GC85 Edge card on Linux

Hi friends!
I'm using a Sony Ericsson GC85 card to connect to my 3G network. It works perfectly on WindowsCE as it is detected as a Serial Modem. To connect, I must type on terminal the at+ commands to initialize the card. I'm using it right now n windows as I'm typing this message. But I also have jLime linux installed on my CF and I want to use my GC85 card on it. I don't have much knowledge on linux and I want to know if there is a way to use my card with the same at+ commands I use on windows. When I start jLime, going to pcmcia settings it says that my card was detected as a serial interface on ttyS0. But I didn't find any PPP software to connect to internet using the serial modem on ttyS0. Is there a way to connect using terminal commands? How can I do that? Thanks.

I know nothing about JLime, but you need a way to establish a PPP connection. pppd or wvdial would be command-line options. You will have to edit their text configuration files in order to connect properly. You can probably find examples for your particular cellular provider with a Google search. You may also want minicom; it will let you enter AT commands directly so you can see what commands you need for pppd or wvdial.

Thank you for the guide isotherm. What is minicom? What I'm looking for is a software to stablish the connection similar to the "dial-up network" on WindowsCE. So I can type my login information to connect to my carrier and select a "connect manually" option so that I can enter my at+ commands. I already know the at+ commans because I use them with WindowsCE once it doesn't detect my card properly, but only as a serial modem, I must initialize it manually. So I'm planning to use the same method in linux.

Looking at my Linux install, it seems that is has pppd installed. I searched the internet for examples of how to configure pppd for dialup connections but I cound't get it. It didn't work (probably because I did something wrong). It seems that wvdial is an easier way, but it's not installed on my jLime. I believe that install it without internet and apt-get would be a panic! So, can someone explain me exactly what files I must edit and how can I configure pppd correctly? Probably what was wrong is that the examples I found on the internet was for normal phone modem dial up, and mine is an EDGE card. The principle is the same, but I think that configurations change a little bit.

Just for the record, here are my AT commands I use on Windows with comments:

at+cfun=1 ;This initialize the card. I must wait for the MTZ something answer to type the next command
at+cgdcont=1,"ip","tim.br" ;I don't know exactly but I believe this command configures the server
atd*99***1# ;this command is for dialing. The number I dial is *99***1#.

After that I just tap File -> Connect on the terminal window and boom, I'm online!

Hi ntware,
The following info below might be of some use to you:
1. There is an "AT Commands Manual.PDF" I downloaded for GC85, google for it
2. check the links below in connection with GC85 and Linux distros
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-47305.html
http://forums.opensuse.org/archives/sf-archives/archives-hardware/3...
http://software.itags.org/debian/33958/

Good luck to you!

pppd is tricky but it sounds like it will work better with JLime. Do they have pppsetup available? It would automate the process. Otherwise you will have to do it yourself. You have to create a provider (normally in /etc/ppp/peers) and a chatscript (perhaps in /etc/chatscripts). The location of the files could vary. The chatscript is where you would be entering the AT commands that you listed above. The PPP provider file shouldn't need too much change from the default. A generic howto setup pppd to work with GSM should help you.

It seems that I will really need to understand how to work with pppd. Looking at the arlex links, I found really good information, but they are based on minicom. I tryed to install minicom using my wifi on linux, but it corrupted my linux instalation after trying to update the libc6. So I guess I will need to reinstall jlime and try some luck with pppd. I will post here my progress. Thank you friends.

Hey friends!
I just wanna say that I'm online on my jornada with my Ericsson EDGE card typing this message on Firefox! Thank youo isotherm and arlex for your help. You must be asking how did I do that. Well, the secret was installing Minicom. It was corrupting my linux install because it tryed to install a newer version of libc6. So I installed it with ipkg install -nodeps -force-overwrite option. Worked! With minicom installed, was easy to configure my ppp connection latter. I just used the instructions that are on the first Arlex link to write 3 simple script files that contain basically my AT+ commands for connecting, for disconnecting and my provider settings. I will post here atter my scripts so that anyone that wants to add EDGE support on their Linux HPCs will have a good guide.

FYI it should also be possible without minicom (just PPP config scripts). But glad you got it working!