Navigation:
Home  Comments

Tags:
linux  bluetooth  phone  gprs  umts  3g  ppp 

How to use a Bluetooth phone as modem in Linux

You should be able to use this with 3G/UMTS, GPRS and dialup connections as long as you know the CID number of the connection. The connection details are specified in the phone, all linux has to do is to tell the phone which connection to use.

I won't go into distro specific things like installing the neccesary software, it should be pretty obvious.

Install pppd and make sure your kernel has ppp support (Fedora etc. has this by default, this is probably only an issue on gentoo).

Edit /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf like this:

rfcomm0 {
# Automatically bind the device at startup
bind yes;

# Bluetooth address of the device
device 00:00:00:00:00:00;

# RFCOMM channel for the connection
channel 1;

# Description of the connection
comment "bluetooth phone";
}

find out your phone's mac address by running

hcitool scan

and replace 00:00:00:00:00:00 in rfcomm.conf with it.

Pair with your phone. Easiest way is if you just search for the computer on the bluetooth menu on the phone and add it there. A pin dialogue should pop up.

Find the bt channel by running

sdptool search DUN|grep Chan

It will probably be 1, but you never know.

install wvdial and create a file /etc/wvdial.conf that looks like this:

[Modem0]
Modem = /dev/rfcomm0
Baud = 115200
SetVolume = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Init1 = ATZ
Init3 = ATM0
FlowControl = crtscts

[Modem1]
Modem = /dev/rfcomm0
Baud = 57600
SetVolume = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Init1 = ATZ
Init3 = ATM0
FlowControl = crtscts

[Dialer gprs]
Username = un
Password = pass
Phone = *99***1#
Stupid Mode = 1
Inherits = Modem0

[Dialer dialup]
Username = un
Password = pass
Phone = *99***2#
Stupid Mode = 1
Inherits = Modem1

Put in the correct user & pass for your network provider. The 1 and 2 in the 'Phone =' lines are the CID numbers of the connections. You can find these in the phone, but try with 1 and 2 first. It will probably just work.

Restart the bluetooth service or just reboot if you don't know how to do it. If you have other network devices make sure to deactivate them so that ppp0 (the phone's connection) becomes the default. There's probably a more elegant way to do this...

As root, run

wvdial gprs

or dialup. Wait until you get a pair of DNS servers listed, and you should be connected.

Some phones may require you to set your DNS servers manually.

Tested on gentoo with a Sony Ericsson k700i and a Nokia 7650 but should be fairly universal.