Akom's Tech Ruminations

Various tech outbursts - code and solutions to practical problems

Linux Verizon Wireless tethering Ubuntu Karmic to a Storm 2

Posted by Admin • Friday, April 2. 2010 • Category: Linux
This topic is fairly well described, so this is just a quick how to for me. (This is for USB, I am not attempting bluetooth this time) UPDATE: I now use berry4all instead of the below. It just works, and there is a GUI


Old Way:

  1. sudo apt-get install libbarry0 barry-util barrybackup-gui
    Chances are you already have the first two in a karmic install, and you may not even need barrybackup-gui. I did not need to add any new apt repositories
  2. if the phone requires a password, edit /etc/ppp/peers/barry-verizon and change the pty line to read
    pty "/usr/sbin/pppob -P My_Password"
    Yes there is a password line in that file, but it doesn't seem to do anything, and I don't know how to use variables in a pppd script :-)
  3. sudo pppd call barry-verizon
    You should see the progress and the IP's relevant to the connection. If you're having trouble, add debug:
    sudo pppd debug call barry-verizon
Note1: In my experience, after I kill the pppd connection I can't reconnect until I momentarily unplug the phone. Also, mass storage mode is not necessary.

Note2: These steps should be similar for most providers. Look at /etc/ppp/peers/barry-* to see the predefined provider scripts.

Note3: I believe that the connection will fail miserably if you have any other network connection active on the PC besides the tethered phone.

Note4: I am posting this using my blackberry!