in linux when i plug in my blackberry (just to charge) the blackerry says that it is not getting enough current to charge. is there any way to get this working? just to charge the device. thanks

USB can handle current of up to 500 mA which should be enough to charge batteries. The voltage of USB is 5 volts. You can get a powered USB hub and use that to charge the device. Another way is get a USB cable and connect the 5 volt supply from the computer power supply to the power supply pins on the USB cable.

BTW, this is not Linux related. It is really hardware or general related.

You would think, except on the same machine when I boot into Windows, it charges fine. Under Linux, it doesn't. I'm assuming it is a driver issue of some kind? Kind of weird.

Windows & linux are, er, different.

Probably the blackberry is asking the port "Does this port have the current / voltage I need to be charged?"
Linux is probably ignoring this request, and so answers nothing.
So the blackberry complains.
It should say "I asked if there was enough power, and there was no reply. So I hope I am charging."

You will probably find that it charges just fine, but it just won't report it: You could do some experiments to test this out and post here with your result (to date, 285 people have read this thread, so I expect they'll be interested in your answer).

HTH

I'm testing this theory now -- it's showing me the "charging" icon, but the power bar is not changing. I'll give it an hour or two then disconnect to see if it is charging and just not "reporting" it.

Update: Looks like it does charge even though it does not indicate charging on the blackberry (in fact it looks like it's going backwards). When I unplugged after a few hours it was charged.

Well, there you go: It works although it isn't saying that it is working!
Thanks for the update.

FYI, it's charging but 5 times slower than normal.
there is already a solution to this:

see also the Barry project.

I had the same message/problem, and it's bull.

If you turn off your blackberry before you plug it into
the USB it will charge normally. Watch the flashing green
charge light, then check the charge level when you power
back up.

Mark Mason
Engineering Design Team

I was wrong about the Blackberry charging current issue.

While my Curve charges quickly on my Ubuntu 8.04 Linux
laptop, it takes all day on almost every other computer
that I've tried since then, including my Ubuntu 8.10
desktop at work. Are they using the differential data
signals to get extra current? Needs more research.

Mark Mason