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This is just "HOW TO" access files on a Blackberry Playbook with your Mageia box or laptop through Wi-Fi.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Blackberry Playbook, it is run on Blackberry's own OS (QNX). Blackberry also supports the Playbook platform with its own "Blackberry Desktop Manager" for Windows and Mac, there is no Linux support.

Here is how to access your Playbook files on Mageia:

On your Playbook

  • go to the General settings page (you do this by swiping down with your finger from top to bottom of the screen)
  • in the left-panel: choose "Storage and Sharing"
  • in the right-panel: change USB Connections->Connect to Windows
  • in the right-panel: scroll down to "File Sharing" and turn to "ON"
  • a warning message will pop up, read it and then click "OK"
  • in the right-panel: scroll down to "Wi-Fi Sharing" and turn to "ON"
  • a warning message will pop up, read it and then click "OK"
  • in the left-panel: choose "About"
  • in the right-panel: change "View information about your tablet" to "Network"
  • make note of your IPv4 address

You are now ready to access your Playbook from your Mageia browser through a samba share/transfer.

In Mageia

  • start your browser (TIP: I find that Firefox is horrible at doing samba shares, I suggest you use Konqueror, although, I am sure others compatible browsers able to do samba will work just as well)
  • in the URL window, type in smb://
  • type in your Playbook IPv4 address

Congrats! your are now able to see your folders in your Playbook over your Wi-Fi network.


Note:
When you are done REMEMBER TO turn your sharing back to the OFF position:
  • go to the General settings page (you do this by swiping down with your finger from top to bottom of the screen)
  • in the right-panel: scroll down to "File Sharing" and turn to "OFF"
  • your Playbook is now secure again
Note:
You will not be able to access the Blackberry root file folder hierarchy. Therefor, if you have installed any software that does not follow the rules with where to store its user files, you will not be able to access those either. The only files you are able to see/surf are the Playbook user files.


I hope this will help those of you who own Playbooks. They are quite cheap, and, very sturdy. There are quite a few apps in the official "Blackberry World" app store and there are some "unofficial stores" where you can download conversions of Android apps.

Marc Paré