How to configure and use GPS over bluetooth: Difference between revisions

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Fedora GPS over bluetooth HowTo
In this HowTo you will learn how to connect external bluetooth GPS dongle and make it work on Fedora.

If you have bluetooth GPS dongle that you have laying around, or can borrow one from somebody, and would use GPS on Fedora laptop while you are driving a bike or a car around then this is the guide for you.

Very Important
You need to have bluetooth wireless chip installed in your laptop or a bluetooth USB dongle. If you have a laptop or a desktop without bluetooth built it you should buy a USB bluetooth dongle.

Here are some images of bluetooth dongles if you haven't seen them before.

You can check with hcitool command that you have bluetooth device and that it is working correctly :

hcitool dev

Then let’s make sure you have bluetooth service running:

service bluetooth status

if it is not running just start it with:

service bluetooth start

Turn on your bluetooth GPS dongle and find its bluetooth mac address with hcitool command:

hcitool scan
Scanning …
00:1E:EE:00:11:22 LG KU990
00:02:78:99:FF:00 SJ GPS
00:12:EE:55:00:FF Device01



If you find more than one bluetooth device you should know the name of your GPS dongle. My GPS dongle has a “GPS” in its name so it is easy to spot its mac address: 00:02:78:99:FF:00 (SJ GPS)


You need to install gpsd and setup bluetooth config files, so let’s first install gpsd:

su -
yum install gpsd gpsd-clients -y



Then you need to edit bluetooth config file so that gpsd connects automatically to GPS bluetooth dongle.
gedit -etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf


and add these lines:

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

# Bluetooth address of the device
device 00:12:EE:55:00:FF;

# RFCOMM channel for the connection
channel 1;

# Description of the connection
comment “GPS Bluetooth dongle”;
}



After reboot check if you have /dev/rfcomm0 device with:
ls -al /dev/rfcomm0


If after reboot (or you don’t wan’t to reboot) you still don’t have /dev/rfcomm0 then just issue this command:
rfcomm bind rfcomm0


Now start gpsd daemon:
gpsd /dev/rfcomm0


Now you can start having fun! :)


Install gps applications like tangogps, gpsdrive and gpsbabel:
yum install tangogps gpsdrive gpsbabel

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-If you have bluetooth GPS dongle that you have laying around, or can borrow one from somebody, and like driving a bike or a car around then this is the guide for you.
+{{needs love}}
+{{admon/note|Fedora GPS over bluetooth HowTo|In this HowTo you will learn how to connect external bluetooth GPS dongle and make it work on Fedora.}}
+If you have [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=bluetooth+gps+dongle&btnG=Search+Images bluetooth GPS dongle] that you have laying around, or can borrow one from somebody, and would use GPS on Fedora laptop while you are driving a bike or a car around then this is the guide for you.
-You need to have bluetooth wireless chip already installed on your laptop. If you have a laptop or a desktop without bluetooth you can buy and use USB bluetooth dongle.
+{{admon/important|Very Important|You need to have bluetooth wireless chip installed in your laptop or a bluetooth USB dongle. If you have a laptop or a desktop without bluetooth built it you should buy a USB bluetooth dongle.}}
+Here are some images of [http://images.google.com/images?q=bluetooth%20dongle&svnum=10&hl=en bluetooth dongles] if you haven't seen them before.
+You can check with '''hcitool''' command that you have bluetooth device and that it is working correctly :
-You can check if you have a bluetooth and that it is working correctly using this command:
+<code>hcitool dev</code>
-hcitool dev
 Then let’s make sure you have bluetooth service running:
-service bluetooth status
+<code>service bluetooth status</code>
 if it is not running just start it with:
-service bluetooth start
+<code>service bluetooth start'''
-Turn on your bluetooth GPS dongle and find its bluetooth mac address with this command:
+Turn on your bluetooth GPS dongle and find its bluetooth mac address with '''hcitool''' command:
-hcitool scan
+<pre>hcitool scan
 Scanning …
 :1E:EE:00:11:22 LG KU990
 :02:78:99:FF:00 SJ GPS
-:12:EE:55:00:FF Device01
+:12:EE:55:00:FF Device01</pre>
-If you find more than one bluetooth device you should know the name of your GPS dongle. My GPS dongle has a “GPS” in its name so it is easy to catch its mac address: 00:02:78:99:FF:00 (SJ GPS)
+If you find more than one bluetooth device you should know the name of your GPS dongle. My GPS dongle has a “GPS” in its name so it is easy to spot its mac address: 00:02:78:99:FF:00 (SJ GPS)
-You need to install gpsd and setup bluetooth config files, so let’s first install gpsd:
+You need to install gpsd and setup bluetooth config files, so let’s first install '''gpsd''':
-yum install gpsd -y
+<pre>su -
+yum install gpsd gpsd-clients -y</pre>
 Then you need to edit bluetooth config file so that gpsd connects automatically to GPS bluetooth dongle.
-su -
+<code>gedit -etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf</code>
-gedit -etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf
 and add these lines:
+<pre>
 rfcomm0 {
 # Automatically bind the device at startup
@@ Line 55: / Line 65: @@
 comment “GPS Bluetooth dongle”;
 }
+</pre>
 After reboot check if you have /dev/rfcomm0 device with:
-ls -al /dev/rfcomm0
+<code>ls -al /dev/rfcomm0</code>
 If after reboot (or you don’t wan’t to reboot) you still don’t have /dev/rfcomm0 then just issue this command:
-rfcomm bind rfcomm0
+<code>rfcomm bind rfcomm0</code>
 Now start gpsd daemon:
-gpsd /dev/rfcomm0
+<code>gpsd /dev/rfcomm0</code>
@@ Line 72: / Line 86: @@
-Install gps applications like tangogps, gpsdrive and gpsbabel.
+Install gps applications like '''tangogps''', '''gpsdrive''' and '''gpsbabel''':
-su -
-yum install tangogps gpsdrive gpsbabel
+<code>yum install tangogps gpsdrive gpsbabel</code>
+[[Category:How to]]