GPS

Setting up your GPS

Bluetooth GPS

First, turn on Bluetooth on your Pandora. Now, open up terminal and do:

hcitool scan

This scans for bluetooth devices. Find your GPS device on the list and make a note of its MAC address (it is in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx).

Now you want to find the channel for your bluetooth GPS, run the command (replacing the example MAC address with your own):

sdptool browse xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

Now you need to edit /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf. In this example I use nano, but you can use whatever editor you like. Do:

sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf

Fill in rfcomm.conf using the following template and the information you found using the steps listed above:

rfcomm0 {
bind no;
device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;
channel 1;
comment “GPS”;
}

Now connecting to your GPS is as simple as running the command:

sudo rfcomm connect 0

USB GPS

Someone with a USB GPS will need to fill in this section

A usb gps will use '/dev/ttyUSB0' or '/dev/ttyACM0' instead of '/dev/rfcomm0', apart from that it's the same.

The Linux kernel shipped with the pandora dosn't properly recognize some bluetooth/usb gps's that have buggy usb descriptors, if you see something like this in dmesg:

cdc_acm: Zero length descriptor references
cdc_acm: probe of 2-1:1.0 failed with error -22

and you do not get a /dev/ttyACM0, then you have a buggy gps. There is a kernel patch to work around this, which can be found here.

Verify that you are receiving data

You can check this by opening up the terminal and running (for example):

cat /dev/rfcomm0

Software

gpsd

Installation

Installing gpsd is a requirement for using many GPS related programs. It can be installed through opkg, however the version currently in the Angstrom repos is too new for some applications (specifically tangoGPS). However if you want to install it this way you can by running:

sudo opkg install gpsd

Now if you do want the older version which does work with tangoGPS, you must download it from here. Put that file somewhere convenient, like the root of an SD card. You can still use opkg to install it, for example if you have it on the root of the right hand side SD card:

sudo opkg install /media/mmcblk1p1/gpsd_2.38-r0.1_armv7a.ipk

TangoGPS

tangoGPS running on a Pandora

Be aware that by default data for the maps are stored into your home directory (on the NAND if you're not running off an SD card).

Installation

Until someone makes a PND, you can use opkg:

sudo opkg install tangogps

You should now find TangoGPS in the "other" category of the menu.