Mike and I got the vmware server re built last night. We did raid+lvm on the server. We will post configuration details later.
I split my laptop into two partitions:
20 Gig root
100 Gig home
I plan to take a partimage backup of my root partition once I get it all setup. I don’t want to do it too early or too late.
Off to work…
Merry Christmas to all my readers.
I am posting this from work. We are in the middle of a service interuption. A couple members of our team have worked some 80 hour weeks to launch a new version of Disneyworld. 2 others are with family. That leaves me and the newest member of the team to support the issue.
On Christmas. 
There are 2 sodas in the work fridge. Also nothing is open today except movies and chinese. So much for ordering lunch. I have a feeling this is going to be a long day……
I am planning to rebuild my server on Christmas day. It will be RAID 5 and LVM. I will post more about my plans as I firm them up.
So I figured I would take a stab at getting my Blackberry Pearl working as a hardware authentication token.
First things first. Download/unpack the pam_x509 software.
Edit makefile. Set BT=no to BT=yes (to allow bluetooth authentication).
Type make.
Find out that pam libs aren’t installed. (apt-get install libpam0g-dev)
Type make again.
Find out that openobex-config is needed. (apt-file search openobex-config and then apt-get install libopenobex-1.0-0.-dev). I love apt-file. Its so nice.
Ack. Bluetooth headers aren’t installed. (apt-file search bluetooth.h apt-get install libbluetooth2-dev).
And of course the obex headers are missing. Or the obexftp ones anyway. (apt-cache search obex | grep dev apt-get install libobexftp-dev).
Oh lovely. That removes the main obex development libraries.
Yuck. Grumble grumble.
Ok. Well its not that important to me for now. I will see if other methods are available. Grrrr.
So I guess I should write some sort of year end review/wrap up.
It’s been an interesting and somewhat turbulant year. A lot has happened:
1) I was interviewed by Google. The process was not very organized and seemed to have no rhyme or reason in terms of acceptance or rejection. I didn’t get the job. I wrote in detail about the process and why I will never work for Google, earlier this year.
2) I was unfairly terminated from my job at Electronic Clearing House. Our team was placed under a new manager and shortly after that I was booted out and replaced by one of his cronies. In talks with other people still at the organization it got much worse after that. I still have a number of good friends from that job.
3) I joined an awesome organization called OPEN. A great bunch of people who enjoy helping professionals find employment. They helped me re write my resume and taught me the value of networking.
4) I went to a number of interviews. Far more then I did on my last job hunt. They ranged from the bazar/shocking/rude (being asked to complete a numbers puzzle while getting grilled on obscure trivia [Intuit]) to pleasant (nice normal interviews that focused on fundamentals and building blocks [ADP and a small internet startup in El Segundo] to the most pleasant (Disney).
5)I went to work for the Walt Disney Internet Group as a system engineer for the Parks And Resorts Online business unit. I work with an awesome group of people.
6)My wife and I moved into a very large two bedroom apartment complete with hardwood floors and a fireplace. It’s 3 blocks from my work to boot!
And that’s about it.
The blackberry pearl is a very powerful device. It handles my e-mail and organization needs. It is a phone. There are a wide variety of applications available for it.
I want to use it for even more things though.
I am going to purchase a bluetooth keyboard so I can take electronic notes during meetings and such.
I also plan to use it as a hardware token for authentication to my laptop.
I want to purchase a GPS receiver that broadcasts over bluetooth. This way I can get turn by turn directions from my phone. Although the built in mapping functionality is pretty powerful. I guess the device would be useful for war driving as well.
For now I have given up on using it as a modem for my laptop. Generally when I am traveling the laptop is stowed away in my backpack 
And now that SFVLUG has EVDO being supplied for its meetings (thanks to a very generous member) its not as high a priority.
Mmmm. What else can I do with the pearl?
I have always considered myself fairly productive. Even in a highly interrupt driven work environment. However I am always looking for ways to improve my output. I got bit by the Six Sigma/Continuous Process Improvement/Ruthless execution bug a long time ago. I have instilled it into everything I do. Home/work/play doesn’t matter. My manager lent me a book on Thursday called Getting Things Done. I have been reading it over and discussing it in detail with my manager/lead. It is a very useful system and makes a lot of sense. I highly recommend it.
It also fits in very nicely with a blackberry. One of the key concepts of the book is minimizing input and maximizing output. The blackberry allows me to have one input. I can combine work/personal/consulting contacts/todo items/calendar events into one place. Also I receive all of my personal e-mail on the blackberry. Still need to figure out how to get folders other then inbox to be accessible. I currently (over the Christmas weekend) have my work e-mail redirecting to the device but its for emegerencies only. Normally I don’t have it going to the device.
It’s amazing how much one can get done on this system. Its very useful.
Ok. I kind of have the phone working. For details please see the SFVLUG wiki page for my presentation last night.
The main stumbling block that I had was pairing with the phone. Thanks to livinded(Joe) at SFVLUG for explaining the blue-tooth pairing process to me and helping me get the device paired. I went into gnome and that brought up the appropriate pin helper program. Supposedly you can have a shell script do the same thing. I couldn’t get that figured out. Anyway the device is now paired. On to the next problem:
root@charles: /home/charles# pon edge
Serial connection established.
using channel 6
Using interface ppp0
Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/rfcomm0
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1
rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x0
No auth is possible
sent [LCP ConfRej id=0x0
rcvd [LCP ConfRej id=0x1
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x2
rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x2
Terminating on signal 2
sent [LCP TermReq id=0x3 "User request"]
rcvd [LCP TermAck id=0x3]
Connection terminated.
So I can connect to the phone and establish a serial link over blue tooth. However the authentication is failing. The pap-secrets files I have seen on-line contain:
(none) * password
” tmobile
(http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131045&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=10939667)
That slashdot thread was very similar to other howtos I have seen. It was a practical application which helps
Searching for t-mobile pap-secrets returns: http://www.xmission.com/~bmidgley/tmobile/
So off to do more troubleshooting. At least the majority of the kinks have been worked out. Once all this is done I plan to play with high availability and fall over of network connections. Then on to traffic shaping and rate limiting Yea ha!
Well after much trial and error and testing I think I have solved the mystery. Will confirm tomorrow morning. The key search term appeared to be
peers gprs t-mobile
Fun stuff.
http://www.xmission.com/~bmidgley/tmobile/
http://home.comcast.net/~spearcd/gprsdun.html
http://www.mobguru.com/Linux+GPRS+Bluetooth.htm
http://www.saunalahti.fi/nonn/linux_gprs.html
http://wildbill.nulldevice.net/wordpress/?p=86
All somewhat similar more or less.
Ok off to bed now. I want to be able to get up in the morning and test this
Doing some research I have discovered that SDP isn’t available on the blackberry.
Searching for blackberry pearl tethered modem returns:
http://www.blackberry.com/knowledgecenterpublic/livelink.exe/fetch/2000/8021/7925/8142/Connecting_a_computer_to_the_Internet_using_a_GPRS,_EDGE,_or_UMTS_BlackBerry_device_as_a_tethered_modem.html?nodeid=1233895&vernum=0
Searching for t-mobile APN returns:
http://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase/root/public/tm21625.htm
Thanks to illf8d (Steve) @ SFVLUG for pointing out an article on some bluetooth stack issues. That is where I saw the words “tethered modem” and started searching for it.
Still no success with getting the phone to work as a modem. Attempting to follow this howto which is similar to other how-to documents I have seen on line. Essentially the steps seem to be:
1) Obtain MAC address of your device via hcitool scan. That works:
charles@charles:~$ hcitool scan
Scanning …
00:0F:86:F6:35:0C Charles cool toy
charles@charles:~$
2) Do an SDP query and determine your channel number.
3) Setup an RFCOM binding.
4) Go from there.
Well step two fails for me.
charles@charles:~$ sdptool browse 00:0F:86:F6:35:0C
Failed to connect to SDP server on 00:0F:86:F6:35:0C: Connection timed out
charles@charles:~$
Searching around for SDP issues on the blackberry hasn’t returned anything useful. Not even people saying they had the same problem and asking for help It’s one of those trail blazing type problems.
I am on the phone with T-mobile now to see if they have a super secret KB article or something that will guide me through the night. By the way the on line support for t-mobile is nothing short of amazing.
Every day they keep impressing me. Good service. Helpful/friendly/knowledgeable support staff. An excellent on line knowledge base. Phones that aren’t crippled. A fairly decent price point (1,000 minutes/unlimited data plan for about $100.00 a month with two lines). They also seem to keep pushing the envelope in terms of technologies and phone offerings.
So we shall see if I find anything useful. I want to have internet access from laptop->phone by the meeting tomorrow.