Samsung SGH-E720 with Linux

It works ! Almost.

I first bought a random USB Bluetooth dongle called Trendnet TBW-101UB. As expected it was detected automatically by Mandriva 2006, but then the real pain in ass began.

Let's start with the phone settings :

Bluetooth
1 - Activation : On
2 - My devices : localhost-0 ( see below )
3 - My phone's visibility : On
4 - My phone's name : SGH-E720
5 - Secure mode : Off


Since I use KDE I used the kdebluetooth package of my distro, then I changed the bluepin utility of Bluez to Kbluepin like described in the kde-bluetooth FAQ.
Then I somehow managed to exchange PIN numbers and save the computer ( called localhost-0 in the phone ) as an authorized device, don't ask me how, and that's it, nothing else worked within kde-bluetooth, worse it completely screwed up something with KDE, some KDE-related processes started to crash, the service called "dm" was also impossible to turn off.

I don't know why I started to try out this how-to. It can sound stupid since I use Mandriva not Ubuntu, KDE not Gnome, and a Samsung phone not Nokia, but the OBEX protocole is actually the same and it worked so, what the hell !

So here's what I did. See the original how-to for more details.

Note that the bluetooth service is still running but not kde-bluetooth.

$ su
$ urpmi gnome-bluetooth bluez-utils
# gnome-obex-server is already in gnome-bluetooth
$ modprobe l2cap
$ modprobe rfcomm
$ mknod /dev/rfcomm0 c 216 0
$ hcitool scan

hcitool scan
Scanning ...
      00:12:47:AC:57:99       SGH-E720

$ vi /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf

# with vi I changed the stuff to this : ( don't ask me about the channel 10 I have no idea of what it is )

rfcomm0 {
      # Automatically bind the device at startup
      bind no;

      # Bluetooth address of the device
      device 00:12:47:AC:57:99;

      # RFCOMM channel for the connection
      channel 10;

      # Description of the connection
      comment "Example Bluetooth device";
}

$ sdptool add --channel=10 OPUSH

$ rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 00:12:47:AC:57:99 10

$ gnome-obex-send /home/zoby/Desktop/file.mp3

And it worked !!!! It showed a prompt on both the phone and the computer and the file transfer began.

All the rest of the how-to didn't work, that is how to transfer pictures from the phone to the computer with gnome-obex-server. Too bad. But I'm glad I can fill the 80Meg with mp3s now.

And like the guy said, do not forget that "Everytime that you reboot you must re apply this things (which you could insert into a boot-script)" :

modprobe l2cap
modprobe rfcomm
mknod /dev/rfcomm0 c 216 0
sdptool add --channel=10 OPUSH
rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 YOUR_PHONE_ADDRESS 10



EDIT 2006/01/30

Cool.

Today I tried Ubuntu Live CD and tried again to make it work, and the symptoms were exactly the same as when using Mandriva/gnome-bluetooth, the transfer starts but stops after 10 seconds, but better than with Mandriva since before I had to restart the phone between each attempt. So it's a little better than with then Mandriva packages.

But this time I found a cool trick.
So, when the transfer stops after 10 seconds, I can make it restart by doing :

Menu, Settings, 6 Bluetooth, 2 My devices, ubuntu-0 ( or whatever name ), Options, Service list, Object list, Refresh.

Everytime the transfer stops, press Refresh. Yeah, it's annoying as hell, I know. I think something's wrong with this phone, but it might be a software or a dongle problem, I can't be sure.

I will try it with my mandriva later, and also I still have to transfer the pictures from the phone to the computer, so stay tuned. It's a time consuming process so it might take some time.



EDIT :
With Ubuntu, I forgot the line :
rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 YOUR_PHONE_ADDRESS 10
and it worked better ( no need no refresh all the time )
Weird...




List of phones related : Samsung SGH-D800 SGH-D500 SGH-X810 SGH-S410 SGH-E860 SGH-E880 SGH-D600 SGH-E730 SGH-E620 SGH-E730 SGH-E520