Can't connect RFCOMM socket: Resource temporarily unavailable - a simple howto fix

If your attempt to connect laptop via bluetooth to your smart phone ( Nokia N95 or other ) results the error:

rfcomm connect /dev/rfcomm0 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 2
Can't connect RFCOMM socket: Resource temporarily unavailable

Then you are attempting to connect on the wrong channel!

To find the channel, you need to know first your HW address of your remote bluetooth device:

hcitool scan

Will show you an output similar to below - with your own HW address of the remote BT device:

hcitool scan

Above on the left you see your HW address and on the right the name of the BT device

If ever you want to know your local ( laptop ) BT hw address, here below the command line:

hcitool dev

Devices
hci0    00:19:7E:EA:90:52

If you need more info about your remote BT device

bohcitool inq

OR much more details about your remote Bluetooth device in your smart phone - here my Nokia N95:

hcitool info 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66

Now that we know our remote Bluetooth device hardware address, we find our DUN - Dial Up Network - channel as below:

sdptool search --bdaddr 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 DUN | grep Channel
Channel: 2

now we connect to the correct channel using below command line:

rfcomm connect /dev/rfcomm0 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 2

Warning - your channel may change if you change your smart phone configuration !!

If you ADD new mobile phone configuration profiles or DELETE old / unused profiles, then the channel number may change. I had exactly this situation after deleting some unused multiple profiles. Even worst, after rebooting my N95 the channel changed one more times.

Hence If ever you have a doubt or get the error: "Can't connect RFCOMM socket: Resource temporarily unavailable" when attempting your "rfcomm connect ........." check your channel number again.

A simple but correct rfcomm.conf file would look as below or in this rfcomm.conf file:

rfcomm0 {

# Automatically bind the device at startup
bind yes;

# Bluetooth address of the device
device 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66;

# RFCOMM channel for the connection
channel 2;

# Description of the connection
comment "a comment";

}

After connect - password asked on N95n BT device - then you may still get errors unless you have done all correctly:

Can't connect RFCOMM socket: Resource temporarily unavailable

= you are using wrong init strings in your wvdial.conf ! Correct accordingly and all should work fine.

God bless

hans

For more help on other Nokia N95 smartphone / bluetooth modem connection problems, please have a look at all my other articles to solve all possible errors and problems.