Here is a script, pilot-xfer-bt, that will HotSync your Palm over Bluetooth on Linux. I use a Treo 700p here, but this will probably work with other Palms with Bluetooth.

First, make sure your host computer and Palm are paired. Then make sure your copy of rfcomm is at least version 3.23 or later by running ‘rfcomm –help’. As of the writing of this post, very few machines are using this rev, since it is recent. If yours is older, either try updating your bluez-utils package, or download, compile, and install the latest bluez-utils source. All you need is the ‘rfcomm’ binary.

Then edit that pilot-xfer-bt script and make sure that its internal path to rfcomm points to the install directory. /usr/local/bin/rfcomm is probably what you want if you installed from source.

Anyway, to use: pilot-xfer-bt passes its args to pilot-xfer. So in other words, to sync your Palm to a repository located in /home/username/palm, run ’sudo ./pilot-xfer-bt -s /home/username/palm’.

Getting this thing working a few months ago was a bear. There was this nasty timing-dependent bug in rfcomm vs. udev. That took days to puzzle through. At least it’s been fixed upstream.  Anyway, I now know why they call these tools “bluez”

Filed under: code code | 2 Comments
Tagged: bluetooth , hotsync , linux , palm , treo

Perhaps you are the owner of a Treo phone (or really just any Bluetooth phone) and wish to use it as a Bluetooth “modem” with your Linux box with EVDO or EDGE or HSDPA or whatever.

Maybe you have spent hours trying to get the devices to connect, only to see a weird “Bluetooth connection starting…” message on your Treo, but nothing else happens. (Caused by connecting to the OBEX RFCOMM channel, not the DUN RFCOMM channel.)

Or maybe you have spent hours trying to figure out why your Treo complains “ERROR” “ERROR” “ERROR” to your Linux box when you send it an AT command. (Caused by connecting to the headset audio RFCOMM channel, not the DUN RFCOMM channel.)

Or maybe you haven’t yet wasted any moments of your rapidly dwindling life on this crap at all and Just Want Things To Work and Don’t Understand Why They Don’t.

If any of this sounds familar, maybe this script, start-bt-modem, may help.

You will need to save it to your local disk, and edit it to replace the “aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff” with your phone’s Bluetooth address. To find this, go to your Treo’s Bluetooth application, and change the “Visible” dropdown to “Temporary.” Then on your Linux box, run “hcitool -i hci0 scan” - your phone’s Bluetooth address should appear.

You also need to already have paired your phone with your computer before running the script. To do this, I suggest making your computer discoverable and doing the scan from your Treo, rather than the other way around. Probably the easiest way on your Linux box is to use the GUI tools for this. Look for a weird-looking B in a dark blue oval on your menu bar (aka panel). If it isn’t there, you can try running ‘bluetooth-applet’ from a terminal. (This is part of the bluez-gnome 0.8 package on my machine). Right-click on the panel Bluetooth icon, choose “Preferences”, select “Visible and connectable for other devices”, and click “Close.” Then you will need to go to the Bluetooth application on your Treo, click “Setup Devices”, click “Trusted Devices”, click “Add Device”, click on your computer’s name, and click “Okay”. You’ll go through the pairing process - your Treo will display a number - make sure you enter the same number on your Linux box when the dialog box pops up. Then you should be set.

Finally, you will need to run the script as root - for example, ’sudo sh ./start-bt-modem’. If all goes well, you should see some IP addresses appear after about 30 seconds.

I guess if you don’t use Verizon, you might also have to edit that “#777″ that appears at the bottom of the script.

Filed under: code code, gadgets | 0 Comments
Tagged: bluetooth , dun , linux , pppd , treo