Slackware 13.1 – Bluetooth problem
 

I can’t configure Bluetooth in Slackware 13.1. It basically works. I can scan my mobile phone:

But when I try other commands, mobile phone asks me about passcode. Because I don’t know it pairing fails:

On the other hand when I try to pair computer using mobile phone it doesn’t find any device.

In Slackware 13.0 to configure Bluetooth it was enough to edit /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf file. In Slackware 13.1 there is no such file. I tried to use blueman but it offers first and foremost a lot of error messages. In despair I even started KDE and tried Bluetooth Manager. It attempts to run for a dozen or so of second and finally fails.

I searched Internet for the solution of my problem. Because I didn’t find any question concerning Slackware 13.1 and Bluetooth I assume nobody has problems with it. I’m pretty sure the solution is simple and I’m the only one who can’t figure it out.

I did full installation of Slackware 13.1 and I use generic SMP kernel.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Check out the blueman tools installed. Particularly, bluman-applet will sit in your system tray and allow you to do various things as pairing. The default passcode on all bluetooth devices is 0000. Additionally, I think phones can set the passcode somewhere in its settings.

Unfortunately, that's the extent of my bluetooth experience. I've only attempted and successfully connected a mouse.

I tried blueman tools from within KDE – without success. When I click Bluetooth icon it trays to start Blueman Manager but fails. Such options as: Setup new device, Send files to device, Browse files on device and Devices display bouncing icons and stop. Recent Connections displays empty narrow square submenu. Adapters displays window with Close button only. Local Services, Plugins and About display appropriate windows.

Blueman run from within KDE works in my case similarly to blueman run from command line.

Passcode 0000 doesn’t work in my case as well as passcodes: 1234, 4321 and 9999.

So my problem persists.

Is /etc/rc.d/rc.bluetooth set as executable? That's all I had to do to get it working.

Jan C.

The script /etc/rc.d/rc.bluetooth has of course set executable mode bit. As I wrote above hcitool recognizes my mobile phone and gammu identifies it. Unfortunately I can't replay with valid passcode nor pair computer with the phone: my mobile doesn't see the computer and I can't guess the passcode.

I even copied /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf from Slackware 13.0 to 13.1 and restarted /etc/rc.d/rc.bluetooth but the results were exactly the same as before.

OK I played with connecting to a Nokia 6255i Alltel Device.

First I ensured bluetooth was toggled on from the device.
Menu > Connectivity > Bluetooth > Bluetooth ON

Then I ran blueman-manager (which is what's auto run by clicking the system tray icon for blueman-applet)
Clicked on SEARCH
Right clicked the device and selected ADD DEVICE
THEN I clicked PAIR at the top or from the right click menu

At this point a dialog will prompt you for a pass code on both the device and on the computer. Any passcode works as long as they are the same on both. In my case, when I attempted to click Pair before clicking Add Device the connection would fail. I also never received a prompt on the phone to enter a pass code.

At this point I could browse the device and send files but the serial ports "COM1" and "Nokia PC Suite" did not function. I didn't attempt dialup networking as the phone has no service.

How you do this from command line I don't know. But when I was using the command line, most of the connection tools required root privileges. That's why I use blueman. The connections should persist if you close the blueman applications. There may be a command line tool that you use to first "add" the device and then pair with it.


Every action with the phone required me to click the "Accept" soft key on the phone it self. There may be more settings to set your computer as trusted.

... If you do a huge file transfer, don't do anything else like browse the directory structure. For me, all other actions froze until the file transfer was complete.

Finally I found the cause of my Bluetooth problems. As I supposed a solution was simple. It was enough to run blueman-manager as root. Before I started it as a regular user. During configuration of the system one of my scripts should register my user in the plugdev group. For some reason it failed. In result my user hadn’t enough rights to run blueman-manager.