BT-Q818 mouse MTK Bluetooth 2.92-4 3.01 Had to use the -b option. Reported by jason.komut@*******.

It helps to know the gps tested and works out of the box with gpsd.

Inn Navigatrix the default is with the -b flag.

http://gpsd.berlios.de/hardware.html

-b

Broken-device-safety mode, otherwise known as read-only mode. A few bluetooth and USB receivers lock up or become totally inaccessible when probed or reconfigured; see the hardware compatibility list on the GPSD project website for details. This switch prevents gpsd from writing to a receiver. This means that gpsd cannot configure the receiver for optimal performance, but it also means that gpsd cannot break the receiver. A better solution would be for Bluetooth to not be so fragile. A platform independent method to identify serial-over-Bluetooth devices would also be nice.
-G

This flag causes gpsd to listen on all addresses (INADDR_ANY) rather than just the loop back (INADDR_LOOPBACK) address. For the sake of privacy and security, TPV information is now private to the local machine until the user makes an effort to expose this to the world.

-n

Don't wait for a client to connect before polling whatever GPS is associated with it. Some RS232 GPSes wait in a standby mode (drawing less power) when the host machine is not asserting DTR, and some cellphone and handheld embedded GPSes have similar behaviors. Accordingly, waiting for a watch request to open the device may save battery power. (This capability is rare in consumer-grade devices).

The 'netbook screen problem' is addressed

http://navigatrix.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=641

using the spare nx usb stick I connected the gps with BT Manager and then in terminal
nx@nx:~$ rfcomm
rfcomm0: 00:23:06:D7:8D:19 -> 00:1C:88:11:0C:02 channel 1 connected [reuse-dlc tty-attached]
Then removed the gps device in BT manager. Then in terminal
nx@nx:~$ sudo medit /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf (as Moe said above)

# RFCOMM configuration file.
#
# # Automatically bind the device at startup
bind yes;
#
# # Bluetooth address of the device
device 00:1C:88:11:0C:02;
#
# # RFCOMM channel for the connection
channel 1;
#
# # Description of the connection
# comment "Example Bluetooth device";
}

Then in terminal
nx@nx:~$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:1C:88:11:0C:02 iBT-GPS
nx@nx:~$ rfcomm
nx@nx:~$
At this point I rebooted and the gps was auto connected to rfcomm0 in BT manager
nx@nx:~$ rfcomm
rfcomm0: 00:1C:88:11:0C:02 channel 1 connected [tty-attached]
Xgps was happy and all is right with the world :D