hi,

yesterday i stumbled over
libicd-network-usb
which seems to be the perfect solution to another one of nokia's blunders.

but, whenever i try to use that, i only get

"Internet connection failed. Unable to retrieve IP address from server. Try again?"

looks like it tries to retrieve a dhcp lease -- which imo makes no sense. who sets up a dhcp server just to connect his n900 via usb?

instead in /etc/network/interfaces i have

auto usb0
iface usb0 inet static
address 192.168.2.15
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.2.14

which works perfectly well and brings up usb0 with ip and stuff when pluging in usb and switching to PC Suite mode.
but the moment i try to connect via the "usb network" from libicd-network-usb, ip gets lost and above printed error appears.

what am i doing wrong?

and btw: how do i cleanly uninstall that thing again? after installation i had to issue three gconf commands

gconftool-2 -s -t string /system/osso/connectivity/IAP/USB/type USB
gconftool-2 -s -t string /system/osso/connectivity/IAP/USB/name 'USB Network'
gconftool-2 -s -t boolean /system/osso/connectivity/IAP/USB/autoconnect true

and since gconf is gnome's "We're worse than Windows' Registry!" attempt, i don't really know if and how i have to revert these commands ...

You should find your connection in Settings->Network connections, there you should disable DHCP and add your own settings; remove the configuration from /etc/network/interfaces, it's not used by ICD2.

ah, thanks, that helped already a few steps further.

connection appears as WLAN infrastructure -- has to be set to Ad-Hoc to appear in networks list.
yet, when connecting to that network, routing via my computer (the one the n900 is connected to via usb) doesn't work anymore.

values set here:
address 192.168.2.15
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.2.14

to be clear: routing, dns and so on work when connecting the old way (but only in a terminal).
the moment i connect to the new "USB network", it stops.
i run a ping to an external ip address, that works -- then i hit "connect" and after a moment (when the connection icon stops blinking), the ping stops, too.

apparently i still miss something here.

EDIT:
and here's another one -- when i remove the stanza from /etc/network/interfaces, usb0 _never_ comes up! the configured "USB Network" brings instead the wlan device up -- which doesn't help ...
why is thinks icd2 (or whatever manages those connections), it si a WLAN connection?
the gconf command clearly states "USB":

gconftool-2 -s -t string /system/osso/connectivity/IAP/USB/type USB

switched to libicd-network-null (though, in hindsight it wouldn't probably have made any difference) and spent some more time to substitute non-existent documentation.
finally came up with the following, which seems to work -- except "autoconnect", simply plugging in or unplugging the USB cable does _not_ trigger connect and disconnect respectively

(not sure, if the last line is necessary)
check with

returns:
(if N*** hasn't been that ignorant, all this hassle would have been unnecessary, but so would probably be most of this forum ...).