How to configure and use GPS over bluetooth

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.

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 :

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

if it is not running just start it with:

and add these lines: rfcomm0 { bind yes;
 * 1) Automatically bind the device at startup

device 00:12:EE:55:00:FF;
 * 1) Bluetooth address of the device

channel 1;
 * 1) RFCOMM channel for the connection

comment “GPS Bluetooth dongle”; }
 * 1) Description of the connection

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

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

Now start gpsd daemon:

Now you can start having fun! :)

Install gps applications like tangogps, gpsdrive and gpsbabel: