Cacko Bluetooth Stability Problems?

[speculatrix]

Thread title changed as now I get these problems with cacko-full AND lite
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Has anyone noticed that bluetooth PAN networking on Cacko-lite is *less* stable that when using Cacko-full?

I used to use Cacko-full and could surf for hours with no problems, and really load the bt network link very heavily doing such things as "ipkg install". This is using a network link via a linux desktop to a 512kbps adsl connection, where I would get 300kbps download speeds!

I reflashed to C-lite and now the link will die ("hcitool con" reports it's still there, and "ifconfig bnep0" says so too) -  but no traffic flows, not even ping. If I cut the connection, it won't restart, if it does it's really really slow - ping times up from 33ms to 1300 to 2500 and higher! I really noticed it trying to use vnc (keypebble) client - it would die in less than two seconds.

--- background

I'm a relative newbie user of the Zaurus, tho' I've been a fan for a long time. I'm not the greatest expert on bluetooth, but I do know a fair amount about networking. And I'm stumped.

I reflashed my brand-new Z with the full version of Cacko, and soon after with a new Socket/Symbol CF bluetooth card, used the PAN bluetooth networking via my linux desktop. It worked really well!

However, I realised that because Cacko-full had lots built in, it meant wasting valuable flash space when packages needed to be upgraded, since you'd have both versions. So I reflashed to lite and installed the apps I wanted, missing out the Sharp apps.

Since then everything works OK *except* bluetooth networking is terribly unreliable.

---

Paul

[speculatrix]

I've been doing some more investigating, and I am wondering if I am looking at the wrong part of the system, that is to say, it might not be the zaurus that's at fault. Stay tuned for more updates.

[speculatrix]

After a surge of optimism, when I rebooted the PC and loaded the original SuSE2.6.8 kernel, and rebooted the Z 860, keypebble (which seems to be the most intensive networking app I have) still died just took a bit longer.

The symptoms are:
* both ends think the link is still up
* "ifconfig bnep0" on the Z says bnep0 is up
* "pand -l" on the Z says there's a connection to the desktop
* "hcitool con" on the Z says there's a connection to the desktop

If I do "pand --killall" the pan connection goes away, but the hci level connection doesn't. If I manually "hcitool dc xxx", it tells me "Disconnect failed: Connection timed out". If I kill the hci link from the PC end, the Z still thinks its up. The only way to clear the lockup on the Z is to "cardctl eject" the bluetooth card.

Not being an expert on bluetooth (I'm still discovering what commands to use to do stuff), can someone suggest any more diagnostics I can get out of the system? Can I start up the bluetooth connection manually with lots of debug - I use the Cacko network wizard thing at the moment.

Thanks
Paul

[speculatrix]

Well, things are getting more mysterious. I discovered that the ncurses version of kismet didn't work, the kismet_client app would segfault. The QT version did work, but I'm a bit of a luddite and know and like the console version. Wellenreiter also worked, sort of, but didn't actually see anything or capture any traffic.

So, I decided to go back to non-diet cacko, and reflashed with cacko-full.

The good news was that kismet/ncurses worked again!

The bad news for me, but good news for cacko-lite fans, is that bluetooth networking to or via my computer still breaks, so it's presumably NOT cacko-lite that's at fault. Or at least not causing the problem, even tho it should, really, be resilient enough to be able to force the closure of the link at hci level and not require card eject/insert.

I'll set up networking on my PC at work and see if I can get BT to break there. If it doesn't, then it's my PC at home whose OS is somehow b0rked.

Sigh.

[speculatrix]

I'll set up networking on my PC at work and see if I can get BT to break there. If it doesn't, then it's my PC at home whose OS is somehow b0rked.

well, got my PC at home dual-booting to windows and that too dies.

now tried at work, and it's less flakey but still dies.

I did wonder if it was the encryption settings, am wondering if I turn off encrypt if it'll be more robust.

Meanwhile, attached is the hcid.conf from the Z. Damn, am told I can't upload a file with that extension. Renamed from hcid.conf to zaurus_hcid.txt.

Paul

[speculatrix]

Hmmm. Well, scratch the encryption theory. I went through the hcid.conf file, annotated it, changed the device class, turned off encryption, changed the "lp" setting, and basically proved to myself that the Z's hcid.conf is fine. I also changed the PCs file too, to basically an almost identical file 'cept for the node/device name.

Attached is the new hcid.conf (had to change extension due to restrictions by this forum).

[ensign]

speculatrix

Did you manage to resolve the stability issues between your Z and windows XP with usb bluetooth dongle. I am having similar problems as you. Infact I can consistently get it to break if I try to transfer a big file (eg. zaurus backup file) over bluetooth via PAN.

[speculatrix]

speculatrix

Did you manage to resolve the stability issues between your Z and windows XP with usb bluetooth dongle. I am having similar problems as you. Infact I can consistently get it to break if I try to transfer a big file (eg. zaurus backup file) over bluetooth via PAN.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=79617\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

No, sadly. This occurs with two PCs, one dual boot linux and winXP, the other linux only. Tried different linux kernels on the PCs to no effect. Each machine is running a different usb bt dongle.

It's not time based - I left an ssh session over bluetooth running for some time, and it stayed up, only dying when I did some heavy data transfers.

I am very sure it didn't use to happen, I first noticed it as I say when I switched from cacko-full to -lite.

I am wondering if it's an interrupt problem on the zaurus. But then my wireless lan card is fine, and I can absolutely hammer that without problem. I think I will buy another CF BT card and see if the problem goes away. I'd rather it be a card problem than the Z, to be honest. I do hotplug my CF cards, after telling the Z to eject, but there have been the odd occasion when I've not ejected first, and I'm wondering if that could be to blame.

sigh.

[ensign]

I think I am using the same CF bluetooth card is you. Socket Bluetooth card REV E. According to the manufacturer's website this is only Bluetooth 1.0b compatible. My USB bluetooth card on the PC is Bluetooth 1.1. Could this be the problem? Are the networking specs not fully compatible b/n the two.

I have hard a good look at this card -
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=80893
think one member is this forum has used it with cacko 1.22b. I wonder how stable it is!

[speculatrix]

I think I am using the same CF bluetooth card is you. Socket Bluetooth card REV E. According to the manufacturer's website this is only Bluetooth 1.0b compatible. My USB bluetooth card on the PC is Bluetooth 1.1. Could this be the problem? Are the networking specs not fully compatible b/n the two.

I have hard a good look at this card -
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=80893
think one member is this forum has used it with cacko 1.22b. I wonder how stable it is!
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

My BT card also says firmware only supports BT1.0. I'd be disappointed if this caused compatibility. I have now reached the point where I am questioning my sanity over whether BT really was once reliable, but then I remind myself that I could lie in bed and surf the net for quite a while -limited only by battery.

Guylhem proposed a config change:
[a href=\"https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=12729]https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=12729[/url]
but I tried this and it didn't work.

I will see if I can buy a CF/BT card from somewhere on evaluation and hope it improves things.

Paul

[speculatrix]

I had a very interesting thought. How about if I connected from the PC to the zaurus instead of the other way round?

That's to say, make the PC be the master of the link. I changed the "lm" option to be "lm accept, master".

using these instructions:
http://bluez.sourceforge.net/contrib/HOWTO-PAN

I made the connection. Well, it seemed more stable,  but it still died.

Another idea I had was to reduce the MTU of bnep0 of the link (at both ends). This would have the effect of increasing the number of interrupts as the number of packets to carry the data would increase. It didn't seem to make any difference.

[TnGee]

Hi all,

I also have a Socket Rev E bluetooth card and encountered the same problems with large data transfers. I have a Sony Ericsson Z800i which can give me 3G mobile data transfer rates of up to 45KB over bluetooth but somehow the RFCOMM link always fails and l2ping returns nothing from the handphone. After reading everyone's experience with host-to-host connections on the Rev E card, I am down to the worrying conclusion that there are interoperability problem between 1.0b to 1.1 bluetooth systems. I even turned off encryption too like speculatrix to no avail.

On the other hand, the Socket card works fine with GPRS data transmission speeds up to 10KB. It worked with my trusty old Ericsson T39m (although I had to fix an unrelated problem to do with ppp_async module).

I may try to raise the stability problem in the bluez-users mailing list. I just wanted to warn anyone from using the Rev E card for high throughput uses e.g. UMTS, EVDO or PAN.

[albertr]

I doubt it's bt specs related. You are not switching roles, right?

In my experience, the old Soket card (Nokia chipset) was not that bad. However, I have newer firmware (Rev.F).

I would suggest to try Affix. IMHO, the uart driver is quite different (and that might help).
-albertr

[TnGee]

Thanks for suggesting affix, albert but I am afraid Nokia no longer updates the drivers.

Further to my above post, I have bought a new bluetooth 1.1 compliant CF card (Taiwanese brand Chronos www.chronos.com.tw - repackaged Billionton/CSR/BCSP). I could connect the new card with my Z800i too at max about 13kBs (115kbps) BUT the same connection hang occurs like the Socket Rev E! I did go a further step and issued hciconfig hci0 while in the hang state, and discovered that I could get any response (connection time out from CF card). I could however eject/reinsert the card and reconnect through RFCOMM to the phone afterwards (so that could rule out problems with the phone's firmware as the phone is not in a lock-out state). Any suggestions whether it is a problem with bluez or usbdcore/usbnet as suggested some other forum threads?

I am reluctant to go out and buy a usb dongle just to try my phone on another machine. I also do not have another linux machine aside from my Z.

[speculatrix]

TnGee,
that's very interesting, that a different card with bt1.1 also locks up. You get the same symptoms as I, hciconfig hangs, and card has to be ejected/reinserted (cardctl eject, cardctl insert) to unlock it; the host is fine.

It implies a problem in the kernel, some sort of interrupt locking problem?

I also noted that there are also reports of USB transfers locking up too, people on that thread have pointed to this one and questioned whether there's a connection. I have that problem and I have to unplug the usb cable to unfreeze the zaurus's network.

Paul