The next thing I had to try was connecting my Palm to the Internet via Bluetooth, using Fedora Core 3. Thanks to this Usenet posting, it wasn't too hard.

The only Bluetooth adapter I have is in my IBM ThinkPad. It has to be switched on with a hardware button, so I first had to configure the Bluetooth services to be started whenever the device becomes available. After installing the bluez RPM packages, create the script /etc/hotplug/usb/hci_usb:

#!/bin/sh

if [ "${ACTION}" = "add" ] && [ -f "${DEVICE}" ]
then
 [ -e /var/lock/subsys/bluetooth ] || service bluetooth start
 [ -e /var/lock/subsys/dund ] || service dund start

 if [ "X$REMOVER" != "X" ]
 then
 cat >$REMOVER <<EOF
#!/bin/sh

[ -e /var/lock/subsys/dund ] && service dund stop
[ -e /var/lock/subsys/bluetooth ] && service bluetooth stop
EOF
 chmod +x $REMOVER
 fi
fi

Because the script is invoked for multiple devices, it has to check if the bluetooth and dund services are running or not. This only works if the bluetooth service is not started when the system boots, so we have to disable it:

service dund stop
service bluetooth stop
chkconfig dund off
chkconfig bluetooth off

As described in Blumf's posting, create /etc/ppp/peers/dun:

noauth
local
debug
115200
noipdefault
noipx
idle 0
ms-dns <DNS-SERVER-IP>
netmask 255.255.255.0

If you don't have a local DNS server, copy an IP address from /etc/resolv.conf after establishing your usual Internet connection.

In /etc/ppp/options.rfcomm1, the IP addresses of the PC and the Palm are given:

<PC_IP_ADDRESS>:<PALM_IP_ADDRESS>

In my network, I set the Palm IP address to 192.168.2.1.

Modify /etc/sysconfig/dund:

DUNDARGS='--listen --channel 1 call dun'

You also need to enable IP forwarding and masquerading. In /etc/sysctl.conf, set net.ipv4.ip_forward to "1". Run echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward to activate forwarding without a reboot.

In /etc/sysconfig/iptables, add these lines:

*nat
:PREROUTING ACCEPT [0:0]
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
-A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE 
COMMIT

For this to take effect, you have to run service iptables start.

On the Palm side, just follow Blumf's instructions:

1. In prefs/Bluetooth add your PC to the trusted device list. Pass key is found in /etc/bluetooth/pin, default is "BlueZ".
2. In prefs/Connection create a new entry. (Connect to: PC, Via: Bluetooth, Device $YOUR_PC)
3. In prefs/Network create a new service. (Username/password same as your normal linux login, Connection to whatever you created in the previous step, no need to change details)
4. Tap 'Connect', if all's well you should see the palm connecting. Check the end of /var/log/messages to see the ppp log.
5. Tap 'Disconnect'.

If you want to synchronize a USB Palm under Fedora Core 3, and don't want to spend hours reading about udev and hotplug, here's how to do it.

The problem with USB syncing a Palm under Fedore Core 3 is that the device file will not be created until you press the Hotsync button. And when it is created, it is only accessible by root.

This can be fixed by creating /etc/udev/rules.d/10-visor.rules with this content:

BUS=="usb", SYSFS{product}=="Palm Handheld*", KERNEL=="ttyUSB[13579]", SYMLINK+="pilot"

For detailed information on writing udev rules, see Daniel Drake's excellent document. To create the above rule, I pressed the Hotsync button, looked for the newest symlink in /sys/bus/usb/devices, and then examined the product file in the directory to which the symlink pointed. Because the product string had a trailing space on my computer, I added the "*" at the end. The check for the kernel device name "ttyUSB[13579]" is necessary because I use Card Export II, which lets me access the Palm's memory card as a USB drive. Card Export II also identifies itself as a "Palm Handheld" product, but with a different kernel device name. Tim Harper suggested to use "[13579]" in the device name. This is important because udev creates two subsequent, but more or less random ttyUSB devices, and only the one with the odd number works.

A simpler rule would match the kernel device name with KERNEL="ttyUSB1", but that would break if ttyUSB1 is occupied by some other toy when the Palm is connected.

As pointed out in the comments, it is not necessary to create a file in /etc/udev/permissions.d, because the configuration in /etc/security/console.perms takes care of setting the right permissions, once we have created the symlink /dev/pilot.

The rules.d file must have the given name so it is loaded before the default 50-udev.rules. Restarting udevd is not necessary for these changes to take effect.

If you use pilot-xfer to access your Palm, the following script allows you start it before pressing the Hotsync button.

#!/bin/sh

until [ -e /dev/pilot ]; do sleep 1; done
exec /usr/bin/pilot-xfer "$@"