BlackBerry support in Ubuntu Gutsy

To charge or backup your BlackBerry device under Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, there is a nice little GPL package named barry put together by some nice folks in Ontario. It isn't part of the Ubuntu software catalog yet, so here are some steps to get this up and running. (Note: the authors give instructions on how to build it from source – take your pick.)

First, you'll need to install an updated version of libopensync0 (0.22). Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

#opensync
deb http://opensync.gforge.punktart.de/repo/opensync-0.21/ etch main
deb-src http://opensync.gforge.punktart.de/repo/opensync-0.21/ etch main

So, go get that along with some other prerequisites:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libopensync0 libglademm-2.4-1c2a libtar

Then, download and install barry.

wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/libbarry_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146928&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/barry-util_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146873&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/barrybackup-gui_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146747&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/libbarry-dev_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146953&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/libopensync-plugin-barry_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192147004&big_mirror=0"
sudo dpkg -i libbarry_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i barry-util_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i barrybackup-gui_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i libbarry-dev_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i libopensync-plugin-barry_0.9-1_i386.deb

Note: you probably don't need the libbarry-dev package unless you plan to develop with this stuff, but I installed it anyhow. Won't hurt anything. The libopensync package should enable some sort of integration with your local copy of Evolution or Thunderbird, but I haven't tried it.

After all you can plug your BlackBerry into the USB port and it will finally charge. These packages don't put any entries in the Gnome menu system, but you can run "barrybackup" which will let you back up all data (and restore, if you want).