Ubuntu Wiki

Introduction

• [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth Bluetooth] is finally emerging as a robust and widely supported local area communications technology for short-distance wireless data transfer. Bluetooth is being used for communications with cellphones, cameras, headsets and microphones, keyboards, mice, PDA's and storage devices.

  See also BluetoothRemoteControl on Ubuntu.

Devices

• Most of the newer laptops come with Bluetooth support built right in. If you are using a desktop or do not have bluetooth support built in, you can use a USB Bluetooth dongle to get bluetooth support.

  A list of Bluetooth devices supported under Linux is listed [http://www.holtmann.org/linux/bluetooth/features.html here]. If your device has an HCI version listed, it should work under Linux.

Installation and Configuration

• Open up a terminal window, and install the requisite packages and their dependencies:

    sudo apt-get install bluez-utils

  Then, connect your Bluetooth device if you are using one. Restart the Bluetooth services by doing:

    sudo /etc/init.d/bluez-utils restart

  Verify that your bluetooth device has been detected, and the appropriate modules loaded by viewing the lsusb (in case of usb device) output. lsusb output:

    Device 005: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

  Also, view the output of the command hcitool dev which will give you a listing of bluetooth devices on your computer.

attachment:IconsPage/IconExample48.png

• hcitool output:

    Devices:
          hci0    00:11:95:00:1A:CF

Your bluetooth device will have a different id.

• If you get all zeros, then try restarting the bluez-utils service and try again.

Setup Devices

Find Device Addresses

• To connect to a Bluetooth device, you will need to find the address of the device. Make the device discoverable (look for a "Connect" button on many keyboards and mice or look in the device's manual) and then search for the device with this command:

    sudo hidd --search

  Each device should have its own address in a aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff format.

Connect Devices for Current Session Only

• To temporarily connect to a device, use this command where 'aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff' is the address of the device you want to connect to:

    sudo hidd --connect aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

  Your device should now be connected for the current session.

If you get a "Can't create HID control channel: Connection refused" error message, most likely the discovery period for the device timed out. Make the device discoverable and enter the above command again, but more quickly.

Connect Devices at Startup

• To connect the device at startup every time, use the following commands to edit the configuration file:

    sudo cp /etc/default/bluez-utils /etc/default/bluez-utils_backup
    sudo nano /etc/default/bluez-utils

  Look for the following line:

    HIDD_ENABLED=0

  Change it to:

    HIDD_ENABLED=1

  Next, look in the same file for a line similar to:

    HIDD_OPTIONS="--master --server"

You can leave the "--master" command or remove it, depending on the device. If you have problems with "--master", try removing it or vice versa.

• Add additional "--connect" arguments for each device that you want connected at startup so that it looks like this:

    HIDD_OPTIONS="--connect aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff --connect aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff --connect aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff --server"

  Save the file. Finally, add HIDP to /etc/modules:

    echo hidp | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

  Your Bluetooth devices should now be connected at startup.

Connect devices automatically OR initiate connection from device when in range

• Note: This is related to using your bluetooth enabled phones as modems. This interferes with gnome-phone-manager and BluetoothRemoteControl functionality. BRBR Setup rfcomm:-

  There is a good HOWTO at http://www.geocities.com/saravkrish/progs/bluemote/bluetooth.html BRBR Edit bluez-utils script

    sudo vi /etc/init.d/bluez-utils

  At the end of 'start' block add 'rfcomm bind all'

    case "$1" in 
      start)
      ..
      ..
      ..
      log_end_msg 0
      rfcomm bind all     #Added for auto connect
      ;;

  At the end of 'stop' block add 'rfcomm release all'

      stop)
      ..
      ..
      ..
      log_end_msg 0
      rfcomm release all     #Added for auto connect
      ;;

  Save the file and restart bluetooth services.

    sudo /etc/init.d/bluez-utils restart

CategoryDocumentation CategoryNetworking