PHP SSH2 Source RPMS for CentOS/RedHat

You might have heard of ssh2 pecl bindings for php. Unfortunately, the “stable” version fails to compile for php 5.2.x.

I am providing source rpms for CentOS/RedHat which fixes this problem.  Please take note I’m using a free file hosting service to host this source rpm.  If you know of anything better than this, please tell me.

CentOS/RedHat php-pecl-ssh source rpms

There’s a useful link below that should help you get started with php ssh2:

Make ssh connections with php

How to connect to SmartBro Prepaid (KS) in Ubuntu Intrepid

SmartBro Prepaid is a mobile broadband solution which consists of a HSDPA capable modem and prepaid sim card.  There are two type of these modems available, I am going to talk about the second, newer modem (the smaller black usb dongle), as the first one already has howtos available in the internet.  For the curious – this dongle is called the Longcheer, and is based on the Alcatel OT-X020 modem chipset.

Although this writeup is based on setting it up on Ubuntu Intrepid, the following steps should be applicable to other distributions as well.  You may want to improve on these steps by placing these commands on a bash script, but what I’m giving you is the staightforward way of doing it.

Here are the steps:

Download the usb_modeswitch binaries and the latest usb_modeswitch.conf file here:

http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/#download

Extract the usb_modeswitch binary and place it in a place like /usr/sbin.  usb_modeswitch.conf goes to the /etc folder. Comment out the lines which has the headers Alcatel OT-X020.  You have to disable the other modem enabled on this config file, or usb_modeswitch won’t work.

Edit your wvdial.conf file (located in /etc) to look like this (As a bonus, I added a default dialer section for your nokia cellphone – I have a Nokia E61i to connect to the smart internet network):

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
Modem Type = USB Modem
ISDN = 0
Phone = *99#
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
New PPPD = yes
Baud = 460800
Idle Seconds = 3000
Auto DNS = 1
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Ask Password = 0
FlowControl = NOFLOW

[Dialer smartbro]
Init1 = ATZ
#Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init2 = ATE1
#Init2 = ATE0V1&D2&C1S0=0
#Init3 = at_opsys=0
#Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","smartbro","",0,0
Modem Type = USB Modem
ISDN = 0
Phone = *99#
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
New PPPD = yes
Baud = 912600
Idle Seconds = 3000
Auto DNS = 1
Stupid Mode = 1
Compuserve = 0
Dial Command = ATD
Ask Password = 0
FlowControl = NOFLOW

Write down this code and save it as initmodem.sh and place it in /usr/sbin:

#!/bin/sh
modprobe usbserial vendor=0×1c9e product=0×6061 && usb_modeswitch
sleep 3

Plug in your SmartBro USB dongle and run:
# sudo /usr/sbin/initmodem

To connect to the internet, just type in:
# sudo wvdial smartbro

and to disconnect, just press CTRL+C, or kill the pppd process

I think this should work also with SmartBro 1500 as well.  Enjoy your smartbro connection!

OSTalks arrives!

Hello World!

This would be my first blog post about Open Source and Tech stuff.  This would also be my personal blog site as well (I’ll try to be figuring out how to categorize these writeups in this blogging site, so please be patient with me )

Funny thing how this came about.  I’ve been wanting to do this for years, but haven’t gotten to it until now. In the past I’ve written articles for wine-reviews like playforlinux, and some other stuff for a friend of mine Tom Wickline, and helped out on a few open source projects like aLinux and pnutproject (even was a wine applications maintainer).

To make the long story short, I landed a job in a small tech company, and got sooo busy, that I had hardly time to tinker around like I used to… until now

So here I am, running Ubuntu 8.10 on my Neo Vivid 1100 (installed through Wubi) on a SmartBro Prepaid Account (coz my internet got messed up).

Anyways, that that.  I’ll be writing stuff for the next few days when I’m not that busy – starting with how to connect to smartbro prepaid – probably