I discovered bluetooth is disabled on EOS by default and does not let one enable it.
After some trials, I found that I can enable it using systemctl enable --now bluetooth
After said, I can enable Bluettot and connect to another device, even I can tether to a mobile.
Yet, by the life of mine I cannot find how to actually use bluetooth, as in sharing a file from my machine to another device using Bluetooth, possibly the most common usecase for bluetooth at large.
I tried nautilus-bluetooth, which appears plain broken (it adds a context menu in nautilus/files but clicking said does just nothing), so I uninstalled this again as it appears broken.
… I cannot fathom why a core component of about every electornic device in the modern world is disabled by default… but more importantly, how to actually use it for filesharing, or headset connections?
Thank you!
(I use Gnome on xOrg, and everything is up-to-date as of today)
Which icon do you refer to?
The only bluetooth icon I have is in the top right menu (where you connect to devices) and right clicking on that icon does nothing.
yes, best thing ever to share not only files, but entire (huge) zips, amongst local machines (for example, movies from computer a to b, or else stuff)
Better than spanning a 10 meter cable from one room to another, or relying on Internet to upload > share > download.
Actually… I am rather “files yes, audio no”, as I prefer a cable bound headset in the audio case. But I use(d) the file share a lot, when using macOS prior to EOS. The “airdrop” lets you share about anything at pretty impressive speeds and generally no quality loss. And that is bluetooth based. So this why I am used to it.
Settings >> Bluetooth >> click on the paired device that you want to send the file to >> Send Files… >> choose the file you want to send in the file picker
Are you using some specific package to enable the feature you mention?
Perhaps that is missing in my install (although I do have buez packages and also gnome-bluetooth-3.0)
BTW, yes bluetooth itself does work - just I have no file sharing options.
With “works” I mean for example audio connection.
I tried that several times already (as well prior, during and after trying out several AUR packages that did actually add the context menu on files, yet also did not actually allow to share a thing)
I also have tried to reboot, before and after re-connecting the devices. As a matter of facts I always disable bluetooth after using it, and have to reconnect to the devices
I also tried “forgetting” the device(s), and fully re-establishing the connection, at the same result, that menu only shows bluetooth settings but no sharing options.
Thanks, tried!
That does indeed at least show a “send files” button… but it is greyed out
I did mark the device as trusted and to allow files to/from the trusted devices.
The blueman has an option to send a “note” to the device, which seemed interesting to test - yet it also fails with error:
blueman-manager
blueman-sendto 13.15.04 ERROR Client:26 on_session_failed: 30:57:14:C3:BF:58 3C:22:FB:98:FE:14 opp org.bluez.obex.Error.Failed Unable to find service record
(does not seem related to the device, rather to something in blueman not functioning).
So all that given it seems to me something is making file sharing impossible, and Blueman just only checks after adding the button, thus why grayed out, while Gnome bluetooth checks that before adding the button thus why no button at all?
Just as an idea, if all of the devices are on the same network, you could use GSconnect (KDEconnect), which is an extension for GNOME. Makes easy to send files from computer to phone, or the other way around. Would need to set up KDEconnect on phone.
pacman -Qs bluetooth
local/apple-bcm-firmware 14.0-1
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Firmware from macOS Big Sur for T2 and M1 Macs
local/bluez 5.70-2
Daemons for the bluetooth protocol stack
local/bluez-libs 5.70-2
Deprecated libraries for the bluetooth protocol stack
local/bluez-utils 5.70-2
Development and debugging utilities for the bluetooth protocol stack
local/gnome-bluetooth-3.0 42.7-2
GNOME Bluetooth Subsystem
local/hidapi 0.14.0-2
Simple library for communicating with USB and Bluetooth HID devices
local/libldac 2.0.2.3-1
LDAC Bluetooth encoder library
local/pipewire-pulse 1:1.0.0-2
Low-latency audio/video router and processor - PulseAudio replacement
local/sbc 2.0-1
Bluetooth Subband Codec (SBC) library
That appears to be the only difference at hand here, and it would not be the first not-working feature when using a linuxed mac.
I will check in the T2 community if anyone has actually successfully used Bluetooth for filesharing so far.
I can receive from iPhone to computer using the Gconnect/KDEConnect, not so send from computer to iPhone.
It says “Sending to device XXX” as a notification, but on iPhone side nothing ever prompts, arrives, or else.
Rather weird. However this might be due to the iPhone side in this case, it is not the only feature not working on iPhones when it comes to KDEConnect.
A member of T2 EOS (the dev, I believe) kindly pointed me to google which illustrates how iPhones do not accept nor support Bluetooth filesharing.
The excercise was to dig out an older mac, connect, and look there, fileshare button appears in the settings > Bluetooth for that connection.
I guess iPhones suck (or not, hey, maybe it is actually safer!)
I’ll try to fix kde/gconnect in regard since that uses WiFi and already works on one direction, just need to fix the other direction (possibly some firewall setting, will see in the respective comunity)
(or not, hey, maybe it is actually safer!)