BlackBerry

Character Modification

• To quickly capitalize a letter, hold it down for about a second.
• To type characters with commonly-used diacritics, hold down the closest English letter, and spin the trackball.
  • This will not work for input fields limited to ASCII (for instance SMS test messages).

Apps

• Google Voice as of at least 2009-07-15
• Google Sync is absolutely necessary

Linux

• bcharge from the barry package is used to properly set up USB-based charging
• btool from the barry-util package:

[recombinator](0) $ btool -t -P devpassword
Blackberry devices found:
Device ID: 0x8f5710. PIN: 21420533, Description: RIM BlackBerry Device
Using device (PIN): 21420533
Database database:
    Database: 0x0 'MMS Options' (records: 1)
    Database: 0x1 'Input Method Switcher Option' (records: 1)
    Database: 0x2 'RMS Databases' (records: 4)
    Database: 0x3 'Certificate Options' (records: 0)
    ....
    Database: 0x59 'Bluetooth Options' (records: 1)
    Database: 0x5a 'AutoText' (records: 108)

[recombinator](0) $ 

• barrybackup

Tethering

Update /etc/network/interfaces, adding:

iface ppp0 inet ppp
	provider barry-tmobileus

Place the following file at /usr/local/etc/barry-tmobileus.chat:

ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED ABORT ERROR
SAY "Initializing\n"
'' ATZ
OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","wap.voicestream.com"
OK-AT-OK ATDT*99#
CONNECT \d\c

Place the following file at /etc/ppp/peers/barry-tmobileus:

connect "/usr/sbin/chat -f /usr/local/etc/barry-tmobileus.chat"

authentication options - no need for ISP to authenticate to us, but
we may need a login here: user/password/name

noauth
user ""
password ""

name wapuser

handle the default route and DNS

nodefaultroute
defaultroute
usepeerdns


disable unsupported options

noipdefault
nodetach
novj
nodeflate
nobsdcomp
noaccomp

default-asyncmap
nocrtscts
nopcomp
nomagic
passive

nomultilink
ipcp-restart 7
ipcp-accept-local
ipcp-accept-remote

need lcp-echo turned off, at least for tmobile, otherwise c0onnectin
disconnects after few mn of inactivity.
thanks to loon for this info
lcp-echo-interval 0
lcp-echo-failure 999




limit size of packets

mtu 1492


operate in debug mode

debug

debug debug debug

call pppob for the USB link

pty "/usr/sbin/pppob -P yourpassword -p yourpin"




unused options

modem
refused anyway, no point in trying every time
novj

Note that the pty argument ought be updated for your device's password and PIN.