http://www.osnews.com/story/10923/Mac_OS_X_Tiger_s_Bluetooth_Better_or_Worse_ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:17:56 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Mac OS is a fine example of Unix at work. I never had any issues with bluetooth on panther, but i would not know about tiger since i have since sold my powerbook and gone back to Linux Tue, 21 Jun 2005 09:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? As I wrote there, Mac OS X works fine with Bluetooth and file exchange, some mobile phones as modems, or PDA syncing. The problem starts when you want to use Bluetooth through a different service, like an FTP, Printer or LAN client. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 09:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? ...asked about this problem in Apple mailing lists? Tue, 21 Jun 2005 13:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? There are more bugs than this. My Jabra 250 headset worked perfectly well through 10.4.0 but with the update to 10.4.1 it no longer maintians a connection. There are posts about this on the apple discussions site and it seems to be a problem with 10.4.1. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 14:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Does this "yet another issue in OS X" really need a post on osnews.com? Does it need to be top news all the day? Certainly not as was the Open Slowlaris using GRUB as boot loader. Maybe we could revert from this blog site back to the original OS _and_ especially non-mainstream OS site osnews.com once was? I think Eugenia has certain other places to blog her OS X issues ... Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? "
Does this "yet another issue in OS X" really need a post on osnews.com?

"
I agree with you on this. This is a poor article that doesn't fit in the category of news reports. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? While I agree this wasn't the most clearly written article, I do have to say that some of the readers of OSNews, such as myself, are avid OS X users with the same problem and appreciate that Eugenia took the time to write a follow-up after her articles a few months back.

Now to find a solution... Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Maybe there could be a sister site that deals with OS specific issues and criticism like this, such as www.osissues.com if it isn't already taken.

Things like this, while they are interesting and relevant, is probably not considered news worthy.

I think many people come here expecting to see new things or updates on things that are going on with the OS as in additional features or progress in hobby os. Even smaller things such as the annoucement of a kernel is useful.

Bluetooth on a Mac OS X - better or worse seems like an issue that is specific to an OS and while it deserves attention, it should be in a place where it's better catalogued. So that people who might find these things useful can go to and access the information in a categorical fashion, perhaps even discover somethings that they weren't looking for. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? This is a problem with an OS, and this is an editorial article. It fits perfectly here, you have a very narrow view of what OSNews is (which is, not just OS or just news). Besides, all you can come up with is nagging? My article asked a very clear question, and after all these hours (I just woke up) no one has a solution. Hence, I say, this is a major problem and the Apple BT team needs to look at this immediately. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I agree with Eugenia! On news sites you often here about the latest virus on Windows, this is an article about the latest problems with Macs. I think if we did this more often, companies would be more mindful of quality control issues. Quality control is very important to Macintosh users. In fact, I wish Windows and Linux would get the same level of critisism since it would improve the quality of those products, or unless you guys are numb to the shoty quality we are seeing in software these days. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? "Does this "yet another issue in OS X" really need a post on osnews.com?"

I for one - and clearly not alone - appreciated it. As a Mac owner and Bluetooth user it's highly relevant Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? ..the love of god.

1) What's the version of the OS you're using? And no, 10.4 is not enough.
2) What exactly happened with your "complete crash"? Beach balls? Kernel panic? Just system prefs not responding?
3) Have you checked http://www.apple.com/support/bluetooth/ ? If not why not, if yes, what did it say? Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? 1. 10.4.1 of course, what else?
2. I don't care about the crash. It happens. I care about making OSX connect to my Bluetooth Lan, what's what I am intersted for.
3. Yes, they don't say anything about my question. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? "Maybe there could be a sister site that deals with OS specific issues and criticism like this, such as www.osissues.com if it isn't already taken"

Mmm, more likely Eugenia should open a OSflamewar.com site, then just post the most inflammatory articles she can find there and invite people to do there worst. A bastion for trolls. Possibly, it would reduce the squabbling on OSnews. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Oh - the intial post was censored away?

No - I do not only nag - the biased view is definetly on your side, pushing OSX all the time and leaving all the other way more innovative projects aside. If alternative news site do not report about them, who should? Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? >Oh - the intial post was censored away?

Of course it did. It had NOTHING to do with the article. IF you have a problem, you EMAIL the team about it, you DON'T post off topic. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? You don't even have the decency to leave an email address or name to contact you. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Do any developers have access to 10.4.2? Can you tell us (without breaking any NDAs) if this issue is addressed in the most recent build you got? Eugenia, when did you file your bug report? I'm afraid that if you filed it very recently, it's already too late, as from what I've read on AppleInsider, the 10.4.2 is almost ready to go out the door... so unless they independently fixed it, you're out of luck for now.

I don't know... it seems like the world is simply not catching up to Bluetooth, no matter how hard it's pushed (we're up to 2.0 now). Could it be the case that Apple didn't spend enough time on getting all Bluetooth-related stuff right, because they figure it only affects a small % of users? Maybe Bluetooth is dying. Apple did a good job of trying to keep it alive, but as with firewire...

And frankly, I still say Tiger was rushed out the door too soon. It should have come out with what they'll have in 10.4.2 - that would still have been the 1st half of 2005 - up until June 30 (old Apple tradition, to wait until the last possible moment). 10.4 was buggy, but 10.4.1 seems to have broken even more things than it fixed, if you judge by the message boards. Hmmm... we can bitch about Longoverdue, but maybe at least it'll come out with fewer bugs out the starting gate in compenstion to being late (of course, who knows). Tue, 21 Jun 2005 20:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? you may not CARE about the crash, but it is possible that it is related to your problem.

While I'm not excusing the OS, as I'm also one who thought that it came out too soon, there are many problems with the Bluetooth devices themselves. Many phones have most Bluetooth services turned off by the providers even though the phones themselves are capable of providing those services. Most people aren't aware of this and try to get them to work when they can't.

An example is the Treo 650. Here's something about that. It shows what I mean:

http://www.palmone.com/us/support/downloads/treo650updater/sprint.h...


I know that this isn't exactly your problem, but it's worth mentioning. Apple has actually fixed some services in 10.4 that weren't proper before. some devices were tuned to the old services and have broken since. In those cases there is very little that can be done with them. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 23:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? >you may not CARE about the crash, but it is
> possible that it is related to your problem.

No, the crash was unrelated, I just mentioned in the article in the beginning. The problem I am describing is not a crash bug, but an inability of the system to "glue" together two serial ports and communicate the LAN access point with the Mac. It's a "logical" bug, not a crasher. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 23:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? My /etc/ppp/options file only contains the word 'locked'. Can somebody post an example of such a file so I can complete the installation procedure? Thanx!!! Wed, 22 Jun 2005 07:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? My question was as on-topic as your initial Bluetooth quirks in OSX 10.4(.1). I recently had to install Windows XP for a compatiblity test. Do you want a 100++ things that suck in XP, though we already know them all, blog from me on osnews.com?

Also it is not too democratic to moderate all contra posts down and leave the pro posts of the so "off-topic" comment untouched. Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Yes, you *are* really free to submit to us the "100++ things that suck on windows". We will post them!

As for posting this story, it's within my power to post it, so if you don't like it, go elsewhere and read your daily news. Wed, 22 Jun 2005 09:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? #!/bin/sh

# This is a script which Calroth made to get Bluetooth PPP
# working under Mac OS X 10.4.1. It probably won't work with
# future or past versions. It probably won't work with
# everyone's setup. But it's good to try for some instant
# gratification. Share and Enjoy.

# Below, replace "en1" with your network port,
# "10.0.1.102" with your Mac's IP address, and
# "10.0.1.243" with your remote device's IP address.

sudo /usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
sudo /usr/sbin/natd -interface en1 -use_sockets -same_ports -dynamic -clamp_mss
sudo /sbin/ipfw add divert natd ip from any to any via en1
sudo /usr/sbin/pppd /dev/cu.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync 115200 noauth local passive proxy arp asyncmap 0 silent nodetach persist 10.0.1.102:10.0.1.243 Wed, 22 Jun 2005 11:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? What hardware are you using? If it's a D-Link dongle you may have upgrade the firmware. Instructions fore doing this are included in the BT SDK Wed, 22 Jun 2005 11:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Internal bt for powerbooks. Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? It didn't work, connection via pand on Linux was refused by the Mac. Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Alas. Well, sorry I can't help you further. I think the real trick is in the "pppd" call, but I couldn't tell you what all those options mean, and I doubt anybody who's written a "Bluetooth networking script" could either. Sat, 25 Jun 2005 12:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments