So I did some further investigation tonight into getting my Nokia 6300 working under Ubuntu, with very positive results. What I tracked down was a program called Gnokii. It is a project to provide connectivity to Nokia phones that has been going since at least 2001, so they’ve got quite a bit of collective experience. And it has got me started.
First of all, I installed the software. It was available as a program to install, but I went with the trusty:
sudo apt-get install gnokii
Next I had to configure the connection. The documentation on the site is a little dusty, and does deal with a lot of different options depending on the phone, so I’m going to concentrate on my model, the 6300. First connect the phone using the usb cable, and select the Nokia mode on the phone when asked. You then need to edit the config file by hand (I tried setting it within the program itself, but it wouldn’t allow me):
sudo cp /etc/gnokiirc /etc/gnokiirc.OLD
sudo vi /etc/gnokiirc
And you will get a very well commented config file. If you are using a different phone, or connecting through another means such as Bluetooth, have a read through the file, there are good pointers for the changes you need to make. For the Nokia 6630, delete the contents (you’ve already backed it up) and use the following:
[global]
port = /dev/ttyACM0
model = AT
initlength = default
connection = serial
use_locking = yes
serial_baudrate = 19200
smsc_timeout = 10
[gnokiid]
bindir = /usr/sbin/
[connect_script]
TELEPHONE = 12345678
[disconnect_script]
[logging]
debug = off
rlpdebug = off
xdebug = off
and save the file. You may well prefer to comment out the port and model in the existing file, and then just uncomment the two lines I’ve set at the start of this file.
Now to test the connection:
sudo gnokii --identify
If this has worked, it will show a small amount of information about the phone, the make, model, EMEI number and revision number. If you’ve got this, you’re ready to go. If not, check the config file, or look up on the Gnokii site for further help.
You can know run Gnokii from the applications menu (it should be under utilities). You will be able to view and edit basic details about your contacts, back them up, and send SMS from the computer via the phone. There is also an option for Calendar entries, but I can’t get this working yet. It may be down to me using the model = AT option, which I think is more limited in what it can do. I’ll certainly keep investigating to see if I can solve it.
hello
thank you very much for your how to. but unfortunatelly i’m running suse linux 10.2. i followed your your steps. but nevertheless i’m not able to sync or mount my nokia 6300 with my laptop.
cheers
marc
I’ve also got the 6300 working using both gnokii and wammu under Fedora Core 6, again using the AT command interface over USB.
Unfortunately, the AT interface is a bit limited - I haven’t yet managed to get at the calendar, the TODO list, or at anything but the main number for any contact in the phone’s memory. Looking at Nokia’s docs, this seems to be a limitation of their AT interface rather than of gnokii or wammu.
I’d love to hear of anyone who’s managed to get further
Cheers ……………………. JD
OK, so I went a step further, and wrote a Java program that backs up the data in the phone (contacts, calendar and TODO list) to the memory card. From there, you can copy the backup file somewhere else for safekeeping. The backup file uses the vCard and vCalendar (text) formats for the data. This should probably work for other similar phones - the requirements are MIDP 2.0, and the JSR 75 API for access to the data and the memory card.
See http://users.tpg.com.au/johnd/nokia-backup.html for links to the program (binary and source), instructions, and information on the file format. I’ve released it under the LGPL, so you can play with it to your heart’s content.
I’d be keen to hear (captsens at gmail dot com) if it proves useful, or you have any problems.
Cheers …………………………… JD
Cheers John, I’ll try and have a go at that this week.
Hello,
Mercy of Allah.
Thank you. It works nicely. I set up gnokii as above and used xgnokii (GUI of gnokii) and sent SMS
Cool! Got my Nokia 6300 this morning, and your instructions are the first I have found that work first time without problems. Thanks matey!
thanks for the HOW-TO. any support for ericsson phones?
Hi meno, you won’t find any support for Ericsson phones with Gnokii, as obviously it is aimed at the Nokia phones, but when I get back from my present travels I will have a look into what is available for connecting other manufacturers to an Ubuntu install, and write about that for you and others.
Installing the gnokii Ubuntu package also installs xgnokii, which you can invoke from the Gnome menu. It worjs very well for retrieving phone numbers from your cellphone. However, I could not write new phone numbers to the cellphone, I get errors such as “xgnokii_contacts.c: line 2351: Can’t write ME memory entry number 3! Error: 20″ or even “*** stack smashing detected ***: xgnokii terminated Aborted (core dumped)”
Anyway, thanks for useful steps !
Nicolas.
I am having the issue of having my phone promping me for ” enter passcode”.In windoze Nokia pc suite its 123.
Can someone gime a hand? I am using CentOs5 x86_64.
Thanks in advance,
Mart
Thank you very much for this; it helped me sync my contacts from my Nokia 6300 in no time, and thus eliminated the need to worry about losing them all! The tutorial was nice and simple, and worked perfectly first time. Ten out of ten!
All we need now is an option to sync with Evolution!
i would like to get access to the net through the phone, any suggestions?
thanks
Hi Michael, there is an inbuilt web browser on the 6300, however I would recommend using Opera Mini. It’s a free download, and works pretty well. I used it all the time I had the 6300.
Thanks for the walkthrough. DO you have something similar on getting Ubuntu done on sony ericsson phones
Hi Rob
Glad you found that useful. I don’t have any experience of syncing sony phones yet, but I found a few links here.
Hi Rob
Glad you found that useful. I don’t have any experience of syncing nokia phones yet, but I found a link http://www.exehome.com
Yes it works except for retrieving sms’s which is what i needed.
I have a nokia 6300 and on the commanline:
gnokii –getsms ME 1 2 gives:
GetSMS ME 1 failed! (Invalid type of memory.)
so I tried:
gnokii –getsms IN 1 2
which gives:
Received message type 14
Message: Unknown message of type 14 : f0 length: 10
UNHANDLED FRAME RECEIVED
request: 0×14 / 0×0006
Anyone have this working ?
Thanks for the info, operamini is a lot better than the default browser. I know that the Nokia 6300 is old but it is still a dam good phone my wife got one last year, I have just got mine free for a year so well happy.
Hi Andy.
I prefer the paid version Opera Mobile even more myself, worth a look at the demo to see what you think. After using the two, I didn’t mind paying out for the full version. I was happy with my 6300 as a phone, but I certainly am happier with my N95 now.
Thank you very much for this tutorial.
I’ve been trying to get my “Falcom Samba 75″ modem to work.
I had almost lost hope, but then I found your site and followed your instructions. I only changed the baudrate and phoneno. and it just worked.
Thank you again, people like you make this world a nicer place.
Hi, guys!
Has anyone gotten SMS retrieval working?
That small bit of functionality is driving me crazy!
Thanks for replies,
need codes to unblock phone too use as modem with my pc anyone help much apprecieted