3.9. Cellular Phone Connection

As far as I know some cellular phones use the IrCOMM standard, e.g. Ericsson SH888 and NOKIA 6110 (I'm not sure about the NOKIA 8110). Maybe other cellular phones use the IrOBEX standard (see the Palm III section for information about setting up a connection) or IrMC.

gnokii is a Linux/Unix tool suite and soon to be modem/fax driver for Nokia (GSM) mobile phones. Phones supported include 3110, 3810, 8110, 5110, 6110 and their derivatives.

3.9.1. Motorola Timeport GSM

Michael McConnell has posted an initial version of a guide to get the Motorola Timeport GSM phone and Linux-IrDA talking on his website.

3.9.2. Ericsson

1. Configuration To start a communication session with /dev/ircomm0 , for instance, say:

dip -t
> port ircomm0
> term

Probably you may use cu or xc instead of dip, too cu -l /dev/ircomm0 or xc -l /dev/ircomm0. There are also reports about some efforts with the Ericsson GF768 and IR Modem DI 27.

Benny Amorsen wrote: The SH888 emulates an IRDA-port when you connect it using the serial cable. Why someone would think up something weird like that is beyond me, but that is the way you get it to work in Windows. Not that I ever managed to make it work in Windows, though.

Ales Dryak has send this survey (looks like a Debian/GNU Linux distribution, please modify your configuration accordingly). Mobile Ericsson SH888 ati1 = 980408 1035 PRGCXC125101:

mknod /dev/ircomm0 c 161 0
mknod /dev/ircomm1 c 161 1

2. /etc/conf.modules:

alias tty-ldisc-11 irtty
alias char-major-161 ircomm-tty

3. /etc/irda/drivers: irattach /dev/ttyS0 -s 1 # (IrDA port in SIR mode) 4. /etc/chatscripts/sh888

<ABORT stuff>
"" \d\d\d\d\d\dATZE0
OK ATD<phone number to call)
CONNECT \d\c

5. /etc/ppp/peers/sh888

noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/sh888"
/dev/ircomm
115200
defaultroute
noipdefault
user <your username> # don't forget to add your password to chap secrets or chat script

A few seconds (app. 30) after executing pppd call sh888 I get connected to our Intranet/Internet having full IP connectivity (telnet, ftp, www, icmp tested). Futhermore I can connect to /dev/ircomm using minicom and play with AT command. Great! And looks stable!

3.9.3. SH888 Phonebook Tool

Gerhard Gonter reported: Several members of the list are successfully using the Ericsson mobile phone SH888 with the Linux-IrDA software, usually to use it as a modem. The software is also quite useful to access other parts of the phone using AT commands. The built-in phonebook is an interesting target.

After A quick research on the Internet (FreshMeat, Deja, YAHOO), I did not find any phonebook tool for Linux (or another Unix). To solve that problem, I wrote a small Perl script and a related module. Since this now works acceptably well for me, I decided to wrap that up and release it at this early stage of development. The tarball can be retrieved from http://falbala.wu-wien.ac.at:8684/pub/english.cgi/0/172903 as http://falbala.wu-wien.ac.at:8684/pub/english.cgi/d172914/sh888-0.01.t ar.gz

In the mailing list gsmlib was also recommended, though ... there was no way for me to use this over infrared, no connection with my sh888. Florian Lohoff reported: Works (kind of) with the S25. I needed to change a ifdef as it seems the S25 does not respond with CR LF ...But setting a link from /dev/mobilephone -> /dev/ircomm lets me send SMS via the S25 without a problem. Phonebook backup does NOT work because the S25 does some silly responses to probably empty phonebooks.

The specifications for SMS messages and phone books can be downloaded free (of charge, not FSF free ;-) from ETSI. Search for GSM 07.07 (you might also want GSM 07.05). You have to register before downloading it. The standards are in Acrobat PDF format. The S25 supported commands are available on the Siemens websites as a PDF for free.

A survey of the AT commands for the SH888 is at http://mobileinternet.ericsson.se/emi_download/sh888/888_R1D.pdf

3.9.4. NOKIA

Carlos Vidal wrote: Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that Nokia telephones do not contain a genuine hardware modem, but something which is similar in principle to WinModems for PC. Whenever Nokia writes about modem communication, they use the name "Windows software modem" (or something similar). Which is actually backed up by the need to use special Nokia software for Windows (called Nokia Cellular Data Suite).

Joonas Lehtinen wrote: This is true with 61xx models. Models: 8810, 9000(i) and 9110 should work fine. (They have inbuilt modem). My Nokia 9000 reports IrCOMM with linux.

Some suggestion by Carlos Vidal carlos@tarkus.se : "I'm doing some tests trying to see how far can I get with my Nokia 6110 on Linux. I've just compiled gnokii-0.2.4 (gnokii is Nokia mobile phones connected via serial cable support for Linux and *BSD http://multivac.fatburen.org/gnokii/ , WH), but it doesn't work. As I have Nokia Data Suite I did the following connection:

Nokia 6110 <-- Nokia Cable --> PC/Linux <-- Null-modem cable --> PC/W95

In the PC/Linux I run the program snooper (by Jun-ichiro itojun Itoh , sorry couldn't find an URL maybe some other sniffer will do it also, e.g. sniffit, see also appendix about serial sniffers, WH) with small modifications in order to configure the serial port correctly.

Normally, if snooper has the correct baud rate, the phone and the PC/W95 should communicate as if there was no snooper in between. This worked pretty well when I cracked the protocol of my Minolta camera. The problem here is that the phone doesn't answer or hangs after a while.

It seems that the timing is quite important during the initial phase of the communication. The log I obtain is:

0>1: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
line 0: LE *DTR *RTS ST SR CTS CD RI *DSR
line 1: LE *DTR *RTS ST SR CTS CD RI *DSR
0>1: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUU\x1e\x00\x0c\x02\x00\x09\x00\x01\x00\x0d\x00\x00\x02\x01@\x00P\x
06
1>0: \x18\x00\x00\x00\xfc\x18\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xc0\xf0
0>1: \x1e\x00\x0c\x02\x00\x09\x00\x01\x00\x0d\x00\x00\x02\x01@\x00P\x06
1>0: \x18\x00\x00\x00\x18\x00\x00\xc0\xf0\x18\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xc0\xf0
0>1: \x1e\x00\x0cd\x00\x06\x00\x01\x00\x10\x01`\x13\x13
1>0: \x18\x00\x00\xf0\x00\x00\xfc
0>1: \x1e\x00\x0cd\x00\x06\x00\x01\x00\x10\x01`\x13\x13

0 is the PC/95 and 1 is the phone. The communication starts with a stream of 'U' (0x55) and with DSR/DTR on. The phone answers with '0x18 0x00 ...'. This dialog continues for a while as if both were deaf and finally the phone crashes and the only way to reset it is to remove the batteries!

I guess that what happens is that the phone is trying to find the correct baud-rate and fails because of the delays introduced by snooper. This probably has to do with some IrDA protocol used with also with the infrared connection."

Wessel de Roode "I managed to get the Discovery IR hint bits (with my Palm Pilot):

Discover:
0:xxxxxxxx:81.01
    01  IR_HINT_PNP     01  IR_HINT_TELEPHONY (IrMC ?)
    80  IR_HINT_EXT

Device info query:
\006Device\012DeviceName
    4e 6f 6b 69 61 20 36 31 30 30       Nokia 6100

I also managed to query the PNP device of the Nokia. It has one PNP device. It's PNPC100 which equalt a 9600 baud modem. I deleted the query, if somene can send me a hint to restore it. was somthing like IrDA:<dunno>:PNP:Comp#01 The same query with IrDA:<dunno>:PNP:CompCnt gives the number of PNP-devices are available in the Nokia. Which is here only one."

Maybe it is necessary to load the irlpt_server module for connections to a NOKIA.

There are also reports about gsmlib for sending and receiving sms messages, updating address books etc). These functions are working, except for minor charset problems.

3.9.5. Siemens S25

Configuration By Florian Lohoff: "Do it step by step - Get your irda working irattach /dev/ttySx etc. Then have a look at the /proc/net/irda/discovery whether you find something like this:

(flo@paradigm)~# cat /proc/net/irda/discovery
IrLMP: Discovery log:
nickname: SIEMENS S25, hint: 0x9024, saddr: 0x4286ce23, daddr: 0x04295741

Now load ircomm and ircomm-tty and normally(tm) you should be able to connect to the correct /dev/ircomm and you can easily dial and load/backup the phonebook etc ...", e.g. with minicom.

Timo Felbinger describes the connection between a Toshiba and a Siemens S25:

kernel 2.2.12 and patch-2.2.12-irda3, IrDA support in the kernel, ircomm and ircomm-tty as a module
mknod /dev/ircomm0 c 161 0
modprobe ircomm, modprobe ircomm-tty
start irattach with modprobe toshoboe in the start section of /etc/irda/drivers . Note: don't load toshoboe before the irattach, this may cause device or resource busy
after dip -t and the command port ircomm0 the S25 shows a connection. Note: the IR port of the S25 has to be activated of course, the distance between the two devices seems not critical.
After term the S25 behaves like the usual Hayes modem and can be used with the AT commands.
dial-out with pppd works out of the box.

3.9.6. German e-plus

A note to German e-plus users:

Every e-plus contract (except Free&Easy) contains a PPP conncetion to the WWW (no separate registration necessary). This service is available around Germany under the phone number 123100. This worked also out of the box.

pppd configuration:

/dev/ircomm0
defaultroute
netmask 255.255.255.0
debug
mtu 552
crtscts
noauth
connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/eplus.chat'
chat script /etc/ppp/eplus.chat:

ABORT "BUSY"
ABORT "ERROR"
ABORT "NO CARRIER"
ABORT "NO DIALTONE"
ABORT "NO ANSWER"
SAY "initializing modem..."
"" "AT"
"OK" "ATZ"
SAY "dialing..."
"OK" "ATDT123100"
SAY "waiting for CONNECT..."
"CONNECT" ""
SAY "connected!"
SAY ""

For the nameserver you may use 192.76.144.66 . Username or password are not necessary.