Your phone, bluetooth, the internet and Linux

Copyright © mazzanet 2005

This small how-to will allow your phone to connect to the internet via Bluetooth and a Linux box and send/receive files between your phone and your PC. A number of packages and scripts will need to be installed and configured.
It will assume you're using a USB Bluetooth dongle (though a PCI card might work following the same method - but not using hcid) and have Bluetooth support compiled into your kernel, you will need to have these option in your kernel config:

CONFIG_BLUEZ=m
CONFIG_BLUEZ_L2CAP=m
CONFIG_BLUEZ_SCO=m
CONFIG_BLUEZ_RFCOMM=m
CONFIG_BLUEZ_RFCOMM_TTY=y
CONFIG_BLUEZ_BNEP=m
CONDIF_BLUEZ_HCIUSB=m

You'll also need the following entries in /etc/modules.conf:

alias net-pf-31 bluez
alias bt-proto-0 l2cap
alias bt-proto-1 sco
alias bt-proto-2 rfcomm

1) You will need the following files (the versions listed have been tested and work, latest versions might not...):

bluez-firmware-1.0.tar.gz
bluez-libs-2.12.tar.gz
bluez-utils-2.12.tar.gz
openobex-1.0.1.tar.gz
openobex-apps-1.0.0.tar.gz

The standard ./configure && make && make install should do fine.

2) BlueZ stores all its configuration files in /etc/bluetooth/ by default. You will need to edit hcid.conf, rfcomm.conf and pin. Below are my tested working files.

hcid.conf:

  options {
        autoinit yes;
        security user;
        pairing multi;
        pin_helper /etc/bluetooth/pin;
  }

  device {
        name "%h"; # Local device name: %d - device id,  %h - host name.
        class 0x100;
        iscan enable; pscan enable;
        lm accept;
        lp hold,sniff,park;
  }

rfcomm.conf:

  rfcomm0 {
        bind no;
        device 00:00:00:00:00:00; # Change this to your phones MAC address (To find this out, see step 4)
        channel 3;
        comment "Linux bluetooth connection";
  }

pin:

  #!/bin/sh
  echo "PIN:1234"

Make sure you chmod this file as 755 (well as long as it's executable).

3) Next, create the RFCOMM devices:

  mknod -m 660 /dev/rfcomm0 c 216 0
  mknod -m 660 /dev/rfcomm1 c 216 0
  mknod -m 660 /dev/rfcomm2 c 216 0
  mknod -m 660 /dev/rfcomm3 c 216 0
  mknod -m 660 /dev/rfcomm4 c 216 0

4) Now create an appropriate rc script (path depends on your OS, on Slackware: /etc/rc.d/rc.mobile)

  #!/bin/sh
  
  PHONE_MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00 # Phones MAC address
  EXT_IF=eth0                 # Your externl interface (to the net)
  INT_NET=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/24  # Your internal subnet (eg. 192.168.1.0/24)
  MY_IP=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx       # This PCs internal IP address (eg. 192.168.1.1)
  PHONE_IP=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx    # The IP you want to give your phone (eg. 192.168.1.10)
  DNS_SERVER=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  # Your ISPs DNS server
  
  ANY=0.0.0.0/0
  IPTABLES=/usr/sbin/iptables
  MODPROBE=/sbin/modprobe
  
  /usr/sbin/hcid
  hciconfig hci0 up
  /usr/sbin/sdpd
  rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm1 $PHONE_MAC 10
  rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm2 $PHONE_MAC 3
  dund --nodetach --listen --channel 3 --msdun 30 noauth $MY_IP:$PHONE_IP crtscts 115200 ms-dns $DNS_SERVER lock &
  sdptool add --channel=3 SP
  sdptool add --channel=10 OPUSH

  $MODPROBE ip_tables
  $MODPROBE iptable_filter
  $MODPROBE ip_nat_ftp
  $MODPROBE ip_conntrack
  $MODPROBE ip_conntrack_ftp
  echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
  $IPTABLES -t nat -F
  $IPTABLES -t mangle -F
  $IPTABLES -A FORWARD -i $EXT_IF -o ppp0 -s $ANY -d $INT_NET -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
  $IPTABLES -A FORWARD -i ppp0 -d $ANY -j ACCEPT
  $IPTABLES -A POSTROUTING -t nat -o $EXT_IF -j MASQUERADE

To find your phones MAC address, run:

  /usr/sbin/hcid
  hciconfig hci0 up
  hcitool scan

Don't forget to give it the right permissions :) Also change ppp0 to ppp1 if you're on dialup.

5) Run the rc script and on your phone, go through the appropriate menu options to pair a new Bluetooth device.
(on a Nokia 6660: Connectivity->Bluetooth->Paired-Devices->New Paired Device)
When asked for a PIN, enter 1234 (see /etc/bluetooth/pin).
Next, run:

l2ping [Phones MAC address]

If you get a response, well done :)

6) Next we'll do some setting up on your phone.
Download and install gnubox, locally mirrored here or here for Nokia 6600.

Now create a new connection (Tools->Settings->Access points->New access point->Use default settings)

Name: Bt (name is important, case-sensitive)
Data bearer: GSM data
Dial-up number: 2222 (number doesn't mattter as long as it's not blank)
Username: None
Prompt password: No
Password: None
Authentication: Normal
Homepage: None
Data call type: Analogue
Maximum data speed automatic: Automatic

Now run gnubox, go Options->2box Direct->Bluetooth and select your PC.
The output should look like:

  Bluetooth settings...
  DialOutISP
   Description: Direct 2box
   DefaultTelNum:
  ModemBearer
   PortName: BTCOMM::0
   CSYName: BTCOMM
   TSYName: PHONETSY

7) Now load up a webbrowser ([shamless plug for Opera]), select your new access point and pray :)

8) Assuming everything is all working, onto file sending/receiving. Hopefully you haven't removed the openobex-apps source tree yet...
Download obexserver.c and compile it in openobex-apps-1.0.0./src:

  cc -o obexserver obexserver.c libmisc.a -lopenobex
  cp obexserver /usr/local/bin

Download ussp-push, compile and install.
Below are some wrapper scripts for obexserver and ussp-push, put them in /usr/local/bin/ and
give them the right permissions.

obexsend:

  #!/bin/sh

  if [ -z "$1" ]
  then
   echo "usage:  obexsend "
   exit
  fi

  tosave=`echo $1 | awk -F '/' '{print $NF}'`
  echo "Saving to phone as: $tosave"
  ussp-push /dev/rfcomm1 $1 $tosave

obexrecv:

  #!/bin/sh
  
  while [ true ]
  do
   obexserver
  done

To send a file to your phone, run `obexsend ` and to receive files, run `obexrecv` (obexserver sits and waits for a connection from the phone, stores the sent file in /tmp and exits).

9) All done! Have fun and if you have any comments or queries, email me: mazzanet@mazzanet.id.au