I am not sure if the answer to the primary question is here and I missed it out somehow, but I have exactly the same issue where bnep0 device will not show up.

I have latest maemo-pc-connectivity package installed.

I created rfcomm.conf and ran "rfcomm -f /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf bind 2" with no errors.

I have hci0 up and running:

Code:

Nokia-N900-51-1:~# hciconfig  
hci0:   Type: UART
        BD Address: EC:9B:5B:41:E1:48 ACL MTU: 1017:4 SCO MTU: 64:1
        UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
        RX bytes:1428 acl:0 sco:0 events:34 errors:0
        TX bytes:11090 acl:0 sco:0 commands:34 errors:0

I have following processes running:

Code:

Nokia-N900-51-1:~# ps -ef | grep bl
    6 root         0 SW   [kblockd/0]
  413 root         0 SW   [bluetooth]
  823 haldaemo  3092 S    hald-addon-usb-cable: listening on /sys/devices/platf
  889 root      3404 S    /usr/sbin/bluetoothd -n
 1611 root      2092 S    grep bl

but when I'm trying to access bnep0, all fails:

Code:

Nokia-N900-51-1:~# ifup bnep0
ifconfig: SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
ifconfig: SIOCSIFADDR: No such device

can someone here give me a pointer, what could be a problem? which process creates this bnep0 device?