Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances. It is using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz. It was developed by Ericsson in 1994. Today it is used mostly to connect peripherals and smartphones to your computer.

Kernel configuration

Enable these options in your kernel:

 [*] Networking support --->
      <M>   Bluetooth subsystem support --->
              [*]    Bluetooth Classic (BR/EDR) features
              <M>   RFCOMM protocol support
              [*]     RFCOMM TTY support
              <M>   BNEP protocol support
              [*]     Multicast filter support
              [*]     Protocol filter support
              <M>   CMTP protocol support
              <M>   HIDP protocol support
              [*]    Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) features
              <M> Bluetooth 6LoWPAN support
              [*]   Export Bluetooth internals in debugfs
                    Bluetooth device drivers --->
                      <M> HCI USB driver
                      <M> HCI UART driver
      <M>   RF switch subsystem support --->

Software

<poem> Add these use-flags into your package.use: app-mobilephone/obexftp bluetooth

 root# echo "app-mobilephone/obexftp bluetooth" >> /etc/portage/package.use

dev-libs/openobex bluetooth

 root# echo "dev-libs/openobex bluetooth" >> /etc/portage/package.use

Additionally you can globally enable bluetooth use flag in your make.conf, but this is not required. Dont forget to run emerge -uDN @world if you enable bluetooth use flag globally. Add the following line into your /etc/portage/make.conf:

 USE="bluetooth"

Now install these packages: net-wireless/bluez, sys-fs/obexfs

 root# emerge net-wireless/bluez

 root# emerge sys-fs/obexfs

add your user to plugdev group:

 root# gpasswd -a user plugdev

</poem>

Bluetooth Service

add bluetooth service to default runlevel:

 rc-update add bluetooth default

start bluetooth service:

 rc-service bluetooth start

Controller Setup

<poem> To connect to Bluetooth device, it needs to be:

• visible (temporarily)
• trusted
• paired

Bluetooth devices are not visible by default, therefore if you want to connect to your phone, you need to set it (temporarily) into visible mode. Execute following command as ordinary user:

 user# bluetoothctl

Description of commands inside bluetoothctl:

to get help:

 help

List available controllers:

 list

Set "power on" on your controller:

 power on

Set controller into pairable mode:

 pairable on

Set controller into discoverable mode:

 discoverable on

Scan for devices:

 scan on

* this will display DEVICE_MAC_Adrress and name of a device that is in visible mode (and in range of your Bluetooth antena)

List available devices:

 devices

* display devices that were "scanned" with "scan on" command

Trust device:

 trust DEVICE_MAC_Address

Pair device:

 pair DEVICE_MAC_Address

* Confirm pairing on your BT device (smartphone...)

</poem>

Obexfs

• mount Bluetooth device into your users ~/bluetooth directory

 user# obexfs -b DEVICE_MAC_Address ~/bluetooth

Scripting the whole process

• You can use bluetoothctl from inside a script, by "piping" a command into it;

bluetooth_mount.sh script:

#!/bin/bash

echo "power on"| bluetoothctl;
obexfs -b DEVICE_MAC_Address ~/bluetooth;

bluetooth_unmount.sh script:

#!/bin/bash

fusermount -u ~/bluetooth;
echo "power off"| bluetoothctl;