How to build and install Vodafone Mobile Broadband / Wader in Ubuntu Lucid 10.4 LTS

WHAT IS THIS VMB / WADER THING?

Vodafone Mobile Broadband (VMB) is a 3G manager GUI software sponsored by Vodafone company.

Wader is a 3G manager daemon which deals directly with your mobile device.

VMB communicates with Wader via dbus.

Currently VMB/Wader supports "wvdial" and "Network Manager" backends.

Both VMB and Wader are written in python.

We are going to build and install them in a Ubuntu Lucid (10.4 LTS) system.

DOWNLOAD THE SOURCE CODE

VMB and Wader are not part of Ubuntu Lucid official repository, so we are going to build them from their sources.

First we need to install git to clone VMB and Wader repositories:

$ sudo aptitude install git-core
$ git clone https://github.com/andrewbird/wader
$ git clone https://github.com/andrewbird/vodafone-mobile-broadband

INSTALLING BUILDING DEPENDENCIES

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Connect to Internet using a Sony Ericsson K530i phone in Debian GNU/Linux via Bluetooth

Within this post we are going to explain how to connect to internet using a Sony Ericsson K530i mobile phone via bluetooth, in a Debian Sid system.

CONFIGURING OUR K530i PHONE

First step consists on configuring bluetooth settings in our phone.

Activate bluetooth in the phone:
Settings -> Connectivity -> Bluetooth -> Turn on

Set a name for your phone:
Settings -> Connectivity -> Bluetooth -> Phone name
We select a name for our phone, e.g: my_K530i

Make your phone visible to other bluetooth devices:
Settings -> Connectivity -> Bluetooth -> Visibility -> Show phone

INSTALLING BLUETOOTH SOFTWARE

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Connecting to Internet using a Sony Ericsson K530i mobile phone in Ubuntu (Linux) via USB cable

We are going to connect our Ubuntu system to Internet using a Sony Ericsson K530i phone via a usb cable.

First of all we switch on our phone, we insert the pin number and then connect the usb cable that came with the phone to our K530i and to our computer.

A menu presenting three choices will appear on the phone screen:

• File transfer
• Phone mode
• Print

We select Phone mode.

Now our phone is ready to use the usb cable.


There are two ways to connect to Internet via USB:

• Emulating a ethernet device through a usb cable.
• Using the K530i mobile phone as a usb serial modem.

EMULATING A ETHERNET DEVICE THROUGH USB CABLE

Our system Linux kernel has to already be compiled with cdc_ether module support. This module performs the emulation.


Let's configure our phone, we go to:
Menu->Settings->Connectivity->USB->USB Internet->USB data accounts
and select our Internet ISP provider account.

If there is not an already configured account we shall create a new account:
Menu->Settings->Connectivity->Data comm.->Data accounts->New account

Some APNs from Spanish Internet providers are:

Movistar: movistar.es
Vodafone: ac.vodafone.es
Yoigo: internet
Orange: internet

Usually user and password are not needed.


At the end, we establish the connection:
Menu->Settings->Connectivity->USB->USB Internet->Turn on

To check what has happened, we open a console and execute:
$ifconfig

An interface like usb0 with its IP address correctly configured will appear.


When we finish navigating, we switch off the connection:
Menu->Settings->Connectivity->USB->USB Internet->Turn off

USING THE K530i MOBILE PHONE AS A USB SERIAL MODEM

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