[Novalug] Fwd: Re: Verizon Supports Linux

[Ivan]

> Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 22:15:56 -0500
> > From: Omari Norman <omari at smileystation.com>
> >
> > On Tue, Jan 05, 2010 at 07:27:29PM -0500, Roger W. Broseus wrote:
>>> > > > May be a first: Verizon says minimum requirements for its
"VZAccess
>>> > > > Manager V7" includes Linux. (I'm exporing Verizon's "MiFi 2200"
for access
>>> > > > to the Net.
> > It's bullshit.

Agreed, it's misleading at best. Once the device is activated and
running as an access point, you can connect to it with anything that
uses wifi. None of the software from verizon runs in Linux.

> >
> > I bought the MiFi. There is no VZAccessManager for Linux. Ordinarily,
> > who cares? Like I want some crappy software just to manage a net
> > connection. However, you need the crappy software to activate the MiFi
> > on the Verizon network. They wouldn't do it over the phone for me. So I
> > just waited until I could get it to an XP box.
> >
> > Now, after the MiFi is running, you can use it from Linux, at least as a
> > WiFi access point of course. On Windows it can run connected to the PC
> > via USB. I don't know if this works in Linux.

This I have gotten working - connect the mifi to your lappy via usb and
then eject the device once. There's some odd code in the mifi that then
represents the device as a USB modem and now you can use it as a modem
via NetworkManager or whatever your preferred method of ppp0 device
management is.

It shows up as a CDRom when you first plug it in. Run the eject command
on the device, "/dev/sr0" on my system, and then you should see a new
usb modem, something like /dev/ttyUSB0.

Hmm, looks like the latest updates to Fedora 12 now identify the usb
vendor and product id and take care of that for you. Just plug it in!

- Ivan


> > It seems to me that somebody just plugged "Linux" into the VZ website,
> > without actually bothering to do any testing to make sure the products
> > are actually usable with Linux. If there's any Linux compatibility,
> > you'd better believe it's in spite of Verizon, not because of it.

-- Ivan Makfinsky Chief Systems Architect Endosys, Inc.
ivan.makfinsky at endosys.com