it’s me… henry

I used the following resources.

http://wiki.colar.net/tethering_with_blackberry_pearl_on_linux

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=617811

Some issues I had…

When trying to compile opensync, there was no opensync/opensync-xml.h.  I found this and it fixed my issue.  http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/f158/tethered_modem_support_in_linux-40533/

Basically, I created a file  /usr/include/opensync-1.0/opensync/opensync-xml.h, and put copied and pasted this

==================

#ifndef HAVE_OPENSYNC_XML_H
#define HAVE_OPENSYNC_XML_H

#include <libxml/xmlmemory.h>
#include <libxml/parser.h>
#include <libxml/xpath.h>

#include <opensync/opensync.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C"
{
#endif

typedef enum osxmlEncoding {
OSXML_8BIT = 0,
OSXML_QUOTED_PRINTABLE = 1,
OSXML_BASE64 = 2
} osxmlEncoding;

typedef enum osxmlCharset {
OSXML_ASCII = 0,
OSXML_UTF8 = 1
} osxmlCharset;

typedef struct OSyncXMLEncoding OSyncXMLEncoding;
struct OSyncXMLEncoding {
osxmlEncoding encoding;
osxmlCharset charset;
};

typedef struct OSyncXMLScore {
int value;
const char *path;
} OSyncXMLScore;

xmlNode *osxml_node_add_root(xmlDoc *doc, const char *name);
xmlNode *osxml_node_get_root(xmlDoc *doc, const char *name, OSyncError **error);
xmlNode *osxml_get_node(xmlNode *parent, const char *name);

xmlNode *osxml_node_add(xmlNode *parent, const char *name, const char *data);
//void osxml_format_dump(OSyncXML *xml, char **data, int *size);
xmlNode *osxml_format_parse(const char *input, int size, const char *rootname, OSyncError **error);
char *osxml_find_node(xmlNode *parent, const char *name);
void osxml_node_add_property(xmlNode *parent, const char *name, const char *data);
char *osxml_find_property(xmlNode *parent, const char *name);
osync_bool osxml_has_property(xmlNode *parent, const char *name);
osync_bool osxml_has_property_full(xmlNode *parent, const char *name, const char *data);

void osxml_node_mark_unknown(xmlNode *parent);
void osxml_node_remove_unknown_mark(xmlNode *node);
void osxml_map_unknown_param(xmlNode *node, const char *paramname, const char *newname);

void osxml_node_set(xmlNode *node, const char *name, const char *data, OSyncXMLEncoding encoding);
xmlXPathObject *osxml_get_nodeset(xmlDoc *doc, const char *expression);
xmlXPathObject *osxml_get_unknown_nodes(xmlDoc *doc);
OSyncConvCmpResult osxml_compare(xmlDoc *leftinpdoc, xmlDoc *rightinpdoc, OSyncXMLScore *scores, int default_score, int treshold);
xmlChar *osxml_write_to_string(xmlDoc *doc);
osync_bool osxml_copy(const char *input, int inpsize, char **output, int *outpsize);

osync_bool osxml_marshall(const char *input, int inpsize, char **output, int *outpsize, OSyncError **error);
osync_bool osxml_demarshall(const char *input, int inpsize, char **output, int *outpsize, OSyncError **error);

#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif

#endif

==================

This is a tip on installing applications and games on the Blackberry without the Blackberry (BB) data service.

Without the BB data service, you will need to download the application onto your desktop, then save it to the BB. Then on the BB itself, go to the file, select it, and it will show up a download or install screen.

To download the actual package for the BB 8130, there needs to be a hack to actually download it. On Firefox, theres an add-on called “User Agent Switcher”. Install it, and lets create a new agent. For the description, I put BlackBerry 8130, for User Agent, I put BlackBerry8130-4.3.0, thats my blackberry-OS version, then for App Name, I put BlackBerry.

Now, go to whatever download section (only tested with Google Maps) with the new user agent selected, and you will be able to download the application. After downloading it, save it to the BB, get on the BB, and install it.

This tip was based off of http://www.labelme.org/family/blog/2008/02/01/a-healthy-addiction/ .

Tip: remember to switch the user agent back to default after you’re done downloading.

At the end of March, my mobile contract ended with AT&T.  Before that, I knew I was going to be happy in switching to another carrier since the service is bad at my place.  My sister mentioned that she got Sprint and her plan is cheap.

It’s the SERO plan.  It comes with unlimited text and unlimited data for $30.

I looked at the phones they had and  I wanted to get the Blackberry 8130.  But the purchase needs to have the Blackberry Data Service (which is an extra $39.99).  But searching online, I found out that you don’t need the data service if you have a Blackberry phone.  It’s only useful if you need push email and other blackberry service.

Some say you can’t get the Blackberry without the Blackberry data service.  Some say you need to be persistent and just keep asking for the original plan without the Blackberry data service.  Basically I did the latter and now I have a $30/month plan with unlimited text and unlimited data.  I can surf the net with Opera Mini.

Since all my computers are on Linux/Ubuntu, I had to find a way to install the desktop software for the Blackberry.  I have VMware with WinXP, so I installed it.  After a couple days of figuring out why it wouldn’t work, I found out that with the CD install (Desktop Application), you need to have the Device software too (which is not on the CD).  I searched the net and found the link to getting the Blackberry 8130 device setup (you can get that directly from the Blackberry website).

But getting the software on windows to connect to the device worked like once or twice.  Then I figured that the layer between (which would be the Linux/Ubuntu) needed extra support.  So I searched again, and found out that there’s Barry, a Linux support util and library to communicate with the Blackberry.

So finally… I have a working situation where I can connect the Blackberry to my PC and install applications, backup data and everything else.  It is done by installing Barry on Linux, running WinXP on VMware, and finally install the Desktop Application with the Device setup.