Ubuntu Jaunty And Samsung Cdma Phones...howto?

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello.

Now i am in Chiang Mai and would like to get my Ubuntu laptop online with CAT CDMA. For this purpose i have a couple of mobile phones that can be used.

Well, under Windows, that is.

Because Ubuntu (9.04, Jaunty) does not detect either phone as a modem. It does so for my GSM phones but doesn't seem to like the CDMA ones. And GSM is no option because the coverage out here is less than mediocre.

Now my PC at home, also running Jaunty, works fine with those phones so i guess it can't be too difficult to get it done. The phones are connected via their respective USB cables and "lsusb" detects "Samsung Electronics Ltd." so the computer knows the phone is there, it just doesn't know that it can be used as a modem. The laptop must be missing *something* that the home PC has.

I would appreciate any help on this matter as i am only here for a limited time and can't test it in Bangkok as my CAT won't go online while roaming on Hutch, i can only use that here in Chiang Mai.

Oh, @moderators:

This thread would have fitted in three categories - Linux, Networking and Mobile Internet and i didn't know where to put it so i chose the main category. If necessary please move accordingly, thanks.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Sorry I didn't see this before.

Try using

sudo wvdialconf

This will write the config to the proper file and you may have to then edit it with

sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf

Simply using pon to initiate and poff to disconnect will get you going.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

Thank you for the reply. I guess i should have updated the thread by myself, too.... as i found the solution some time ago, although it was a heck of a lot more complicated as i had to install a whole bunch of things that weren't there to begin with (wvdial included), however now i can simply click the "CDMA" icon on the desktop and it fires up Gnome-PPP and dials the connection, then disappears into the task bar and a right-click and "disconnect" from there does, well, disconnect.

Still wondering though why the normal network manager doesn't handle it on this machine - on my home PC (desktop) with the same Jaunty (although an older kernel - i refuse to update a running system) the connected phone is immediately detected as "Samsung CDMA" and i can create a mobile broadband connection via the network manager. On the laptop the connected phone shows up (after "lsusb") as "Samsung Electronics Ltd" and does nothing at all, however it does work as a ttyACM0 or something device (after something "ACM" related that i had to install, too).

Kind regards......

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Hi.

Thank you for the reply. I guess i should have updated the thread by myself, too.... as i found the solution some time ago, although it was a heck of a lot more complicated as i had to install a whole bunch of things that weren't there to begin with (wvdial included), however now i can simply click the "CDMA" icon on the desktop and it fires up Gnome-PPP and dials the connection, then disappears into the task bar and a right-click and "disconnect" from there does, well, disconnect.

Still wondering though why the normal network manager doesn't handle it on this machine - on my home PC (desktop) with the same Jaunty (although an older kernel - i refuse to update a running system) the connected phone is immediately detected as "Samsung CDMA" and i can create a mobile broadband connection via the network manager. On the laptop the connected phone shows up (after "lsusb") as "Samsung Electronics Ltd" and does nothing at all, however it does work as a ttyACM0 or something device (after something "ACM" related that i had to install, too).

Kind regards......

Thanh

I'm old school so I'm used to the bzzt-kraaack-bzzt of a 3Com modem and thus think like that. None-the-less it's odd that you didn't have wvdial installed, seems like you did a minimal install on there (but I thought that Ubuntu forced their packages on you whether you liked them or not). Upon installing that I can't think of why you couldn't use the network manager....

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

No it was a regular install from the Live-CD just like all the other installs i did. Until i ran into this problem i didn't even know of "wvdial"..... it does not seem to have anything to do with the "regular" network manager, in fact those two (network manager and wvdial) seem to compete with each other..... and the reason network manager doesn't work with this phone is because this particular computer (or rather this particular Jaunty install) does not "see" the phone as a phone/modem whereas my home machine does ("Samsung Electronics Ltd." vs. "Samsung CDMA").

And for me, i am mouse pusher so i very much prefer things to work by clicking on them instead of having to hack code into a terminal But regardless, i have gotten it to work and have already used that connection as it is quite a bit faster than the ADSL here which is also very unreliable - sometimes it simply does not transfer any data. Seems the whole village is hanging on that one line

Kind regards......

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Hi.

No it was a regular install from the Live-CD just like all the other installs i did. Until i ran into this problem i didn't even know of "wvdial"..... it does not seem to have anything to do with the "regular" network manager, in fact those two (network manager and wvdial) seem to compete with each other..... and the reason network manager doesn't work with this phone is because this particular computer (or rather this particular Jaunty install) does not "see" the phone as a phone/modem whereas my home machine does ("Samsung Electronics Ltd." vs. "Samsung CDMA").

And for me, i am mouse pusher so i very much prefer things to work by clicking on them instead of having to hack code into a terminal But regardless, i have gotten it to work and have already used that connection as it is quite a bit faster than the ADSL here which is also very unreliable - sometimes it simply does not transfer any data. Seems the whole village is hanging on that one line

Kind regards......

Thanh

Awwh...but pushing the mouse around just tells the computer what to do behind the scenes.

I'm wondering what your kernel versions are; perhaps you have a newer one on the desktop! A quick uname -a will tell you. If you have an older kernel on your laptop, update it using Synaptics! You can then tell Ubuntu to use the new kernel as the default in grub and not even have to worry about selecting the new kernel on boot. This may solve the problem of your phone not being recognised as an available modem.

And I never did like network manager.....

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

I just returned from Chiang Mai, now back in Bangkok. Crazy traffic jams at Nakhorn Sawan and Singburi. Left Chiang Mai at 2 pm, reached BKK 2 am. Never took that long before.....

Anyway way too lazy to fire up the laptop but for sure it has a NEWER kernel - as i only got it before Christmas and, as i always do, after installing i grabbed all available updates and then disabled updating. I did just the same with the desktop - i never update again once i am done with tweaking the system as i think "never change a running system".

Here's the kernel version of the desktop: 2.6.28-15-generic

I will check on the laptop tomorrow.... but if it was the case of a difference between kernels it would only verify my thoughts - updating often does more bad then good (such as breaking previously working things, for example detection of CDMA phones).

Best regards.......

Thanh

[dave_boo]

You're way behind...current stable is 2.6.32.2. Just download all those *.debs and install them. I like using wget with the following command:

cd ~ && mkdir kernel && cd kernel && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainl...v2.6.32.2/*.deb && sudo dpkg -i *.deb[/code]

You could of course just download the 32bit files...

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

So here's the laptop's kernel, just one version up apparently: 2.6.28-16-generic

I am way behind? Where? I didn't see the competition overtake me so i guess i'm still fine. Seriously, why participate in that silly "must-have-latest-version" race if my "outdated" version works flawlessly? As mentioned (and experienced with Hardy) updates tend to break things so i won't update unless i know that a bug, and one that actually affects me, is fixed in a newer version.

And apart from this CDMA issue (which i don't really think is a bug) i see no difference between the two machines as they are virtually clones of each other, i.e. every application that is on the desktop is also on the laptop, and both work perfectly.

Best regards.....

Thanh