Bluetooth working properly (again) in KDE 4

[Fitzcarraldo]

This is for all you SL KDE 4 users that have been gnashing your teeth about Bluetooth recently. The fix I posted in the thread Re: Bluetooth problem still present... stopped working properly when net-wireless/bluez and net-wireless/kdebluetooth4 were changed some time after I posted in the aforementioned thread. I could then only send files to my phone, not vice versa. Anyway, kdebluetooth4 has been replaced by kbluetooth, which is currently at version 0.4_rc1 in the kde-testing overlay to Portage.

After only being able to send files to my phone but not receive them, now I can again send and receive files. Yippee!!! I no longer have to boot into Windows XP just to transfer files from my phone. Fingers crossed that Bluetooth doesn't break again in KDE 4.

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# eix kbluetooth
[I] net-wireless/kbluetooth
     Available versions:  (4) (~)0.4_rc1 **9999[1]
        {aqua debug linguas_da linguas_de linguas_en_GB linguas_es linguas_et linguas_fr linguas_gl linguas_km linguas_lt linguas_nds linguas_pt linguas_pt_BR linguas_ro linguas_ru linguas_sv linguas_tr linguas_uk linguas_zh_CN linguas_zh_TW (+)semantic-desktop}
     Installed versions:  0.4_rc1(4)(16:17:11 20/10/09)(semantic-desktop -aqua -debug -linguas_da -linguas_de -linguas_en_GB -linguas_es -linguas_et -linguas_fr -linguas_gl -linguas_km -linguas_lt -linguas_nds -linguas_pt -linguas_pt_BR -linguas_ro -linguas_ru -linguas_sv -linguas_tr -linguas_uk -linguas_zh_CN -linguas_zh_TW)
     Homepage:            http://bluetooth.kmobiletools.org/
     Description:         KDE Bluetooth Framework

[1] "kde" /usr/local/portage/layman/kde-testing

To install it for KDE 4.3.1 in SL 5.0 you need to:

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# emerge --sync
# emerge -1v =bluez-4.39-r2
# layman -a kde-testing
# emerge -1v =kbluetooth-0.4_rc1
# udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=bluetooth
# /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart

I also edited the file /etc/conf.d/local and added the line udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=bluetooth inside the local_start(){ } section.

I expect at some point that the new package will appear in Entropy. If you're an Entropy user and need it then you can request it via the official channel.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Doh! Just realised when looking at the output from eix again that kbluetooth-0.4_rc1 is not in the kde-testing overlay, it's in the main Portage tree, so to install kbluetooth it's not even necessary to add the kde-testing overlay. So scratch what I wrote above, you just need to do:

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# emerge --sync
# emerge -1v =bluez-4.39-r2
# emerge -1v =kbluetooth-0.4_rc1
# udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=bluetooth
# /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart

I also edited the file /etc/conf.d/local and added the line udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=bluetooth inside the local_start(){ } section.

Since my previous post I have found that kbluetooth-04._rc1 is still a bit flaky, but hopefully any bugs will be ironed out soon. I even managed to get Remote Control working, so I was controlling the mouse cursor on my SL KDE installation from my mobile phone, and it was smooth.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Arggghhh. The damn thing stopped working again. Well, sending files from my phone to my laptop doesn't work any more, although sending files from my laptop to the phone still works. So it's back to the way it was before I installed kbluetooth-0.4_rc1. And I didn't install or change anything. It just stopped working.

So, there are still problems with kbluetooth-0.4_rc1. Therefore I decided to try the masked test version kbluetooth-9999 in the kde-testing overlay. To do this I edited the file /etc/portage/package.keywords and added the following line to it:

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net-wireless/kbluetooth **

Then I did:

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# layman -a kde-testing
# emerge -1v =kbluetooth-9999

and now I can send files from my phone to my laptop again. Let's see how long this works this time.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I have found that even the latest test version of kbluetooth (kbluetooth-9999) is problematic. Like kbluetooth-0.4_rc1 and the last version of kdebluetooth4 that I tried, it allows sending of files from my phone to my laptop when first installed but then stops working after subsequent reboots. However, I've found a work-around: see "Method 3" below.

Method 2:
I had originally launched kbluetooth and left it running (i.e. the kbluetooth icon in the Panel) when I shut down my laptop, so that it was launched automatically every time I rebooted my laptop. I stopped doing this and instead did the following:

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$ cp /usr/share/applications/kde4/kbluetooth.desktop /home/fitzcarraldo/.kde/Autostart/kbluetooth.desktop

However this still did not allow me to send files from my phone to my laptop.

Method 3:
I deleted /home/fitzcarraldo/.kde/Autostart/kbluetooth.desktop and rebooted. Then I launched kbluetooth in a Konsole window under my user name. This time I can send files from my phone to my laptop. It does not work every time: sometimes I have to retry.


So it appears that kbluetooth must be launched after the boot process has completed. Method 2 and my original method of launching kbluetooth (by leaving it running at shutdown) both launch kbluetooth under my user name and with my user rights as far as I am aware, so I don't see the difference between the three methods of launching kbluetooth, apart from Method 3 being done manually by me well after startup has completed.