Re: So very close, but so frustrating...

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2009-09-30 at 20:18 -0400, Darren Albers wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 7:55 PM, Steve <sjh_ubuntu shic co uk> wrote:
> > I've a netbook and I want to use it to access my home-office email wherever
> > I happen to be... with minimal fuss.  Sometimes I'll be connected to a wired
> > network, sometimes wireless, sometimes via my mobile phone (connected over
> > bluetooth) - sometimes from home - sometimes from remote locations.
> >
> > To this end, I've set up a openvpn VPN using NetworkManager for my client
> > which allows me to interact with my email server as if I am at home from
> > wherever my netbook happens to be connected.  This works wonderfully well
> > both for ethernet and 802.11 wireless connectivity.
> >
> > My problem arises when I want to use my mobile phone.  I know my hardware
> > works, because I can use NetworkManager to disable wireless, then the
> > following wvdial configuration to establish a PPP connection... and - if I'm
> > somewhere without any connectivity - it allows me to browse the web and make
> > ssh connections to servers via my mobile phone.
> > --
> > [Dialer Defaults]
> > Init1=ATZ
> > Modem=/dev/rfcomm0
> > Baud=460800
> > Phone = *99#
> > Username = username
> > Password = password
> > New PPPD = yes
> > --
> >
> >
> > So far, so good... but, when NetworkManager is not aware of a network
> > connection (because the mobile phone connection has been patched-through
> > from the command line) it refuses to allow me to turn on my VPN.
> >
> > Obviously, it would be best if I could avoid using the command line at all -
> > but I'm drawing a blank on how to do this.  Under "Edit Connections" there's
> > a promising looking "Mobile Broadband" - which goes on to give me a dialog
> > into which I can patch the phone number "*99#" and username/password (though
> > these are both ignored by the wvdial approach, so don't seem to be very
> > important...) - but I can't see anywhere to specify the interface...
> > /dev/rfcomm0 - which, I suspect, is significant.  Furthermore, even with a
> > "Mobile Broadband" connection configured in "Network Connections" - I don't
> > see how I can activate this from the NetworkManager GUI... (similarly for
> > the DSL configurations - though those are of no practical interest to me at
> > the moment...)
> >
> > Is there any way that I can configure NetworkManager to allow me to switch
> > between wireless connectivity and 'dialup' networking via my mobile phone?
> >  It seems so close to working that it would be a shame to be forced back to
> > the command line...
> >
> > In case it is relevant, I'm using NetworkManager Applet 0.7.0.100 - the
> > latest Ubuntu default.
> >
> > Any hints much appreciated...
> >
> 
> At this time Network Manager does not support Bluetooth modems.   I
> think 0.8 supports phones if they use Bluetooth PAN but not Bluetooth
> DUN.

Correct; I may just get bored enough today triaging bugs to go implement
DUN in 0.8.  That opens up a huge number of cellphones, which will
inevitably lead to even more bugs since there's much more phone
variation than in the relatively small data card space.  Oh well; it
would help a lot of people out.

Dan