May 08
Netbook Devices
Vodafone group are building a strategy on the best way to support and distribute it's own range of UMPC's or 'Netbooks' as these devices are increasingly being referred to.
The ASUS EeePC is the first of these devices to hit the market. It is envisaged that within the next 6 months, a number of the Vodafone OpCos will be ranging Netbooks in their stores, with many of these coming with Built-in 3G capability. Check back for more news!
Welcome to our repository setup page. Here you will find details in setting up your Synaptic package management system to use the Betavine repository.
This will allow you to get our most recent open source drivers automatically via your package management client.
For the more experienced Linux users you can also find the commands used at the command prompt to setup and download the packages
This Asus Ultra Mobile PC comes pre-installed with the Synaptic Package Management system. Here you will find detailed instructions on how to add the Betavine repository to your package management system.
Doing this will allow you to easily update your Asus Eee Ultra Mobile PC with the Vodafone Mobile Connect software.
This will also allow you go easily get updates to new versions of the driver when they become available.
The process follows three steps:
To start Synaptic using the Asus PC launch a terminal window hitting the keys
'CTRL + ALT + t'
Synaptic must be run with root privilage so must be run with the sudo command. From your command line type:
'sudo /usr/sbin/synaptic'
Adding Betavine to your repository
From the Synaptic menu select menu 'settings' and submenu 'repositories'
This will launch a configuration box allowing you to input the Betavine repository URL.
The repository package description needs a type URI and Distribution but no Section name. This is due to the fact that the Betavine repository has been setup as 'trival' repository. Hence add the following:
Type:'Binary (deb)'
URI:'http://betavine.net/repo/debian/dists/etch/'
Distribution:'EeePC/'
Section(s):
Select OK to confirm your selection.
Please note, the dialog box may appear larger than the physical display, to move the window use the following keys :
Key Combination: 'Left-ALT' and 'Left mouse + drag'
Installing Vodafone Mobile Connect card driver
You can now navigate to the subcategory networking (multiverse), on the right hand side will appear a package called vodafone-mobile-connect:
Subcategory: 'Networking (multiverse)'
Right click the driver once it's found and select the 'Mark for Installation' option.
Please avoid using the 'search' facility on Synaptic due to a possible error scenario.
Package 'vodafone-mobile-connect'
Select 'Apply', you will be shown a warning message about the software not being authenticated by Synaptic, this is normal.
Select 'Apply' again. The software will now be installed by the package management system.
Quit synaptic, and exit the terminal window.
You should now find the Vodafone Mobile Connect icon in the top menu, next to the 'WEB' icon.
The Vodafone Driver is now successfully installed on your system
If you have issues connecting, or in setting up in specific countries get involved in the forums, let us know
Start the new profile dialogue box by selecting the 'tools', 'profile' and 'new profile' menu.
Action: 'Tools' 'Profile' and 'New Profile'
This will spawn the New Profile dialogue box.
The new dialogue box will allow you to setup a title, password, username, preferred connection, authentication mode, APN host, and DNS settings.
The good news is there is only 4 settings that you are required to enter, and only 3 of them are specific. The rest of the settings can be left with their defaults.
Profile Name: Any name you prefer can be used in this field
Username: 'web'
Password: 'web'
APN host: 'Internet'
Select OK to confirm your selection.
Setting Up With Vodafone Germany
Use the following settings for a Vodafone German SIM connecting to the Vodafone German Network. Again changing only the user name, password and internet values as shown below.
Profile Name: Any name you prefer can be used in this field
Username: 'vodafone'
Password: 'vodafone'
APN host: 'web.vodafone.de'
Betavine hope to document and inform users on known issues, work around's, and fixes for the Ultra Mobile PC's. Be sure to check here first if you have problems. Otherwise get involved on our forums.
Known Issues:
To Synaptic package management system has a search facility. If this is used to search for the VMC package an error message my appear describing a locked file in the directory /var/lib/dpkg. The full error is given below:
Error 1
'E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status(2)'
Error 2
'E: Unable to lock the download directory'
This is a known problem, you can find out more about this at the EeeUser wiki. We suggest our users navigate to the network (multivers) subsection to find the VMC package.
Using 'Add/Remove Software' from the Settings tab removes the 'Vodafone' icon
When updating your Asus EeePC via the 'Add/Remove Software' application on the 'Settings' tab screen it may remove the 'Vodafone' icon on the 'Internet' tab screen after the update. This does not mean the VMC (Vodafone Mobile Connect) software has been removed. The update script run by the 'Add/Remove Software application has not correctly added new icons into the XML UI file controlling what gets displayed on your screen.
Betavine do not control this process and so it requires a fix in the update software. Betavine are pursuing this to get fixed via the correct channels. However, there are currently two solutions to getting round the problem:
Option two is the simplest option. However for the die-hard, options one is covered below:
Follow the links to learn how to update the simpleui.rc script which controls the icons, positions, languages, and applications the widgets start on your screen
The following text entries need to be placed into your SIMPLEUI.RC file. This should be positioned directly after the entry for the firefox.desktop in the internet tab.
<parcel simplecat="Internet" shortcut="/usr/share/applications/vmc.desktop"
icon="vodafone_norm.png"
selected_icon="vodafone_hi.png">
<name lang="en">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="zh_TW">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="zh_HK">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="zh_CN">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="ar_AE">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="de_DE">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="es_AR">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="es_ES">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="fr_FR">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="it_IT">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="nl_NL">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="pt_PT">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="ru_RU">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="th_TH">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="tr_TR">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="ja_JP">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="ko_KR">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="cs_CZ">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="hu_HU">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="sk_SK">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="el_GR">Mobile Connect</name>
<name lang="pl_PL">Mobile Connect</name>
</parcel>
