it’s me… henry

• Blackberry Pearl 8130 on Sprint
• Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10
• Dell XPS m1330

Get rid of the low voltage message when connecting blackberry to xps

1. Found this link: http://georgia.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6775440&postcount=2
2. All I did was go here: https://launchpad.net/~doctormo/+archive/ppa
3. Add OpenPGP key
4. Add repository
5. Update apt-get (apt-get update)
6. Install barry-util (apt-get install barry-util)
7. Not sure if it’s required, but I restarted xps here…

Get ready to setup tether…

1. From previous post… go here: http://wiki.colar.net/tethering_with_blackberry_pearl_on_linux
2. Oh…. there’s an easier way… go here: http://wiki.colar.net/bbtether

Get ready to setup easy tether…

1. Go here: http://wiki.colar.net/bbtether
2. Followed instructions installing the dependencies and bbtether.
3. For me… I do have “replacedefaultroute”, so that was easy.

Let’s tether

1. Connect blackberry to xps
2. Watch screen popup a message (something about low voltage) and it will go away
3. Start Berry4All
4. Go to Device>Rescan
5. Oh… says it failed… (expected)
6. Disconnect blackberry from xps
7. Go to Device>Rescan
8. Only listed USB devices…
9. Connect blackberry to xps again
10. Go to Device>Rescan
11. Oh… it worked.. but I got a warning… (we need this warning…)

12. 

    warning for tethering

13. Disconnect blackberry
14. Turn off blackberry (don’t need to remove battery)
15. Turn on blackberry
16. Close Berry4All
17. Connect blackberry to xps
18. Start Berry4All
19. Go to Modem>Connect
20. Select Sprint
21. Connected!!!

Improve speed

1. Edit conf/sprint file
2. Increased speed to 921600.

Side Note

1. I did have trouble with firefox… it wouldn’t “surf” the net
2. I could ping though…
3. Reading the FAQ on bbtether… sometimes firefox puts it to “work offline”.
4. That is my issue…
5. Unchecked “work offline”… and now I am able to surf the net.

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.