Kismet with Bluetooth Garmin GPS on Mac OSX

This outline contains configuration examples on how to setup Kismet for use with Mac OSX 10.5 and Bluetooth GPS. Currently, there are OS incompatibilities running OSX 10.6 through 10.6.3 putting the wireless card into monitor mode.

Install all applications

First, before anything, install Xcode. This is Apple's Developers kit and will be required before installing any of the DarwinPorts in order to compile the necessary applications locally on your Mac. It allows the user to build their own applications within OSX.

Since OSX doesn't really support any simple way to disable sleep mode with the lid closed, we've decided to use InsomniaX with quick access to disable these "features".

Required Hardware, Applications and Setups:
• XCode 3.1.2+
• Darwin Ports 1.6+
• Kismet
• gpsd 2.37+
• InsomniaX
• Garmin Bluetooth GPS 10x

Setting up the Garmin Bluetooth GPS

1. Turn on the Garmin GPS 10x Bluetooth Receiver to allow it to poll to the computer.
2. From the Mac Finder, select Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Bluetooth -> Devices -> Set up new device -> Continue -> Any device -> Continue
3. Select "Garmin GPS 10x" and select Passkey Options -> Use a specific passkey -> OK -> Continue
4. When Bluetooth Setup Assistant is done collection information about the device, press Continue
5. Enter "1234" (without the quotes) in the Passkey box and select Continue (Passkey 1234 was just a wild, lucky guess on my part; I have no idea how one is supposed to know this!)
6. Bluetooth Setup Assistant will claim that there are no supported services on this device. Ignore the message and press Continue then Quit.
7. Back on the Bluetooth system preference panel, select "Garmin GPS 10" then "Edit serial ports". The device name will be "GarminGPS10-Gps10-1" or something like that, and the service "Gps 10". Select port type "RS-232" and don't check "Require pairing" or "Show in Network Preferences" (maybe you can, but I didn't). Press Apply.
8. Quit System Preferences.

Once the GPS is paired, you should see the following example of what it will look like on your Mac OSX install. Do not be alarmed that OSX does not understand what the device classes are. They have yet to figure out that users might want GPS functionality in their applications.

A more detailed view of the above when utilizing the Advanced... dialogue. There are no options that need to be changed in this setup in order to get the device to work properly. It is merely for information.

Starting the GPS Receiver

In our testing, it was easier to keep the gps daemon in the foreground to watch its activity with the -N option. It isn't necessary, but it sure helps to figure out what is going on. The -b flag is for bluetooth-safe operations. The daemon does not try to write to the device. It does cause some problems if this flag is not set. We have found that we automatically want the data from the bluetooth GPS to spit out, so therefore we have used the -n flag. All flags combined, the testing performed has found that these are the best possible combinations to get the GPS to communicate over bluetooth to the OS.

Configuring and Starting Kismet

Utilizing the two terminal window, kismet operates as a client/server application. Start one terminal window for kismet_server and the other for kismet_client.