Testing your laptop to smart phone / Nokia GPRS bluetooth connections - preparing your configuration, finding and solving errors

Keep in mind that all BT device HW-addresses used in below examples are my own device' address. You find your own HW address and replace accordingly. All these shell command lines have been tested with openSuSE Linux 10.2 and my Nokia N95 smart phone BT device. Most likely these commands give comparable results with all Nokia smart phones and may be with all other smart phones as well. Some of these command lines may as well also be used for OTHER bluetooth devices than smart phones!

In below shell command lines, the command is in ITALIC - the following lines are typical correct results from a successful command line query!

Tests you make while smart phone BT device is disconnected are:

• sdptool search --bdaddr 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 DUN | grep Channel
  Channel: 2
• sdptool browse 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 | grep -A 11 "^Service Name: Dial-Up Networking"

Tests you make while smart phone Bluetooth device is connected

• rfcomm show 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66
  rfcomm0: 00:19:7E:EA:90:52 -> 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 channel 2 connected [reuse-dlc release-on-hup tty-attached]
• hcitool con
  Connections:
  < ACL 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 handle 11 state 1 lm MASTER ENCRYPT ( this is the secure channel to my Nokia N95 smart phone )
  > ACL 00:10:C6:89:23:BB handle 12 state 1 lm MASTER ( this is my Acer Ferrari 5000 Bluetooth mouse )

Tests you can make while your Nokia smart phone BT device is connected OR disconnected

• sdptool browse 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66
  Browsing 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 ...
  Service Name: AVRCP Target
  Service Description: Audio Video Remote Control
  Service Provider: Symbian Software Ltd.
  Service RecHandle: 0x10000
  Service Class ID List:
  ...
  Here follows a long list of all Service / channels of your BT device. The results are self explaining and show you what channel is used for what service, i.e. services = Dialup Networking (DUN), Nokia SyncML Server, SyncML DM Client, Nokia OBEX PC Suite Services, OBEX File Transfer, SyncMLClient, Imaging, Headset Audio Gateway, OBEX Object Push, Hands-Free Audio Gateway, Audio Source, AVRCP Target.

Bluetooth ping

A bluetooth ping can be done connected or disconnected. The command is simple and the result looks like a regular ping:

l2ping 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 Ping: 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 from 00:19:7E:EA:90:52 (data size 44) ...
0 bytes from 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 id 0 time 163.80ms
0 bytes from 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 id 1 time 13.03ms

Other shell commands typically used or useful at some time of your laptop BT to GPRS configuration and testing

Adapt HW addr, channel number and IP to your needs !!

• rcbluetooth status
• rcbluetooth restart
• mknod --mode 666 /dev/rfcomm0 c 216 0
• rfcomm bind 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66
• rfcomm release 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66
• ifconfig
• ifconfig wifi0 down
• ifconfig eth0 down
• route add default gw 10.6.6.6 ( adapt GW IP according to your ppp remote IP address )
• rfcomm connect /dev/rfcomm0 00:1E:3A:7A:AE:66 2

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.

God bless

hans