Bluetooth Again - For my Records

First of all, make sure you have all the BlueZ stuff installed. On this Ubuntu, using the Synaptic Package Manager, just search for Bluetooth and install anything that shows up.

Also have a look at the BlueZ site.

Find your bluetooth devicce address;

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$ hcitool dev
Devices:
hci0 00:11:67:5F:89:47

Now find the address of your (Mobile phone) device;

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:16:20:9D:8A:7C John V600i

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$ hciconfig
hci0: Type: USB BD Address: 00:11:67:5F:89:47 ACL MTU: 678:8 SCO MTU: 48:10
UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
RX bytes:3882 acl:14 sco:0 events:52 errors:0
TX bytes:674 acl:12 sco:0 commands:28 errors:0


Now have a look at what it can do;

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$ sdptool browse 00:16:20:9D:8A:7C
Browsing 00:16:20:9D:8A:7C ...
Service Description: Sony Ericsson V600i
Service RecHandle: 0x10000
Service Class ID List:
"PnP Information" (0x1200)


Then all this spews out

Service Name: Dial-up Networking
Service RecHandle: 0x10001
Service Class ID List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
"Generic Networking" (0x1201)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 1
Profile Descriptor List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
Version: 0x0100

Service Name: Serial Port
Service RecHandle: 0x10002
Service Class ID List:
"Serial Port" (0x1101)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 2




I am only interested in the serial port. It is Channel 2, AND, I have paired my computer to the phone.

Well after saying to install everything with bluetooth in it, I curiously examined my menu items, and Lo!, there was something called Bluetooth Chat. Started that and it just connected to the phone and it all took about 5 seconds. All the below is wasted effort, and if the chat client is written in Python, matbe I will find out how they made it so simple, by comparison anyway.

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$ sudo rfcomm connect 0 00:16:20:9D:8A:7C 2
Connected /dev/rfcomm0 to 00:16:20:9D:8A:7C on channel 2
Press CTRL-C for hangup

I now have a device rfcomm0

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$ ls -l /dev/rf*
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 216, 0 2008-03-26 12:01 /dev/rfcomm0

You need to know this device when configuring minicom

=========================================================
Start minicom;

Welcome to minicom 2.2

OPTIONS: I18n
Compiled on Mar 7 2007, 15:10:03.
Port /dev/rfcomm0

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

AT S7=45 S0=0 L1 V1 X4 &c1 E1 Q0
OK
atz+cops
ERROR
atz +cops?
+COPS: 1,0,"Telstra Mobile"

OK


=========================================================

Unfortunately the above is not 100% repeatable, but with enough fiddling and trying, including using the bind option to rfcomm, it will suddenly work.

Also I have been starting minicom in sudo mode, but don't know if that is necessary.

For the atz commands, see ETSI.

Acouple of other interesting commands, for the record.

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$hcitool con
Connections:
< ACL 00:16:20:9D:8A:7C handle 1 state 1 lm MASTER ENCRYPT

owen@Ubuntu-7:~$ rfcomm
rfcomm0: 00:11:67:75:48:32 -> 00:16:20:9D:8A:7C channel 2 connected [reuse-dlc release-on-hup tty-attached]

Magic Garden Version 0.6

I recently wrote about Magic Garden Version 0.2. Well Version 0.6 is now out and it has a different interface and needs some python libraries that you read about in the INSTALL notes.

Now a better way to wile away the hours :-)

See theMagic Garden Website
or project page on Sourceforge

And next time I must remember the background colour is #f6f6f6

A Free Bus Ride

Our bus service, known as Action, will take bicycles.

Now they are allowing cyclists to ride for free if put your bike on.



Bus ticket - $0.00 cost

Guess it's a way of getting a usage figure?

Don't Move

If you want to remain unnoticed!





At 10am this morning, we were gathering, and nattering, in a park to start a ride.

Suddenly there was movement in the distance and what was just a piece of the landscape, turned out to be one of the glorious homeless. Had he not moved, he would have remained camouflaged and unnoticed.

Hope he finds a better spot before the frosts start.

Bluetooth Madness

I am a sucker for gizmos. Went to the computer markets a couple of weeks ago and saw a Bluetooth dongle for 12 Aussie dollars, just had to have it, cute.



My $12 BT Dongle!

So I plugged it in, and a little bluetooth icon popped up, nice, but now what!


Well what happened is that I have been on a fairly fast learning curve. I was given a bluetooth enabled phone. Notice the crack across the front panel, it removes a complete section of the panel from view so setting up menus is a bit of a guessing game.

Anyway I have so far been able to link to it and get some details about it using the hcitool.

On the windows (XP) machine, there was an installation disk which brought up a nice gui and did most of the things I am trying to do in Linux. As a friend said, "If linux does nothing else, it teaches you to read".

So I am still reading. Come back next year.

Big Canberra Bike Ride

Possibly a 1000 or more starter for the BCBR, I was a marshal, but one of the riders was Herb Robey. Ninety years of age and he passed the 14 Km point in 45 minutes.




Herb Robey

Truly amazing, I have written of him before, and guess we will all be happy to live as well as he has.

J and J

I met Jeanette and Jessie five years ago on a bicycle trip to Bundanoon.

Some six or so years earlier, Jessie had been involved in a motor vehicle accident and "the doctors" suggested he be placed in a nursing home.

Jeanette, the mother didn't accept this and took on his rehabilitation. He has a recumbent, and she takes him on rides, exercises the body and over the years, in my infrequent encounters with them, I have notice a continued improvement in his health and co-ordination.

I met them on the Canberra Big Bike Ride and received another update, it appears that the original medical attention missed something in his leg that prevents him from walking, so they are going to get that done, and I guess if that is successful, next time I see him, he will be able to stand and hobble along.



Jeanette and Jessie


I dips me lid to Jeanette, and wish them all the best.

Red Hat - Fedora 8

I started life off with a RH 4.8 and it took 200 MBytes! Times move on, went to Mandrake and then Ubuntu with a few odd ones in between, including some LFS builds.

Anyway, on one of the magazines DVD was a Fedora 8. Went onto my computer, an AMD XP 2600 with a gig of ram, without a hitch.

Generally OK, but updates seem to be a bit of a hassle, twice now there have been updates of over 60 programs, and twice it has stalled on the updates.

It seems to down load them ok, but get confused trying to install them. I simply selected a few updates at a time and as they were already downloaded, they 'updated' without any problem.

One other hiccup was that the UIDs started at 500 and Ubuntu and friends start at 1000, but that was more of a minor configuration problem.

Also it uses LVM, something new to learn!

Generally OK, I won't be switching from this Ubuntu though. It's close to a year old now and hasn't given me any problems.

It came with Scribus 1.3.4, and was able to builds the svn versions of 1.3.3 and 1.3.5 without any problems. Also built a Gimp in /opt without any problems either as all the required libraries were on the DVD. This Ubuntu 7.04 still hasn't had the glib and gtk++ etc libraries updated making recent Gimp builds a bit more tedious.

Zucchini and Carrot Fritters

With a glut of zucchini, we have just been boiling it to eat. The following turned out to be a nice way using it up differently.


120 g zuchinni - grated
120 g grated carrot
2-3 shallots - finely chopped
1 egg
tbsp yoghurt
Breadcrumbs (see instruction)
pinch salt and pepper
seasoning to taste, pinch garlic powder for example
oil for frying


Mix all the ingredients except the oil and add breadcrumbs to stiffen up the mixture. (Flour could also be added)

Heat oil in pan to moderate heat and place moderate size fritters into the oil. Reduce heat to a simmer and watch till a golden brown.


The Result

Our zucchinis seemed to have an excess of moisture and needed to be simmered for 20 minutes to dry them out a bit.

Makes 8 small fritters. Serve with the rest of dinner.

Bicycle Path Madness