Comments on: Hardware Questions: Asus M5200N, Ubuntu, GPRS and an iPod Touch?

By: MJ Ray

MJ Ray — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:51:32 +0000

Sorry, I don’t have the USB data cable for my phone, only a charging cable, so that won’t work.

I’ve discovered that the problem with intrepid Ubuntu is probably https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/268502 so I guess I’ll either rebuild the kernel or replace Ubuntu. I wonder if this is common to all 2.6.27 kernels – I’ll check the kernel changelog when I get time.

By: Tim Kersten

Tim Kersten — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:14:02 +0000

Hi,

I don’t know if your phone supports it, but my k660i lets me go to:
settings->Conectivity->USB->UsB network type->Phone as modem.

Then when you plugin the phone to your laptop via USB, it auto connects via network manager- no config needed what-so-ever. Perhaps this is possible with your phone too?

By: Nico

Nico — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:27:51 +0000

You can use the iPod touch with Ubuntu.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PortableDevices/iPhone

You can easily go around the new crypto imposed by firmware v2. (there is however a progressing effort on this, but very hush hush, as Apple tends to send take-down notices rather quickly…)

There is a project that is reverse engineering the USB multiplexing that Apple uses for the iPhone/iPod Touch, but it is not completely ready for normal use:

http://matt.colyer.name/projects/iphone-linux/index.php?title=Main_Page

By: MJ Ray

MJ Ray — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:22:53 +0000

1. well, the default critical temperature is set at 98C, so I’d hope they can, but maybe I have too much faith in the BIOS setup.

2. yes, Bluetooth, with a USB dongle. That reminds me: the gnome bluetooth tray applet didn’t seem to form a usable connection. It looked like it was connected to the phone, but I couldn’t sdptool browse the phone address. I guess that’s the first thing to fix.

3. Yeah, I won’t give money to Apple. It’s only a borrowed iPod, so it should mean one less iPod sold at some point in the future.

Thanks for the question-answers!

By: Marius Gedminas

Marius Gedminas — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:15:04 +0000

1. Don’t know about CPU thermal limits, but, personally, I wouldn’t play with it. Even if the CPU can survive, can the other motherboard components nearby?

2. Are you using Bluetooth to talk to the cell phone? Then forget N-M (although I think I’ve heard someone post on a blog somewhere the magic HAL .fdi file that makes his cell phone visible to Network Manager). If you’re using a USB cable, it might Just Work, or, again, you may need to craft a HAL .fdi file. I don’t know how to craft .fdi files. I do my dialup the old-fashined way: ‘pon’ in a terminal, with configuration in /etc/ppp/peers and /etc/chatscripts.

3. You’ll have to beg Apple to release the protocol specs and remove the cryptographic vendor lock-in protection. Good luck. (This is why I’m not giving any of my money to Apple, even though iPhones and iPod shuffles look very appetizing.)