any other applications outside of that terminal window where I
made the connection use that connection for anything. Finally, when the
Barry script disconnects, it destroys the modem connection to the point
that the Blackberry must be physically disconnected from the computer
and then re-connected before it can be used again.

I believe that the Barry drivers do actually do what is basically needed
to support the 8830. I think the issue is that hal-info doesn't know how
to set up the 8830 (or other Blackberries) for anything other than a
disk drive for music. That's a real shame!!!

<rant>
If I knew how to create the appropriate entries in a modems.fdi file so
that the 8830 would also be recognized as a CDMA broadband device, I
would do it myself and post it here. Unfortunately, I don't know how to
do that, and I am having ONE REAL HECK OF A TIME trying to find anyone
who is both willing and able to do it.
</rant>

HELP!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

Cheers,

Chris


--
==================================
By all means marry;
If you get a good wife, you'll be happy.
If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

--Socrates