Using BSNL EVDO Card (Prithvi UE100) on Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS

So the last time around I faced some trouble installing the Huwaei EC156 Tata Photon + USB Data Card on Ubuntu and provided you guys with an example.

Now I am for a short stay in a part of Kolkata where Photon speeds are painfully slow and hence I am forced to use the BSNL EVDO/1X Card, the hardware for which is provided by Prithvi Communications by the name of UE100.

Linux does not recognise this and you are in for a soup if you don't know what to do :p

Ok here goes the short and smart tutorial.

First connect the device to your laptop/PC.
Run the command

ls /dev/tty*

There should be a device ls /dev/ttyACM0 (or a name similar to that)
To verify, remove the device and run ls /dev/tty* again to check that device has vanished :)

Now you need a nifty program called 'wvdial'
install it using

sudo apt-get install wvdial

After wvdial has been installed we need to provide a configuration file for wvdial. Create one using

sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf

Enter the following data into the file

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Baud = 460800
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
ISDN = 0
Phone = #777
Password = 91xxxxxxxx
Username = 91xxxxxxxx
Stupid Mode = 1

Where your username and password are the mobile numbers (replace xxxxxxxxxx with your device mobile number)

If you don't  know username and password you can use this ... (psst... do not tell anyone about this ;) :P )

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Baud = 460800
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
ISDN = 0
Phone = #777
Password = 165
Username = 165
Stupid Mode = 1

Now run this command (2-3 minutes after you have plugged in the device) to ensure this is working

sudo wvdial

It should show some DNS servers, (your notification area won't show any connected network) . Open browser and see if pages load. If it does, and I believe it will, then it's good to go.
Now if you are a geek you can just enter sudo wvdial every time to connect, but for people you prefer the comfort of mouse clicks you have some more jobs left to do.

sudo gedit /usr/bin/bsnl

enter this data into that file

gksudo wvdial

Now we need to set execution permissions to the file

sudo chmod 777 /usr/bin/bsnl

Now we will create a desktop shortcut.

gedit ~/Desktop/BSNL.desktop

and enter this data into the file

 [Desktop Entry]
Name=BSNL EVDO Connection
Exec=bsnl
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false
Icon=package_network

and make it executable

chmod 777 ~/Desktop/BSNL.desktop

Now everytime you plug in the device, wait for 1-2 minutes, then double click the brand new icon on your desktop, and woot!! you are online :)

cheers

EQUALITY? meh...

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..

The second test average was a D!
No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

----- up till now was what i got from one of my friend's status message, following i want to add ----

Whatever written above, could be understood, by most of my peer group, "to cut a long story short, lets abolish reservations".
But NO, that's not the point. The point goes far beyond that. The very idea of socialism is flawed. Socialism is not really a method of governance but rather a method of activism. It arises out of places where capitalism flourishes. When a select few gain profits, and make others work cheaply from them, rises the idea of socialism where wealth would be distributed. In most succesful examples, the fight, long or short, ultimately ends at democracy, not at communism... Though i accept china is an example of success, but i would also like to point out that the people there are herded like cattle by the government. They have a bunch of 100 dictators instead of a single one, but not much different. Maybe there is no poverty but not much prosperity either. People in shackles are not prosperous people. People who are fed internet like they are fed TV are not happy people.

It thus is not the liability of the rich to pay for the poor, but it definitely is the duty to make sure that opportunities for both are same. If someone is lagging behind, the onus is on them to play catch up and not hope for someone to trip the lead runners. Though it should always be kept in mind that, the shoes should be same for all. The leaders cannot hope to get better shoes than the ones lagging behind either.

Buying a new Laptop at Rs 45,000/-

My beloved HP Pavillion Tm2 died on me last week. The earlier tx1000 and this tm2 has been through extreme torture by me and I cannot blame it for having given up. I, as my usual ritual goes, opened up the tm2 to it's very internals to try and locate the problem, which though I'm not certain, but most probably seems like a burnout of the NVIDIA display chip or the AMD processor. (both are very heat-prone anyways)

So, that meant buying a new notebook on an urgent basis and that too on a limited budget of Rs. 45,000/-
The basic web searches narrowed down the results to some HP G6 series devices, the Dell Inspiron 15R series and the Lenovo ideapad z5x0 series.

The HP got discarded first, because the unavailability of discrete graphics and also a little higher price than the ceiling I'd set for myself.
Between the 15R and the ideapad, there was not much to choose. They were both coming at 45k, they both had almost the same hardware configuration. (the ONLY difference was that the 15R comes with ATI Radeon graphics while ideapad comes with an NVIDIA).
The problem with Dell is that you need to pre-book your laptop and they'll deliver it to you within 5 days. But since I needed it ASAP I stuck with the Lenovo.

The specs of Lenovo Z580am are as follows (the 'am' part denotes the level of user-customization)
Intel Core i5 Ivy-Bridge 3210M
8GB DDR3 RAM
750GB HDD
NVIDIA GT630M with 2GBDDR3
15.6" LCD
Dolby Digital Home Theatre
Windows 7 Home Basic (upgradable to Win8Pro @ Rs. 699 /- )

The generic Z580 comes with 4GB Ram, 1GB Graphics memory and 500GB HDD though.

Also Lenovo gives users some things to be happy about. There was a goodie bag containing a mouse, usb light, headphones, a NatGeo DVD, LCD cleaning kit, Mousepad, Keyboard protector film, USB card reader and some other things I don't remember.
Also a Philips 'Soundbar' worth Rs 2499 /- came with it too. And I must say it really makes good sound.

TechPhilia.in ... coming soon ... a blog for and by tech enthusiasts

An announcement to all followers of my blog (i know i have none, but still just for the sake of an announcement),
A new blog is being set up very soon at www.techphilia.in

It will be maintained by me and 3 of my best buddies.

TechPhilia will be a blog meant specially for people with technology addiction, especially Electronic, Communication and Computer technology.

The blog shall soon be populated with articles that will cover various aspects like latest gadget reviews, latest gaming suggestions, some neat tips and tricks to apply to your daily tech life, some insight into software development, guides on setting up your hardwares and softwares, and much much more.

All four of us are 17-18 year olds, just passed out of high-school and about to join college.

Also I'd like to mention that from now on any technology related posts will be shifted to techphilia.in and this blog will house more personal-opinion and general-discussion sort of posts.

Keep checking back at techphilia.in :)

cheers
championswimmer

Using Tata Photon+ Huawei E156 on Ubuntu (12.04 LTS)

Just set up my old HP tx-1000 Tablet PC with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
So I ran into trouble with setting up my Tata Photon + to work with it.
It does come with a linux auto-installable dialler app, but that didn't cut the ice as it supports older versions of Ubuntu.

EDIT : Forgot to mention (though it's not of much importance) I'm setting up 64-bit, but this will work on 32-bit too.

Anyways, I got these instructions from ubuntuforums.org
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1814583

And frankly speaking i'm doing more or less a copy-paste of that data here, but this is for my own referrence because I hav no idea if I'll be able to find that thread again if i ever reinstall linux :p

So to start with
sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch usb-modeswitch-data



Both above packages should be installed by default but just in case to make sure :)

Now we need to set up the modeswitch settings.
Go to this folder

cd /etc/usb_modeswitch.d

if its not present create it

 mkdir -p /etc/usb_modeswitch.d

cd /etc/usb_modeswitch.d

now we need to create the configuration file

/etc/usb_modeswitch.d

sudo gedit 12d1:1505

copy and paste this data into that file

DefaultVendor= 0x12d1 
DefaultProduct=0x1505 

MessageContent="55534243123456780000000000000011062000000100000000000000000000"

Now to make sure of all this,
connect your USB Data Card (Photon+)

and run this command

cd /etc/usb_modeswitch.d

sudo usb_modeswitch -I -W -c 12d1:1505 

Now on your top bar right-click on the connection icon
You should see "New Mobile Broadband Connection (CDMA)" or something similar

Put a tick mark or "Enable Mobile Broadband"

Then click on edit connections
Go to Mobile Broadband tab

Click NEW
Enter your Country (India in this case)
Select your carrier (Tata PHoton)
Continue and set up the connection

username and password should both be "internet"
save and close the dialog

Now again right click on conections icon and you can see "Tata Photon" listed there. Click that and you are CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET!!!!!

Now there just maybe a few more issues remaining.
After usage, disconnect (from connection icon)
Unplug device and replug it.

Right Click on connections icon. If you see Tata Photon there (you have to wait maybe 1 min) then you are good to go. If not, see below steps

create a binary to connect photon

sudo gedit /bin/tataphoton


in that file type this

#!/bin/bash
cd /etc/usb_modeswitch.d
usb_modeswitch -I -W -c 12d1\:1505
usb_modeswitch -I -W -c 12d1:1505 




and save it (Ctrl+S) and close

Now everytime you connect the device, open the terminal and type

sudo tataphoton


To make things easier, do this

cd ~/Desktop
gedit TataPhoton

paste this there

#!/bin/bash
sudo tataphoton

Save it and exit
now enter this

sudo chmod 755 ~/Desktop/TataPhoton

Now whenever you want to connect, just plug in your device and double click the TataPhoton file on your desktop, enter your password and you are done :)