Hardware not found - Am I really SOL?

English Network/Internet
#1

Howdy,
I’m at step 2c in the sticky “My wireless doesn’t work - A primer…” and yes, my HTC G1 phone isn’t listed and your sticky says nothing more can be done.

So, my question is how lsusb generates that list… Is it querying the device, extracts the information and prints that information to the display or is SuSE comparing whatever info is returned, matches that information (eg VendorID/ProductID) to a database of supported devices, then prints the result to display?

This is important, because if the former is true, then it looks like I may be SOL getting this to work in SuSE. If the latter is how things really work, then I assume that if I’m able to add an entry for my phone things can proceed.

(If I can add an entry, need procedure)

TIA,
Tony

#2

Sorry but there are litterally thousands of different phone, wireless sticks, built-in wireless, which device do you have, what PC hardware, what OS are you using, What is the result of lsUSB? The degree of help is directly proportional to how much info you can provide. Many seemly hopeless cases have successfully been solved with good info being provided.

#3

OK,
I was trying for the specific, quick question first. The detailed request is far larger and a bit unusual for anyone who configures wireless network connections.

Hardware:
Pavillion dv9500
Core2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz)
4GB RAM

OS:
OpenSuSE 11.3, KDE 4.4.4

Phone to be used as modem:
HTC G1

lsusb:

SuSE:/home/localuser # /usr/bin/lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 064e:a101 Suyin Corp. Acer CrystalEye Webcam
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 08ff:2580 AuthenTec, Inc. AES2501 Fingerprint Sensor
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 03f0:171d Hewlett-Packard Wireless (Bluetooth + WLAN) Interface [Integrated Module]

Note that the HP Wireless entry is irrelevant to what we’re doing here, the WiFi device works fine but I’m trying to setup an Android Phone.

Some additional information likely relevant to device recognition and definitely configuration:
Android devices including phones do not function like or set up like dedicated network devices, but are set up as generic USB “application” devices or sometimes as USB drives, and if initially recognized as a USB Drive would then generally have to be switched to “application” mode for non storage use.

It should be noted Android phones presently do not support typical modem functionality.

To use an attached Android phone for tethering (Internet access through the phone), an HTTP proxy is launched locally on the computer and a web browser supporting Application Layer proxies (like Firefox, but not IE which uses system level proxying) is launched pointing to the local proxy. Packets are automatically passed through the USB connection to the Android device which is configured to listen on a specific TCP port and forward to the Internet.

A try I’ve made:
I found the /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/ directory and created what I believe is an appropriate file as follows, but I’m beginning to think I placed the cart before the horse… This may only enable switching USB mode (as I described above) but has nothing to do with basic device recognition.

Filename: 0bbr:0c01

########################################################
# HTC Android G1 Phone

DefaultVendor= 0x0bb4
DefaultProduct=0x0c01

TargetVendor= 0x0bb4
TargetProduct=0x0c01

CheckSuccess=20

MessageContent="5553424312345678000000000000061b000000020000000000000000000000"

At the moment I appreciate all friendly help, but even if someone didn’t want to read through my entire post I strongly feel that it still comes down to my original post,

If possible, can new entries be made to whatever method is used by SuSE to recognize and categorize a new USB device?

TIA,
Tony

#4

tsu2 wrote:
>
> PHONE TO BE USED AS MODEM:
> HTC G1

from the “Connectivity and Internet Support” section of the maker’s
“Product Support”

Can I tether my T-Mobile G1 to my computer for use as a modem?
No
Was this helpful? Yes | No

cite: http://www.htc.com/us/support/t-mobile-g1/help/connectivity

NOTE: That info is from the USA site, you might want to use the site
serving your area…but i would believe that the same hardware is
probably sold world wide and the problem you are having is not with
openSUSE nor Linux but the design of the hardware you bought…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

#5

DenverD’s post seems to be very usefull to yor real problem: can I use this device.

But you more general question about what lsusb does is about (I am not a real expert here) the following.
All the information comes from within the device. This includes not only the codes for Vendor and Product, but also the Class (storage, …), etc. Those codes are displayed in human redable form by looking into tablees. Some of these tables are of course fixed in the USB standard, but things like Vendor are more dynamic. To solve that, there is somewhere (I do not know where) a list in the system that was more or less up to date when the system was realeased. The fact that only code and no name is displayed simply means that it is not in that list. It has no influence upon other data from the device (like CLass). But it could point to the fact that it is not supported in any way by the system because apperently none of those who design drivers of any kind found it missing. OTOH, when something is a simple mass storage device ((having the correct Class, etc.), which acts as any other USB “disk” it would work without the Vendor or Product as such known.

#6

Denver0:
That may be the HTC official stance, but is untrue. Strictly speaking, I also stated that the device (like any other Android device) does not contain modem functionality but the procedure/method I described is well documented in the Android SDK and used in practice (I for one have configured connecting an Android device to a Windows box).

hcvv:
Thx for the attempt at describing your understanding which would be more or less consistent with my second option guess how SuSE USB detection might work, but I’m not yet ready to just throw up my hands and say that enhancing USB device detection is impossible. I’m hoping that someone who is intimately familiar with the specifics <where> such data may be stored in SuSE exists and what procedure can be followed to modify the data.

Have posted now to Hardware and then Wireless, is there another forum or person to contact which might have this information? Is there a KB somewhere which documents the source code in SuSE that does this?

Thx all,
Tony

#7

Ubuntu forums talk about this phone and that using a usb-Y cable solves some mounting problems due to not enough power reaching the phone to activate communication. They also correctly state how front USB ports sometimes are underpowered. Also you do need to make sure you are connecting to a usb2.0 capable connection. usb1.0,1.1 will not work reliably.
see: Problems mounting & communicating G1 & Ubuntu - Android Forums

As for adding to USB info. On devices with multiple device vendor/mode, you can umount one set and configure/mount another in the device But… unless the device supplies details to the OS stating specifically the additional capabilities there is no way that I know of to override USB which polls the device for it’s capabilities.

#8

tsu2 wrote:
> Have posted now to Hardware and then Wireless, is there another
> forum or person to contact which might have this information?

the code hackers almost never come to these fora as they are primarily
for user-helping-user…

you might try a peek at the Mailing List and Internet Relay Chat
topics in http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Communication_channels

> Is there a KB somewhere which documents the source code in SuSE
> that does this?

oh!..are you using openSUSE or SUSE Enterprise Linux? i ask because
the two code bases have differences, and the there is no SuSE…

if using SUSE you might have more success over at forums.novell.org

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

#9

tsu2 wrote:
> Denver0:
> That may be the HTC official stance, but is untrue. Strictly speaking,

as far as i can see, yours is not an openSUSE problem, see

http://androidforums.com/g1-support/684-tethering.html

http://g1-tether.blogspot.com/

http://graha.ms/androidproxy/

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/beginners-guide-to-tetherbot-photo-tutorial

> I also stated that the device (like any other Android device) does not
> contain modem functionality but the procedure/method I described is well
> documented in the Android SDK and used in practice (I for one have
> configured connecting an Android device to a Windows box).

did you use your HTC G1 as a tethered USB modem while connected to a
Windows box?

or some other phone running the same level of Android as yours?

or a different version of Android?

lots of variables there…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

#10

as far as i can see, yours is not an openSUSE problem, see

tethering - Android Forums

Bruce’s G1 Blog

Tetherbot

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsn...photo-tutorial

Yup, those links are mostly outdated info…
I’m a major contributor of the first thread when I was first successful,
The second link is an interesting try but AFAIK not useful to Linux users, that product installs their own custom USB driver in Windows,
The third link is the app I use which is simply a publicly published version of the code in the Android SDK,
The last link is simply repeating the procedure that tetherbot (the third link) does.

Am well beyond all that, yes I did set this up on a Windows box and now am trying to do the same with OpenSuSE.

Am very aware of how this is supposed to work and am currently stuck on SuSE not recognizing the HTC G1 (and likely just about any other Android device).

If this is a widespread Android issue, this probably could if not already become a very significant deficiency since just this past fiscal quarter it was announced more Android phones were sold than iPhones. Android has become not just a player but the potential number one mobile operating system in the marketplace. Even now world leader Nokia is considering Android replacing their custom OS and Motorola is staking their financial future on it.

Tony