quietearth [General News 09.12.06]



Here's instructions on how to install bitpim in Ubuntu. I have a lg vx9800 (lg the v) from Verizon and the phone is nice, but like most providers, it's propietary. Bitpim can get around that, whether you are using usb, serial, or bluetooth. It also works for other platforms since it's written in python. I tried version devel release 9.00 but this had some problems, but the latest, 9.07 worked fine. Unfortunately it's only available as an rpm, so first off here's the download link:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/bitpim/bitpim-0.9.07-0.i386.rpm?download

Next we need to install alien to convert the rpm to deb:
# apt-get install alien


Then convert it (this needs to be run as root) and then install the resulting deb:
# alien bitpim-0.9.07-0.i346.rpm
# dpkg -i bitpim_0.9.07-1_i386.deb

Then we need to create a symlink due to bitpim's use of libbtiff version 3:
# cd /usr/lib
# ln -s libtiff.so libtiff.so.3

We can now try to run bitpim from the command line, if you get any errors about libstdc++5 then install it as well:
# apt-get install libstdc++5

To add a menu item under Gnome, download this file and copy it into /usr/share/applications:
Menu item: bitpim.desktop

We're good to go. Under Edit->Settings, you can pick your phone type. If you need any further help getting your phone working via usb, serial, or bluetooth, it's best to search around.. Or if you are using the vx9800 via bluetooth, check out my howto:
http://www.quietearth.us/vx9800.htm

Tested under dapper.

NOTE: This is no longer valid under feisty as bitpim is in the repositories.

You might also like

Anonymous (11 years ago) Reply

Thanks for the tutorial. Just some corrections (Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake):

1) alien --to-deb bitpim-0.9.07-0.i386.rpm

2) ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4 /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

what about usb drivers? any news on them?

quietearth (10 years ago) Reply

Sorry I don't know, I'd check the latest bitpim releases..

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

i followed your steps but when i open bitpim, it says its starting and then it doesn't open. nothing happens.

quietearth (10 years ago) Reply

Try running bitpim by hand to see what errors you get, depending on your distro you might need to get a newer version, or symlink another library, etc..

Julie (10 years ago) Reply

Hi! this works great! thanks. I'm using Dapper, and the only thing I found that was different than the instructions above is that /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4 is the file to link to, not libtiff.so

Julie

forkman (10 years ago) Reply

looks like bitpim 1.0.1 is released, but I can't get it to compile for 64-bit. Any ideas? Running Ubuntu gutsy. 1.0.0 can't connect to the 9900.

quietearth (10 years ago) Reply

Unless there is some advantage over using 1.0.1 I Would just use the bitpim in the repository, it should be in gutsy, it's in feisty.

Roko (6 years ago) Reply

roko@roko:~$ sudo bitpim
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/opt/cx_Freeze-3.0.2/initscripts/ConsoleSetLibPath.py", line 30, in ?
File "src/bp.py", line 90, in ?
File "src/gui.py", line 30, in ?
File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/wx-2.6-gtk2-unicode/wx/__init__.py", line 42, in ?
File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/wx-2.6-gtk2-unicode/wx/_core.py", line 4, in ?
File "ExtensionLoader.py", line 12, in ?
ImportError: libtiff.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Leave a comment

Your Comment