HOWTO: Nokia 770 pairing with Windows Mobile 5

ATTENTION! This post is now OBSOLETE with the release of Internet Tablet 2006! If you have an older firmware, you can use the link below. If you use IT2006, follow this instead: ThoughtFix on the Nokia 770: Nokia 770, Windows Mobile smartphone, and T-Mobile


Qapf shared on InternetTabletTalk forums the secret to getting Windows Mobile devices to pair with the Nokia 770 tablet. All the new T-Mobile SDA owners with EDGE on their new toy will love this one.

There are two hitches in pairing these devices. The first is that the service discovery protocol daemon doesn't start automatically when the tablet starts. The second is chat script that Windows Mobile devices require is not supported in the current Nokia firmware. Word has it that the latter hitch will be fixed in the next Nokia firmware revision. The maemo wiki has more on this.

This procedure directly changes a required file in your firmware. Only you are responsible for any damage you may do to your tablet by following these steps.

Workaround prerequisites:

• xterm
  
• Root access
• The patched icd binary from Qapf. (direct link to binary here)
• A Bluetooth mobile phone with bluetooth Dial-up Networking and the matching service plan with your phone carrier. I am using an i-mate SP5m which is functionally identical to the T-Mobile SDA that was just released in the US.
  

Copy the binary to the memory card before anything because this howto will break your internet access for the duration of the installation. These steps assume that the icd binary is not stored in any subdirectory on the memory card.

Fire up xterm and run these commands.

sudo gainroot
su -
/etc/rc1.d/K15osso-ic stop
mv /usr/sbin/icd /usr/sbin/icd.old
cp /media/mmc1/icd /usr/sbin/icd
/etc/rc3.d/S40osso-ic start
sdpd

It may give "cp: Unable to open '/usr/sbin/icd': Text file busy." If that happens, try it again. Apparently the osso-ic service does not release the file instantly.

Prepare the phone to be bluetooth "discoverable."
Click the phone icon and then click "Select phone"
Windows Smartphones: Start, Settings, connections, Bluetooth, "Discoverable"
choose the phone and select a passkey and click Next
The phone will ask for the same passkey.

On my phone it detects no services from the tablet. The tablet reports that "Selected phone does not support file transfer. It can only be used for dial-up networking." That disappointed but did not surprise me.

Complete the pairing on both the phone and the tablet, then turn off "discoverable" mode on the phone. Leave bluetooth "on."

Tap "Finish" on the tablet. Set up a dial-up connection as appropriate for your cellular provider. I created one identical to this one in a previous post.

Start the connection and you're online! You can see the connection complete in this screen shot:

I ran this on performance.toast.net and got 136k/sec. Apparently bluetooth EDGE is over triple the speed of bluetooth GPRS. Here's the screenshot:
That makes me very happy. I hope other users can take advantage of this.
Again, special thanks to Qapf and InternetTabletTalk forums!