Had been using Yahoo or MSN Messenger on Windows for voice chat but being a newbie on Linux the first thing I was able to get hold of for voice chat were Ekiga and Skype. Ediga came with the Ubuntu and Skype I installed from the website. Feisty Fawn (7.04) version worked good on my Gusty 7.10 as well. It just needed to download 3 more packages which didn’t take much time. So Skype with which I has been using on Windows as well is good to go; only problem here is not many of my contacts use Skype right now.

I am still looking for something that allows me to chat with my MSN or Yahoo contacts when on Ubuntu.

Now after my pc is up and running once again(and yes, I formatted it again!), I did some configurations so that I am able to connect it to the internet using my cell phone. I have Nokia N72 and connecting internet on Windows was not an issue. Just installed the Nokia PC Suite rest it did by itself. I just had to  select my service provider which was Warid Telecom.

Now comes Linux’s turn. The procedure was similar to installing a CDMA phone to connect internet but this time I was able to get hold of an easier way below.

Plugged in my phone into my computer using the USB cable and disconnected the established gprs connection on my phone. Went to the Terminal and wrote a command which almost did everything by itself.

Below is the command and the output I got with it.

======================================================
rao@rao-desktop:~$ sudo wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf
[sudo] password for rao:
Editing `/etc/wvdial.conf’.

Scanning your serial ports for a modem.

ttyS0: ATQ0 V1 E1 — failed with 2400 baud, next try: 9600 baud
ttyS0: ATQ0 V1 E1 — failed with 9600 baud, next try: 115200 baud
ttyS0: ATQ0 V1 E1 — and failed too at 115200, giving up.
ttyS1: ATQ0 V1 E1 — failed with 2400 baud, next try: 9600 baud
ttyS1: ATQ0 V1 E1 — failed with 9600 baud, next try: 115200 baud
ttyS1: ATQ0 V1 E1 — and failed too at 115200, giving up.
Modem Port Scan: S2 S3
WvModem: Cannot get information for serial port.
ttyACM0: ATQ0 V1 E1 — OK
ttyACM0: ATQ0 V1 E1 Z — OK
ttyACM0: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 — OK
ttyACM0: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 — OK
ttyACM0: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 — OK
ttyACM0: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 — OK
ttyACM0: Modem Identifier: ATI — Nokia
ttyACM0: Speed 4800: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Speed 9600: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Speed 19200: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Speed 38400: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Speed 57600: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Speed 115200: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Speed 230400: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Speed 460800: AT — OK
ttyACM0: Max speed is 460800; that should be safe.
ttyACM0: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 — OK

Found an USB modem on /dev/ttyACM0.
Modem configuration written to /etc/wvdial.conf.
ttyACM0: Speed 460800; init “ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0”
======================================================

After this I needed to edit the wvdial which I did like this

rao@rao-desktop:~$ sudo gedit /etc/wvdial

[Dialer Defaults]
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = USB Modem
;Phone =
ISDN = 0
;Username =
Init1 = ATZ
;Password =
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Baud = 460800
Stupid Mode = 1

I then edited the commented lines by entering the phone no (*99#) and removing the semi-colon and comments. I left the username and password fields blank as there is none required to connect to internet through Warid.

Entered sudo wvdial to dial to the connection which was just configured and gave the below output.

======================================================
rao@rao-desktop:~$ sudo wvdial
[sudo] password for rao:
WvDial: WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.56
WvModem: Cannot get information for serial port.
WvDial: Initializing modem.
WvDial: Sending: ATZ
WvDial Modem: ATZ
WvDial Modem: OK
WvDial: Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
WvDial Modem: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
WvDial Modem: OK
WvDial: Modem initialized.
WvDial: Configuration does not specify a valid login name.
WvDial: Configuration does not specify a valid password.
======================================================

Last two lines show that a username and password is required for wvdial to work. I entered dummy username and password and again tried to connect.

======================================================
WvDial: WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.56
WvModem: Cannot get information for serial port.
WvDial: Initializing modem.
WvDial: Sending: ATZ
WvDial Modem: ATZ
WvDial Modem: OK
WvDial: Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
WvDial Modem: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
WvDial Modem: OK
WvDial: Modem initialized.
WvDial: Sending: ATDT*99#
WvDial: Waiting for carrier.
WvDial Modem: ATDT*99#
WvDial Modem: CONNECT
WvDial Modem: ~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}”}&} }*} } g}%~
WvDial: Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately.
WvDial: Starting pppd at Mon Jan 28 12:29:48 2008
WvDial: Pid of pppd: 5625
WvDial: Using interface ppp0
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
WvDial: local IP address 10.20.71.30
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
WvDial: remote IP address 10.6.6.6
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
WvDial: primary DNS address 10.2.3.4
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
WvDial: secondary DNS address 10.2.3.5
WvDial: pppd: (�[06][08]H�[06][08]
======================================================

To see if the connection has been established or not try pinging any ip. I did the following

rao@rao-desktop:~$ ping http://www.ssuet.edu.pk
PING sirsyed.ssuet.edu.pk (221.120.196.129) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from khi77.pie.net.pk (221.120.196.129): icmp_seq=1 ttl=33 time=658 ms

Ping reply was there… so yay! I’m connected.

To disconnect I will use Ctrl +C. Will I said because i still haven’t disconnected after I first logged in. 😀

Now after Linux been installed the first thing I needed to setup was my internet. I had a PTCL provided ZTE phone which uses CDMA technology. I started my search and soon got know this is possible.

First I tried to see if my phone is being detected by Ubuntu by using command “lsusb” on the terminal. This showed me that my phone was there.

Then I searched dmesg to see where my phone was being placed in /dev. The results of this command showed me something like “USB ACM device” and “/dev/ttyACM0” which meant that my phone was ready to be used for the internet.

In Linux wvdial is used as a connection dial just like the way dial up connection application in windows. Just because there is some command line kinda thing need to be done before you can use, it looks such a trouble. Anyways what need to be done was this code to be placed in the wvdial.conf file in /etc.

First the system didn’t allowed me to add this thing and save it in the file but since I was determined to do it searched in the book I bought (Linux for Dummies), to see how I can get root access and found command “sudo” which gave me access to edit the file.
Complete command which I used to do that was

sudoedit /etc/wvdial.conf

[Dialer ptcl]
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Baud = 460800
Init1 = ATZ
Modem Name = CDMA
Modem Type = USB Modem
Phone = #777
Username = vwireless@ptcl.com
Password = ptcl
Stupid Mode = 1
PPPD Options = crtcts multilink usepeerdns lock defaultroute

After this I had to make a link for this so this is the command i used

“sudo ln -s /dev/ttyACM0 /dev/ptcl”

When done I opened terminal and entered “wvdial ptcl” and saw internet connection being made an DHCP assigning my computer an IP. When I did this thing on Fedora I wasn’t able to browse, use my IMs etc. but was able to ping any IP or server which confirmed me that I was connected to the internet but there is something else which I am missing so I looked for the services which were running at that particular time and found out that the TCP/IP service (name i don’t remember) was disabled. I just enabled that and there it go, I was successful in overcoming this problem. 

Just for an example this was the output I got. Though I still have questions as to what few things on this output mean like pap-secrets and chap-secrets but for now, as long as I’m connected, I’ll leave them for later.

 

/hrao@rao:~$ wvdial ptcl
–> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.56
–> Cannot get information for serial port.
–> Initializing modem.
–> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
–> Modem initialized.
–> Sending: ATDT#777
–> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT#777
CONNECT
–> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
–> Don’t know what to do! Starting pppd and hoping for the best.
–> Starting pppd at Wed Oct 3 14:21:35 2007
–> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/pap-secrets: Permission denied
–> –> PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) may be flaky.
–> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/chap-secrets: Permission denied
–> –> CHAP (Challenge Handshake) may be flaky.
–> Pid of pppd: 5054
–> Using interface ppp0
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> local IP address 10.0.68.72
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> remote IP address 2.2.2.2
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> primary DNS address 202.125.148.204
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> secondary DNS address 203.135.0.70
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]

 

Disconnecting
At this point if Ctrl + C is pressed in the same terminal the connection will be disconnected and something like this will be written on the terminal window and when the prompt appears again, that means the connection has been successfully closed.

Caught signal 2: Attempting to exit gracefully…
–> Terminating on signal 15
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> Connect time 75.7 minutes.
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> pppd: [10] [06][08]
–> Disconnecting at Wed Oct 3 15:37:21 2007

I am still searching for more on this one, like if I could have some shortcut made on my desktop like i have in windows system and let it run in background.

Few days ago I started my project to get my system loaded with a Linux and see how it works for me when compared to Windows.

Firstly I installed Fedora 7 after having trouble with system freeze, I decided Fedora won’t work for me. Could have been my hardware but was higher specs than system requirement so I’m not sure what why that was happening.  Initially had trouble mounting the ntfs file system with read/write access but thanks to much opensource community forums I was able to solve this problem. I wanted to play my dvd movies and also mp3 songs and several different formats but got tired because each time i downloaded any rmp and started to install that it gave me error ” Unable to retrieve software information” . For a newbie like me, I think I was looking for a less troublesome solution.

After much tries I finally decided to go for Ubuntu 6.10  which was very easy to install and UI much more appealing. When installing Ubuntu, did encounter a freeze or two fearing it could be my hardware but once installed, I saw no issue.

Now I am up and running with Ubuntu and have also been able to install drivers for all the media formats. For the NTFS file system support with read/write access I didn’t have to do anything, Ubuntu did all for me

Lets see how I will like switching to Linux…