[rivviepop]

I have a laptop at home, dual boot with WinXP and Linux. When in WinXP with the Pearl plugged into USB, the phone charges as you'd expect since the Desktop software is installed. When I boot back to Linux though, the phone complains about insufficient juice to charge or a missing driver (duh).

Anyone know the trick to get this thing charging over USB with your generic Linux machine? On my main workstation here at work I get the same BB message, but I know the USB ports on this beast can do it (other USB-charging phones work just fine).

Thanks! Of course I'm at work, the battery is dying and my charger is at home. *sigh*

[peterbabiy]

Not sure how to do it, hope someone will stop by to help you out.

[bartokbatt]

~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~Been there. Week long business trip with no charger because I figured I could just charge it via USB from my notebook. Wrong.

Here's what I learned the hard way. Unless the software is installed, ie with your XP booted up, it will only do the slowest of trickle charges. I could do an 8-10 hour chargeup, but no better.

Good luck.

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by bartokbatt

Here's what I learned the hard way. Unless the software is installed, ie with your XP booted up, it will only do the slowest of trickle charges. I could do an 8-10 hour chargeup, but no better

egads, but thanks. I mean as long as I know that much, I can plan when to charge it better. I poked around on Google a bit and it seems the software does some sort of rate limiting on the current, it adjusts as needed to charge quickly then switch into trickle mode. I would suppose that's what the wall charger does in hardware - so the phone doesn't have the needed brains itself, relying on an external source instead.

[phidauex]

I thought it was simpler than that... Just that a device's driver specified the amount of current it can have, up to a maximum of 500mA (high power mode). If there is no driver, then there is no specified amount of current, and so the computer limits it to less than 100mA (low power mode), just to be safe. I could be wrong, but that is how most phones charge.

You need to have some driver installed that will allow the system to report to the hardware that this is a 'high power' device.

Does your linux installation support mass storage devices? IE, can you mount the BB's memory card?

peace,
sam

[rivviepop]

Hey Sam,

Well it kinda works that way (more research results); the device when plugged in reports that it's a 100mA draw only; when the driver and handset talk, a magical something is sent back to the device who then switches into 500mA mode, reporting this back to the PC who then adjusts and pumps out more juice.

So, we need to debug the connection on WinXP, figure out the communication that causes this trigger and implement it for Linux/OSX (these users have the same problem of course) somehow. Not that I'm saying *I* could do it, but you know...

BTW, the USB mass storage works fine. 1.1 mode (blech), but it works in Linux without any issues. I have a 2g SanDisk in the device, it required a firmware upgrade to 4.2.0.64 (?) for it to be recognized by the Pearl - the out-of-box f/w from T-Mobile wouldn't work.

[*&)#e]

Under the Barry project they provide the drivers to switch the usb current from 100mA to 500mA.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=153722

if you look around your distro community help site im sure you will find more info relating to your distro.

[mjwood0]

This is totally possible with Linux.

The problem is that the Linux kernel will never release more current to the USB device unless it's recognized.

Check out the following mail thread for info. You could easily write a script to do this too.

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-us.../msg17547.html

The link posted by *&)#e might work too.