The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet PC + Linksys USB100M

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Originally uploaded by jnheinz

This is the device I have been talking about. It was very tricky actually getting Ethernet to work, but I believe I have saved myself a whopping $50. I won't be buying the D-Link Wireless Pocket Router anymore.

With the help of an application package called usbcontrol, it was able to finally bring the "100" light on the Linksys USB100M. I went into X-Terminal, switched to super user mode, and typed simply "ifup eth0". I was then able to ping www.yahoo.com and watch the responses.

There was a few tricky elements such as renaming default.script to udhcpc.script deeply rooted in a directory structure as well as making changes to /etc/dnsmasq.conf and /etc/network/interfaces per this article .. I am running the Diablo distribution of OS2008, so I had to use a DUMMY interface (connection) to trick every application into believing I was already connected to a WiFi point.

I did "apt-get install libicd-network-dummy" and rebooted. Now, under the "Select Connections" on the top bar -- there is an item called DUMMY. That is it. Everything now works.

What a battle -- over 6 hours invested. Fortunately, this Linksys USB100M is from a former endeavor many years ago.