Motorola Razr custom Ringtones with Kubuntu 7.10

In the past I have cut MP3 files into a small clip which I would then email@tmomail.net to my mobile phone's phone number. My parents liked the idea and asked me to help them with their own custom ringtones.

Free Software to the rescue!

Using Audacity and LAME (on their home Win machine, oh well) I was able to cut and export the songs that they wanted, but we were having the hardest time emailing their phones on the Verizon network with the @vwzpix.com domain. Although we finally got it to go through, the experience made me wonder what file types and attributes were accepted. We were also limited by Verizon's 100kb attachment limit, which is very low in my opinion.

Digging into this further at home on Kubuntu, I was able to install moto4lin on myKubuntu 7.10 release:

. user-prompt# sudo apt-get install moto4lin
. user-prompt# sudo mkdir -p /dev/usb/acm
. user-prompt# sudo ln -s /dev/ttyACM0 /dev/usb/acm/0
. user-prompt# sudo moto4lin

Once I had moto4lin running (as root), I opened the Preferences and clicked [Update List]; then I clicked on the Motorola Razr line and clicked [Set as AT device] and [Set as P2K device]. (I don't know what these are, but it sets the device that I want to use, so it makes sense!)

Then I closed the Preferences and clicked on Update List and got my file list for my phone. Cool!

(1) I added two custom ring attempts to the /c/mobile/audio/ folder, and (2) I deleted the two files named "MyToneDB.db" and "TempToneDB.db" in the /a/mobile/audio/ directory (NOTE I downloaded them to my computer first -- always have a backup!). These files maintain your current ringtone, which we want to unlock to change it. NOTE2: Once I deleted this file I couldn't view or change my ringtones etc from the Ring Profile settings! Bad news! So, maybe DON'T delete these, and let me know if you have different results! NOTE3: Rebooting the phopne fixed this, and then I was able to set my ringtone to be my new MP3)

Then I disconnected the phone with the [Disconnect] button and used my phone to browse to my Audio folder and test the playback of my songs.

I had added two good-quality clips, just short of 20 seconds each. The Variable Bitrate song wouldn't play, but the Constant Bitrate would. So, that is my new ring tone, and it was a lot more reliable than trying the email method! This alone might make it worth while to put Kubuntu or Debian on my EeePC... well a lot of reasons would, I suppose.

NOTE that deleting those DB files from above ALSO removed all of my other ringtone options and alerts! I no longer get a beep when a TM (text message) comes through, for example. Luckily I saved these files to my computer first, so I may play around a bit more. NOTE3 Rebooting my phone fixed a lot of issues with this (see Note3 above)

KWin tips aren't over, so come back for more of those in the near future!

Oh, by the way, my new ringtone? its Champion from the AMAZING new Kanye West album, "Graduation."