Linux help

[Who's Wee Dug]

I have just recently bought a netbook an Acer Aspire One, OS is
Limpus Linux Lite tried a friends 3 mobile net dongle it would not work I take it that they only work on Windows or Macs OS or is there an easy way round it being open source.

 

[PTeppic]

If you'd said Vodafone, I'd have said Google for: Betavine Vodafone mobile

Not sure about 3 though. Sorry.

 

[The Ace]

I thought it wouldn't be a problem down there.

In Perth, those things simply don't work but the shops sell them all the same.

 

[Vladd67]

My wife has some experience of Linux and she suggests trying fedora forums as Limpus is a derivative of Fedora

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, tried Vodaphone one as well same thing.

 

[chopper]

i had the same problem with the same machine. took about 3 weeks to find the answer and i'm afraid i've lost the instructions, but my vodafone dongle (PAYG 1GB) does now work, albeit with some faffing about. let me see if i can find the pages & software that helped & i'll post again later....

ps - just seen PTeppic's reply - that's the software alright, you just need to install it.

more soon-ish.

 

[chopper]

okay, here's the links you need. the first one is the blog post that gives you instructions on how to download and install the driver software (you may need to download from a desktop pc and transfer it via a USB stick if you can't connect with the acer at home). the second link is the official vodafone forums which may be able to help. the third is the actual Acer forums (i haven't been on there in months, actually).

i don't know if any of the other providers have done the same kind of thing to help non-windows customers, but at least Vodafone have made some kind of effort.

BOOK OF THE FUTURE: Acer Aspire One and Vodafone Mobile Broadband
Acer (aspire One) - Vodafone Dongle Problem Installing? - Vodafone eForum
AspireOneUser.com - Acer Aspire One Resource Forum & Blog

ps: i like the Aspire, even in the linux version. it may mean that i can't download many games, because my knowledge of linux is near non-existant, but that was the point of going with linux in the first place - decent word processing & internet on the move, with no distractions from Football Manager!

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Thanks Chopper, I just wanted something small and portable which has my book database on it at conventions in the dealers room and to use it when I travel up home,and the aspire did get good reviews.

Thought I would try linux as it boots up quick and SSD is more robust to knocks than the hard disk versions as well as not needing at the moment any firewall or anti-virus although I have Avg for linux ready to install if needed.

 

[PTeppic]

It might also matter which dongle it is. As implied, I've spent a while fighting to get a Vodafone one working with my Eeepc, and it took a combination of two things. One was the Vodafone software port from Betavine as above, although this isn't mandatory on Eeepc if one knows the modem strings.

The other was due to the type of dongle: some models come with a mini memory stick built in, which is often used to pre-install the software onto windows/Mac models. This gets read as a USB stick by the Linux, rather than seeing the device as a dongle. It needs a package such as usbswitch to let the Linux see the device as a dongle.

I eventually found this, which might help:
Huawei E169G - the easy way | greenhughes.com