Reverse tethering with DUN on Bluez 5

Question

I would like to know which is the current modern way to do DUN reverse tethering using Bluez version >= 5.

I have an old PDA that I use sometime (a Tapwave Zodiac running PalmOS5. It's similar to Palm Tungsten, etc.) These old devices don't have Wifi, only Bluetooth. For networking over Bluetooth, these old devices don't support PAN, only DUN.

So to provide them networking, one need to share a desktop PC's connection over bluetooth DUN.

Up until Bluez version 4, the standard way to provide networking over bluetooth for such PalmOS 5 devices was: https://wiki.debian.org/BluetoothPalmOSConnection

Basically:

• run "dund" to listen for incoming connection.
• once the palmos device connects to the PC, have dund start PPPD with parameters tailored for the device
• use iptables to forward the connection.

My problem:

• I've read that bluez 5 changed the way DUN is handled and thus support for the old "dund" was dropped.
• Indeed there's no "bluez-compat" package available anymore for my current distro (opensuse 13.1, runs bluez 5.18)

So my question:

• What's the modern successor of "dund --listen" for bluez 5 ?

How should I setup a DUN service on my computer to which to connect from my PDA ? I've looked around, but I haven't been able to find any guide.

The "dund" functionality should very probably be replicated using some scripting and dbus calls. But I can't find any pointer where to begin looking for a solution.

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I think you can

• Run pppd with "rfcomm listen" in the "connect" script of your /etc/ppp/peers/ file
• Use "sdptool add DUN" so that your service is discoverable

I guess you'll figure out the exact details yourself. Please respond if it won't work for you and I'll try that myself or be more specific.

Take care, Lubo