Thread: N900 bluetooth tethering with Debian PC in 2019?
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sulu is offline sulu
2019-09-16 , 09:12
Posts: 915 | Thanked: 3,209 times | Joined on Jan 2011 @ Germany
#1
Hi,

I want to use my N900's mobile data plan on my computer(s) running Debian Buster.

On Debian I use Xfce with nm-applet (network-manager-gnome), where I successfully set up a "mobile broadband connection"* with which I can use my N900 as a modem if it is connected via USB.

Now I want the same thing not via USB but via Bluetooth (because wireless would be more convenient).
So I successfully paired my N900 and my computer(s) with the N900 and set up a "bluetooth connection"* in nm-applet. nm-applet also finds the N900 and tries to connect to it, but fails. When it does, I see these messages in journalctl:
Code:
Sep 14 09:20:34 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445634.2093] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): Activation: starting connection 'Vodafone Vorgabe 2' (3c8e0375-d9ff-4108-b1a0-f8634a0c99e3)
Sep 14 09:20:34 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445634.2095] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="3c8e0375-d9ff-4108-b1a0-f8634a0c99e3" name="Vodafone Vorgabe 2" pid=1024 uid=1000 result="success"
Sep 14 09:20:34 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445634.2097] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Sep 14 09:20:34 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445634.2105] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Sep 14 09:20:35 gpd kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Sep 14 09:20:35 gpd kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Sep 14 09:20:35 gpd kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
Sep 14 09:20:35 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445635.3817] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): Activation: (bluetooth) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful. Will connect via DUN.
Sep 14 09:20:35 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445635.3818] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): Activation: (bluetooth) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) waiting for modem to appear.
Sep 14 09:20:37 gpd ModemManager[669]: <info>  Couldn't check support for device '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.0/usb1/1-4/1-4:1.0/bluetooth/hci0/hci0:256/rfcomm0': not supported by any plugin
Sep 14 09:20:39 gpd systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Succeeded.
Sep 14 09:21:05 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445665.8184] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): state change: config -> failed (reason 'modem-not-found', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Sep 14 09:21:05 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <warn>  [1568445665.8204] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): Activation: failed for connection 'Vodafone Vorgabe 2'
Sep 14 09:21:05 gpd NetworkManager[667]: <info>  [1568445665.8210] device (00:BD:3A:F6:C4:71): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Alternatively I tried establishing a connection via blueman, which fails with this message:
Code:
fail (/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/blueman/gui/manager/ManagerDeviceMenu.py:124)
fail org.freedesktop.DBus.Python._blueman.RFCOMMError: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/blueman/services/meta/SerialService.py", line 39, in connect
    port_id = create_rfcomm_device(Adapter(props['Adapter']).get_properties()['Address'], props['Address'], channel)
  File "_blueman.pyx", line 229, in _blueman.create_rfcomm_device
_blueman.RFCOMMError: Can't connect RFCOMM socket
My first thought was, that there is some problem on the Debian side, which is why I opened a thread in the German debianforum.de (I'm "hikaru" over there). [1]
But two peopIe who have never done this before can establish a connection in nm-applet via bluetooth with their phones (not N900) right away. I on the other hand can reproduce the same problem on three different PCs with different Debian installations. One of them is a very vanilla Debian Xfce installation, to which I only added the bluez and bluetooth packages.

So I'm beginning to think, that the problem is not actually on the Debian side, but on the N900's.
I once had bluetooth tethering working with wvdial on a Debian PC some 5+ years ago, but I didn't keep my wvdial configuration and I thought, it should be easy to do with nm-applet. I'm pretty sure that nothing of relevance has changed on my N900 since then.
As far as I understood, the missing rfcomm socket blueman is complaining about should be something like /dev/rfcomm* on my Debian system. I don't see such a device. Would I need that, and if so, should it somehow be created by/from/via(?) the N900? One of the users at debianforum.de, who has a working connection, says, he sees no such device either.

When opening this thread, these threads were suggested to me [2][3][4][5][6], but since they're all very old, I don't know which one(s), if any, to follow.
I'm running the latest kernel power on the N900 and bluetooth-dun seems to be working fine. At least I see the rfcomm instance running, that's started by it:
Code:
 1198 root      1556 S    rfcomm -S -- listen -1 1 /usr/bin/pnatd ()
Can anybody help me out?


*) back-translated from German, so probably not the original term

[1] https://debianforum.de/forum/viewtop...?f=30&t=174706
[2] http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=58570
[3] http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=90063
[4] http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=37710
[5] http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=32839
[6] http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=46140
 

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