Adventures with the Nokia E51 on Linux

This post will list my adventures with my newly acquired Nokia E51 on Linux (Ubuntu 7.04)

Interfacing the Nokia E51 with the computer can be done by:

1. USB Data cable
2. Bluetooth
3. Infrared

#1. Talking to the Phone via USB data cable:

The phone comes with a mini USB 2.0 port which can be connected to the USB port of my computer.

Plug-in the USB data cable to the computer and then to the phone.

You get a pop-up on your phone, asking for the transfer mode:

1. PC-Suite
2. Data Transfer

My understanding is that the PC-Suite mode is for communicating with the "whole" phone using the Nokia PC Suite Software. This mode enables you to talk with all the features of your phone. We shall be using this mode for many of our tasks here on Linux, but without using Nokia PC Suite.

The Data Transfer mode is for interacting only with the Memory Card that comes with the phone. Once you select this mode, the memory card is available for access from your computer and is inaccessible from your phone.

Listed below is a slowly increasing list of things I have done with the phone:

#1.1 Connecting to the Internet- Nokia E51 as a GSM USB Modem

I shall now show you how you can use your phone as a USB GSM Modem to connect to the Internet, provided you are subscribed to your operator's data services.

• Type in $dmesg on your terminal and observe the output
  
• Choose the "PC Suite" mode
• Now, type in $ dmesg again on your terminal and note the output. You will notice that you see some extra lines than the previous output. In a succesful scenario, the lines will be similar to:
  

[  790.120000] usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
[  790.296000] usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[  790.308000] cdc_acm 1-2:1.10: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

• The hint here is the device file name 'ttyACM0'. This is the device filename which we will be using for interfacing with the phone
• Setting up connection scripts
• Copy the following scripts from http://kapsi.fi/~mcfrisk/linux_gprs.html into the directory /etc/ppp/peers:
• gprs
• gprs-connect-chat
• gprs-disconnect-chat
• Configure the gprs script as follows:
• In the file, you will see a list of device files under the heading " Serial device to which the GPRS phone is connected:".
  
• Uncomment the line "/dev/ttyACM0" and comment all the other lines containing device files
  

Reproduced below is the relevant portion from my script:


# Serial device to which the GPRS phone is connected:
# /dev/ttyS0 for serial port (COM1 in Windows),
# /dev/ircomm0 for IrDA,
# /dev/ttyUB0 for Bluetooth (Bluez with rfcomm running) and
#/dev/ttyUSB0 for USB
#/dev/ttyS0 # serial port one
#/dev/ttyS1 # serial port two
#/dev/ircomm0 # IrDA serial port one
#/dev/rfcomm0 # Bluetooth serial port one
/dev/ttyACM0 # USB serial device, for example Orange SPV



• Now, configure the gprs-connect script so that it includes the proper number to dial, the Access Point Name (APN), etc. For example, listed below is my gprs-connect-chat script that I use to connect to Airtel GPRS service:

#!/bin/sh

exec chat                                               \
TIMEOUT         5                               \
ECHO            ON                              \
ABORT           '\nBUSY\r'                      \
ABORT           '\nERROR\r'                     \
ABORT           '\nNO ANSWER\r'                 \
ABORT           '\nNO CARRIER\r'                \
ABORT           '\nNO DIALTONE\r'               \
ABORT           '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'    \
''              \rAT                            \
TIMEOUT         12                              \
SAY             "Press CTRL-C to close the connection at any stage!"    \
SAY             "\ndefining PDP context...\n"   \
OK              ATH                             \
OK              ATE1                            \
OK              'AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","airtelgprs.com","",0,0'     \
OK              ATD*99*#                                \
TIMEOUT         22                              \
SAY             "\nwaiting for connect...\n"    \
CONNECT         ""                              \
SAY             "\nConnected." \
SAY             "\nIf the following ppp negotiations fail,\n"   \
SAY             "try restarting the phone.\n"

~                                                    

• Now:

  $pppd call gprs

  should start the connection attempt:
  
  

  
  amit@ubuntu-laptop:~$ pppd call gprs
  Press CTRL-C to close the connection at any stage!
  defining PDP context...
  rAT
  OK
  ATH
  OK
  ATE1
  OK
  AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","airtelgprs.com","",0,0
  OK
  waiting for connect...
  
  ATD*99*#
  CONNECT
  Connected.
  If the following ppp negotiations fail,
  try restarting the phone.
  
  Serial connection established.
  using channel 1
  Using interface ppp0
  Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyACM0
  rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x0   ]
  sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1  ]
  sent [LCP ConfAck id=0x0   ]
  rcvd [LCP ConfRej id=0x1 ]
  sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x2 ]
  rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x2 ]
  sent [PAP AuthReq id=0x1 user="9890600000" password=""]
  rcvd [PAP AuthAck id=0x1 ""]
  PAP authentication succeeded
  sent [CCP ConfReq id=0x1  ]
  sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1   ]
  rcvd [IPCP ConfReq id=0x0 ]
  sent [IPCP ConfAck id=0x0 ]
  rcvd [LCP ProtRej id=0x0 80 fd 01 01 00 0c 1a 04 78 00 18 04 78 00]
  Protocol-Reject for 'Compression Control Protocol' (0x80fd) received
  rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x1   ]
  sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2   ]
  rcvd [IPCP ConfAck id=0x2   ]
  not replacing existing default route through eth0
  Cannot determine ethernet address for proxy ARP
  local  IP address 117.99.0.87
  remote IP address 10.6.6.6
  primary   DNS address 202.56.250.5
  secondary DNS address 202.56.250.6
  Script /etc/ppp/ip-up started (pid 6630)
  Script /etc/ppp/ip-up finished (pid 6630), status = 0x0
  
  

  
  
  The connection is now established. Please configure the nameservers in your system.
  
  

#1.2 Using the Memory Card

1. Select the Data Transfer Mode
2. The Memory Card is automatically mounted and shows you the files stored on your memory card, as it would do for a USB Pen-drive.

A Look behind the scenes:

The last few lines of

$ dmesg

will show something like:

[   69.680000] usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
[   69.856000] usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[   70.016000] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
[   70.152000] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[   70.152000] scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[   70.152000] usb-storage: device found at 4
[   70.152000] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[   70.152000] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[   70.152000] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[   75.152000] usb-storage: device scan complete
[   75.156000] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Nokia    E51              1.0  PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[   75.164000] SCSI device sdb: 1000215 512-byte hdwr sectors (512 MB)
[   75.168000] sdb: Write Protect is off
[   75.168000] sdb: Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[   75.168000] sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
[   75.176000] SCSI device sdb: 1000215 512-byte hdwr sectors (512 MB)
[   75.180000] sdb: Write Protect is off
[   75.180000] sdb: Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[   75.180000] sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
[   75.180000]  sdb: unknown partition table
[   75.376000] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sdb
[   75.376000] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

What you see is here simply means that the memory card is now identified by the device file /dev/sdb which has been mounted on /media/your-card-name

Now you can create/edit/rename/copy/cut/paste folders/files as you would do normally.

This is a WORK IN PROGRESS. Please provide comments/suggestions.

This work may not be reproduced in any format as of now. Once completed, I shall release it in an appropriate license.

You may linkback or refer to it.

Stay tuned..........