Tethered Blackberry Modem on Ubuntu Karmic
Using your blackberry as a 3G (in my case) modem proved to be Incredibly simple. There are five million different methods to do this and many have you compiling stuff and editing text files. I love those sorts of things, but this is much easier. I Wish that I had tried this sooner.
**Confirmed using Blackberry Tour (9630) on Verizon. **
What we will do is use a program called ‘barry’. http://www.netdirect.ca/software/packages/barry All we need to do is install some packages from the repository below. These commands are from the terminal, so launch it from “Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal” in the Menu.
Edit /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.listadd these lines:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/doctormo/barry-snapshot/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/doctormo/barry-snapshot/ubuntu karmic maininstall the repositories key.
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 113659DFNow update your package list
sudo aptitude updateand install the programs:
sudo aptitude install libbarry0 barry-util barrybackup-guiThats it! now to create the connection, the command will vary depending on your provider. The ones they have preconfigured are: ATT Cingular, China Mobile, KPN Nederland, O2 Ireland, Rogers, Sprint, T-Mobile US, Verizon.
the syntax is :
sudo pppd call barry-{provider}
for Verizon:
sudo pppd call barry-verizonYou’ll see a bunch of output, and it’ll tell you that the connection is up. to close it down, press (CTRL+C). Make it pretty by creating an application launcher on your desktop.
Jake, I’ve been tethering with a Pearl for several months now with a PC. I’ve just installed Ubuntu and am so new to Linux it’s pathetic. Is there anywat that you can give a step by step on how to to this? That might be what you are doing above but I am such a noob I can’t even tell. Any help you can give is so appreciated! Thanks!
Ninja,
I have updated the post to make it a little more clear for newbies. read through it again. If you are getting stuck somewhere specific, let me know.
I think I can follow the abouve. However, does my Ubuntu Computer need to be connected to the internet in order to complete the above tasks? If so, is there a way to download the needed files and direct the above tasks to the downloaded files? I believe that I have already downloaded the needed files.
I ran through all of this, looked like it worked, but when I tried the PPPD command (I have ATT), I used sudo pppd call barry-ATT Cingular I got a response that looked like :
can’t open options file /etc/ppp/peers/barry-ATT: No such file or directory
I’m wondering if I made an error somewhere, and if you might know what went wrong.
I’m also wondering if this is solely a terminal run program or something with a GUI.
Niko, alex,
I’d recommend that both of you look into the files in “/etc/ppp/peers/”. When I call
, The computer is actually looking for a file by that name in the directory.
This command will list the pre-installed configurations:
ls /etc/ppp/peers/barry*
Nikko it is barry-att_cingular
HI, i need help to tether blackberry bold 9700 to Ubuntu karmic, the provider is Wind mobile, I really thanks any help,
Alex
Alex,
I’ve never heard of Wind mobile. You should do a little research into what kind of network they have. Then take that information to edit a pre-made configuration from a network that barry includes by default in /etc/ppp/peers/.
First of all, thank you for putting this together. There were a few other descriptions of this out there–but this one was very well done.
I think that I have everything installed correctly, but I run into trouble when I run:
sudo pppd call barry-tmobileus
I get a lot of output, but the part that I think is relevant is:
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
…
Sent 1139 bytes, received 500 bytes.
sent IPCP TermReq id=0×6b “Could not determine local IP address”
rcvd IPCP TermAck id=0×6b
sent LCP TermReq id=0×2 “No network protocols running”
rcvd LCP TermAck id=0×2
Connection terminated.
/////////////////////////////////////////
…
Sent 1139 bytes, received 500 bytes.
sent IPCP TermReq id=0×6b “Could not determine local IP address”
rcvd IPCP TermAck id=0×6b
sent LCP TermReq id=0×2 “No network protocols running”
rcvd LCP TermAck id=0×2
Connection terminated.
/////////////////////////////////////////
I found an instance of this error over at:
http://blog.ub3rgeek.net/2009/12/29/bluetooth-dun-with-blackberry-9700-t-mobile-and-ubuntu-9-10/
which makes me think that it might have something to do with Blackberry Device software 5.0.
Do you have any ideas what I might do to get it going? I can’t let my co-workers know that their windoze boxes can do something that my linux box can’t, I just can’t.
Thanks Again!
Just a note to M:
I had the same issue with ATT’s connection, and then I actually read the /etc/ppp/peers/barry-… file: turns out the novj option sometimes prevents you from getting an IP address. you may want to try commenting out that line (if it’s there) and trying again. I did and it works just fine.
Thank you for that #novj tip! I’ve been trying to get barry working for at least a year.
Thanks,
Chaz
Yes, thanks for the novj tip. Months later, you just solved a problem I had been struggling with for weeks.
Ok. Running Ubuntu 10.04, which appeared to include barry. I installed barry-util, barrybackup-gui and libbarry0 and found that in /etc/ppp/peers/ there was barry-verizon, barry-rogers and a few others but only like 4 or 5 in total and no AT&T/Cingular. I checked and it appeared 10.04′s standard library only includes Barry 0.15 which the newest is currently 0.16, so I figured between 0.15 to 0.16 they added AT&T and others, so I removed the package, did the launchpad.net thing to my sources, etc. etc. and reinstalled barry-util barrybackup-gui and libbarry0; now I’m running barry-util version 0.15-lubuntu2, barrybackup-gui version 0.17-1836-1karmic0 and libbarry0 version 0.17-1836-1karmic0
Interesting because 0.16 is supposedly the newest, so how am I running 0.17? no clue. Regardless, I checked /etc/ppp/peers/ and now the folder is empty. I eventually found /etc/chatscripts/ which has barry-o2ireland.chat and barry-sprint.chat etc. but still no AT&T/Cingular. So I’ve been checking changelogs to see if/why AT&T/Cingular was removed but nothing. I tried doing:
root@deon-linux-ws:/etc/ppp/peers# pppd call barry-att_cingular
pppd: Can’t open options file /etc/ppp/peers/barry-att_cingular: No such file or directory
And got that error message. Well, now I’m at a loss.
I was able to connect with no problem from my Blackberry 9630 Tour from Verizon but I get a message:
“If you would like to subscribe to Mobile Broadband Connect or 3G Mobile Hotspot, call:
Consumer: 800-256-4646
Business 800-899-4249″
To get the blackberry to tether on Verizon, you need to have the package added to your line’s subscription…. and pay for it. Sounds like you may need to give em a call to straighten it out.