SUSE root News & Blog

December 5, 2007

Treo 700p Tether with Linux

Wow. I have been trying to get my Treo 700p to function as a DUN modem with Linux for a long time (and my 650 long before that). I tried Bluetooth primarily because I couldn't find anything on doing it with they sync cable and/or Linux. I really wanted to get it to work via USB to avoid the hassle of Bluetooth and avoid the bandwidth bottleneck. Anyway, my prayers have recently been answered - I found some info on how to get it working.

First, I found a Free is the new Blog post where the author got it working. I tried to duplicate what he did and didn't get very far, but I learned a little more about how to do it.

I did some more searching and found an Ubuntu tutorial that explained exactly how to do it. I followed the instructions, but still couldn't get it working 100%. What follows are some notes I made to get this to work for me on a Feisty Kubuntu installation and Sprint.

• don't forget to sudo modprobe cdc-acm and add "cdc-acm" to your /etc/modules to load the module on startup
• I had to adjust the "chat" line suggested in the instructions and template file to connect '/usr/sbin/chat -s -v "" AT OK ATD#777 CONNECT' the line they used would just result in a "FAILURE" message. I got the idea from that Free is the new Blog post
• for the pap-secrets file I had to use the line myusername@sprintpcs.com *, so from left to right: the username, tab, and asterisk. I think this is because Sprint doesn't use a password (or something).
• I did not have to copy the ppp resolv.conf to the main resolv.conf, it seemed to do it automatically.

There you go. Just to clarify, the USB Modem software does enable you to use your 700p as a modem without buying that special service from Sprint; this may, or may not be illegal/immoral/violate TOS. I haven't seen any black helicopters, nor have I heard of anyone else seeing them, but I just wanted to mention it. I'm actually using this at home because DirecWay sucks...bad. I'm going to try to serve this internet connection to my network. I live in the country and get either one or two bars at my house, I did a bandwidth test and got nearly 300 kb/second. Not stellar, but not bad.