So I grabbed my old sony w810i, plugged it into my linux box (via usb) and was able to talk to it. Unfortunately, what I did not realize, is that the pinout on the phone used in the first post is different than my w810i (even though the grey cable he put in the diagram is the same as mine, the real cable is different).

Though they should have written somewhere in a more visible place that holding C button makes phone hardware switch into a different mode designed for flashing and thus (since it behaves like a completely different device to Windows) requires a separate driver install. Not a problem for me, minor inconvenience at most, but could be surprising for some.

Sony Ericsson W810i Usb Flash Driver Download [TOP]