Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Video IM, Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and various bits of hardware new and old.
Friday 1 August 2008, 1:21 PM
A Week Working With Linux
What I have found, in a nutshell, is that I have to run Windows in order to use the Sierra Wireless AirCard for HSPA cellular access, and that's just about it. I use my laptop at home, either wireless or wired to a Linksys router, in the office, connected to the company wired network, and on the bus and train as I commute, with cellular access. So two out of three times I have been able to run Linux.
When I am at home, I need internet access (duh), email (Thunderbird, the same as I use when on Windows), web surfing (Firefox, the same as I use when on Windows), Gizmo5 (the same as I use when on Windows), digital photo management, and a few other utilities.
When I am at work, I need the Citrix VPN client (the same as I use on Windows), XTerm and/or other remote terminal access to our internal company hosts, OpenOffice (which I use on the same documents that I work on with MS Office on Windows), email and web surfing, and a few other utilities.
During my commute, I need HSPA cellular access, so I have to boot up Windows for that part of my day. It would be nice if I could get the Sierra Wireless card working on Linux, of course, so that is on my priority list now.
Of course, I have made some choices which make this a bit easier for me. I have used Firefox and Thunderbird on Windows for a long time, originally because I simply wanted something other than the MS equivalents (you still couldn't pay me enough to use Outlook!). Now I use them on Linux as well, not necessarily because I think they are better than any of the "standard" Linux equivalents, but it makes moving back and forth a lot easier. But the important point is, the choices are there, the functionality exists and is at least as good as what you are accustomed to on Windows (including OpenOffice vs. MS Office).
So, think about it. What do you use your PC for, at home, at work or when traveling? What kind of things do you need to do on a regular basis? Could you do it with Linux? I'd love to hear in comments about other things that do and don't work, or exist, on Linux.
PreviousComments on this post
I spend 4+ hours on the computer everyday, at home. I also have a triple boot, with Linux as the primary OS. I maintain a mailing list for my Sunday School Class and we meet once each month to party and socialize. I usually print out postcards with all the info for the party and pass them out the prior Sunday. I have yet to find a good desktop publishing program for Linux. I also do all my banking online, since I found out my bank is using Linux servers. But there again I have tried Gnucash, and Kmymoney, but neither are as user friendly as Quicken. I too wouldn't touch Outlook, and IE is so slow compared to Firefox. I built 2 systems in June of 2007, and installed all the OS's at the same time. XP has slowed to a crawl, but the Linux partition is as fast now as it was the day it was installed. That's about the only time I use windows, and as soon as I can find replacements, then windows will be of no use to me, except for games. We use windows XP, and 2000 pro at my part time job, and it is always locking up, or running so slow.
The things that work are the obvious ones. I can do correspondence, browse the web, send email, manage photos fairly easily with linux and the associated software. Since I use firefox, OpenOffice.org on windows as well, there is no reason to select one OS over the other. WHat does not work well with linux is the software for my Harmony remote, synchronizing with my MP3 player, my income tax software, my DVD ripper. So unfortunately, it will be awhile before I can easily surrender windows OS.
Great Article! Could you post the exact model name of the Sierra Wireless AirCard for HSPA you are using? I'd like to have this information to raise the issue of providing drivers for the device with the manufacturer. Thanks! Shannon VanWagner
http://healthysystem.blogspot.com
I have the Sierra Wireless AirCard 880, sold as an OEM unit by Swisscom. I would LOVE to get a Linux driver for it.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
jw
Hi again J.A. - Mandriva does actually support quite a few cellular data devices, did you try the simplest way of just running through the Mandriva network config tool and telling it you have a 3G data device (or something like that, I forget the exact wording)?
If you did, and it didn't work, I might be able to look into a bit if you post the USB ID for the device, and the lines about it from the output of 'lspcidrake -v' run as root at a console. Thanks!
curler68: there is actually a Linux tool for Harmony remotes: http://www.phildev.net/harmony/ . Check it out, it might do what you need. I haven't tried it myself, though (I programmed my 880 on Windows before I knew about that tool).
The AirCard 880 should 'just work' in Linux with at most with a slight push. I used used a Sierra cell card two years ago. When plugged in to the computer, the card usually presents itself as a USB interface with one to three devices attached (all USB based serial ports, ttyUSB0 - ttyUSB2).
Beyond that it is simply a matter of creating the correct dialup scripts.
My card had a quirk in that I had to remove (rmmod) the usbserial module from the kernel and readd (modprobe) it with the usb mfg and dev IDs to get usbserial to talk to the card correctly (a dialect issue maybe?). It could also be that the card's ID was not known to the usbserial driver (I was using 2.6.18.x at the time). Drivers generally only initialize devices for which they recognize the ID.
Looking at kernel patches, the 880 E and 880 U device IDs are are in at least 2.6.24. The 880 E ID may be in earlier kernels.
Should the usbserial driver NOT create ttyUSB0 for you, you may need a script like so (I called it sierra.sh, run as root):
#!/bin/sh
/sbin/rmmod usbserial 2>&1 >/dev/null
/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1199 product=0x0019
# end script
If the script is required, you will need to use your device's product ID (most likely 685X, replace the 'X'). You can get the device ID using the lsusb command with the card installed into the laptop's PCMCIA or minPCI socket. You only need the above script IF the ttyUSB0 does not automatically appear within 5 - 10 seconds after inserting the card.
Ubuntu and Mandriva use different configuration files for dialup automation control. In Mandriva, I used the following files (Sprint was my service provider):
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp0
# Start file
DEVICE="ppp0"
USERCTL="yes"
MODEMPORT="/dev/ttyUSB0"
LINESPEED="230400"
PERSIST="yes"
DEFABORT="yes"
DEBUG="yes"
INITSTRING="ATZ"
DEFROUTE="yes"
HARDFLOWCTL="yes"
ESCAPECHARS="no"
PPPOPTI
PAPNAME=""
REMIP=""
NETMASK=""
IPADDR=""
MRU=""
MTU=""
DISC
RETRYTIMEOUT="60"
BOOTPROTO="none"
PEERDNS="yes"
# End file ifcfg-ppp0
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/chat-ppp0
# Start file
'TIMEOUT' '5'
'ABORT' 'BUSY'
'ABORT' 'ERROR'
'ABORT' 'NO ANSWER'
'ABORT' 'NO CARRIER'
'ABORT' 'NO DIALTONE'
'ABORT' '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
'' '\rAT'
'TIMEOUT' '12'
'OK' 'ATZ'
'OK' 'ATE0V1'
'OK' 'AT+IFC=2,2'
'OK' 'ATD#777'
'TIMEOUT' '22'
'CONNECT' ''
# End file chat-ppp0
At the command line: "ifup ppp0" and let the data fly.
You may also need to alter the ATD line to fit with your cell provider (see the number or string you 'dial' in Windows).
Hopefully this helps you out. I no longer use my card (I tether via a blackberry now).
Enjoy,
Woody
@AdamW and all others who commented about the Sierra Wireless AirCard... Thanks, very much, for reading and commenting, and for the help and advice.
Sigh. Why do I keep making the same mistake? Why do I assume that things are going to be difficult, complicated, or unsupported on Linux? This is essentially the same mistake that I made when setting up WiFi networking on Linux, although in my own defense I will say that this is nowhere near as obvious as setting up WiFi was.
AdamW is absolutely correct, of course. The driver for various Sierra Wireless cards is included in Mandriva (and Ubuntu, and most other current Linux distributions, apparently). However, when I go to Mandriva Network & Internet Configuration, and choose "GPRS/EDGE/3G", it says "No device can be found". The relevant output from lspcidrake is:
Sierra Wireless, Incorporated AirCard (vendor: 1199 device: 6850)
There is an excellent Setup Guide in the Sierra Wireless FAQ's. I have tried it, and as far as I am able to see, it appears to work. I now have to get some information from Swisscom (my cellular service provider), and then hopefully will be able to get it working.
I am very pleased, and very hopeful about this. I will post here when there is any more news, good or bad.
Thanks again to all for reading and commenting.
jw 5/8/2008
