i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

So, if I have a gui-based dialog for tethering the blackberry via bluetooth, why can't I have one for tethering via USB cable?

...

Given enough time-wasting and useless research, it is possible:

#!/bin/bash
# launch startup
#
pppd call barry-verizon &
kdialog --title "stop Blackberry Modem" --error "Click to stop modem"
kill -INT $(pidof pppd)
exit 0


Now, we make a desktop icon to launch this thing, run it as "other user" [root] and what we get is the launch of the "barry" connection; and a kdialog button to shut it down when we are finished. What we don't get is a konsole screen with all of the feedback from "pppd call barry-verizon", but most of the time I don't want to see that anyway. Only when something goes wrong, in which case I can run it from an su konsole window, right? And, with a "shutdown" button, we are less likely to disconnect leaving pppd/pppob running. Yay!

Now back to regularly scheduled activities, which have nothing to do with computer scripts ...