kmobiletools in Ubuntu Linux

Got a GSM phone? Wanna sync your address book and dial numbers from your PC? Yeah, I don't either. Nevertheless, this article describes how to install kmobiletools on to Ubuntu Linux for phone diagnostic fun! 

First I have to upgrade Ubuntu Breezy to Dapper to get kmobiletools. I prepped for the upgrade by making sure Breezy was updated:

$ sudo aptitude update
$ sudo aptitude upgrade

Then I backed up /etc/apt/sources.list and used sed to re-set sources.list.

$ sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak
$ sudo sed -i 's/breezy/dapper/' /etc/apt/sources.list

Now I can do a dist-upgrade to bring Ubuntu up to Dapper, all the while hoping nothing breaks.

$ sudo aptitude dist-upgrade 

Once that is finished, install kmobiletools the easy way:

$ sudo aptitude install kmobiletools

Next, I created the device node and installed the usbserial module.

$ sudo mknod  /dev/ttyACM0 c 166 0

$ sudo modprobe usbserial 

Then, I plugged in my phone and fired up kmobiletools and set the mobile device to /dev/ttyACM0. If you take a look at dmesg now, you should see the following:

[4295144.029000] usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 6

[4295144.173000] usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices

[4295189.450000] cdc_acm 2-1:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

[4295189.459000] usbcore: registered new driver cdc_acm

[4295189.459000] drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c: v0.23:USB Abstract Control Model d

river for USB modems and ISDN adapters

Excellent. Note that the line about the ACM device doesn't appear until kmobiletools is running and the device is set to /dev/ttyACM0. You should see your signal and power levels active in the kmobiletools box. You could even dial a number in "Mobile Phone Functions" or import your Phonebook.