Jul 03
Bluetooth is easier on Ubuntu than Windows Vista
Last night, I tried bluetooth file transfers between a mobile phone and PC for the first time. Never needed to do it before, but today my Motorola PEBL goes back to Virgin Mobile - because it’s broken - and I get a new Nokia 6233 in return.
I was a guest on the most recent LugRadio and the subject of Bluetooth support under Linux came up. The general feeling was that Linux operating systems have poor Bluetooth support. So, I decided to give it a go.
Windows Vista: recognised dongle as soon as I plugged it in, giving me a Bluetooth icon in the status bar. Took longer than it should to find the option to make the computer discoverable. No matter what I did, though, the phone couldn’t find the computer. So, no transfers.
Ubuntu: nothing appeared to happen when I plugged the dongle in. However, when I opened Applications->Accessories->Bluetooth File Sharing I was able to send files to the computer with no problems.
You could argue that Windows Vista was more secure, because it wasn’t immediately discoverable. However, Ubuntu worked for me. Windows Vista didn’t.
I know, this is one case and I didn’t do anything fancy, such as use the phone as a modem. But it is nice to know, from my occasional dabbling with Vista, that it’s most often easier to get my stuff done using Ubuntu.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:11 am
Yeah I guess it is a security decision to have everything disabled by default. Vista is not a complete black hole like the tighest systems out there but it’s surprisingly silent. Why it was hard to find is a mystery to me, simply putting the option to the bluetooth icon on tray would have been better.
The most common use for bluetooth is to use a bluetooth phone as a modem, a case where the computer does not have to be discoverable. That is already harder with Linux. Even harder is trying to send the file over bluetooth to your phone. It is supposed to work (there’s a nice gui for it and all) but it has always just failed for me and declined to list my phone even though it was completely discoverable. You were lucky that your use case was the one that actually works.
Not that it really matters. Bluetooth is a transitional technology and at least I am eagerly waiting for the proper stuff to unite all the wireless…
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:31 am
Using Vista at work, I’ve had a lot of headaches in getting various things to work nicely (replacing various bits of it with FLOSS helps), but the bluetooth bits and pieces seem to be one of the oddest.
For the record, if you right click on the bluetooth icon in the system tray, then on the “Recieve a File”, *then* try to send, it’ll work. Why it doesn’t just prompt the user I’ll never know…
The Bluetooth stuff now on the linux desktop is great, everyone working on the project has done fantastic work. Now, if I could just get syncing to work consistently with my Nokia under Ubuntu, I’d be happy…
B
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:43 am
agreed! but wifi can still really suck.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:56 am
Congrats on the new phone, you’ve got one of the best phones now
I’ve dropped mine three storeys down to concrete floor and the thing didn’t get that broken (only the power button had to be fixed with 45e bill). Be sure you update yours to the latest version, I’ve experienced with mine on v4.91 that on Linux the obex transfers over 10M over bluetooth crash the phone and you need to start it all over again.
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Another funny story, I’ve got an internal bluetooth adapter on my Vaio and I bought a pair of Orange bluetooth speakers which can have full stereo music streamed to via the bluetooth a2dp protocol.
Since my Vaio is 1.5 yrs old, Sony dont provide any updated bluetooth drivers with the a2dp protocol stack, so no music streaming at all. Period. No 3rd party drivers would work either, Sony support essentially told me to sod off. Installed bluetooth-alsa and followed the default howto on Feisty and voila, working within an hour.
It seems bluetooth is pulling ahead on linux.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Or, you could install gnome-vfs-obexftp and just browse your phone from Nautilus (obex:///). Ask jamesh about it!
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Also, install bluez-gnome, you’ll get the purdy icon with ‘discoverability options’
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:44 pm
[…] Turning 40 and getting cool geek gifts That’s right 40, this weekend was my 4oth birthday, got drunk, ate cake, and my wonderful family especially my wife knows how to feed my inner geek. She got me one of those cool little USB blue tooth adapters, just right for my Treo 650, and I have to agree with Mathew Revell bluetooth file transfers is very very easy to do in Ubuntu. I’ve never seen anything like it, I plugged it in a USB port, the blue light on the device came on, no drivers to install, nothing to set up. I had no idea what software to install so I went to add/remove searched for bluetooth, installed the file transfer application. Right clicked on a MP3 selected send to bluetooth my Treo 650 woke up and said receiving file. I’ve never seen anything so easy to use ever. Man do I love Ubuntu. Man do I love my wife, my son however got me a case of tuna fish he said old people need fish in there diet. […]
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I wish I had looked here first, before I went out and bought my Treo 680. I have had NO luck using any pilot program, or my jabber bluetooth adaptor. In Kubuntu 7.10 tribe 2, I was able to see the PC from my treo, but it wouldn’t DO anything, like send files, or let me select the treo as a modem. It DOES work in (cough cough) the palm desktop in W$ XP ;(
I was on a plane last week with a Palm employee who told me they were working on kernel improvements and connections to the treos!! So there is hope, but not for now.
July 4th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Hi,
i can only agree with your experience. I have an old Bluetooth dongle without any software and tried to use it with WinXP. It took me weeks to find the right driver in the internet and after installing them i also needed to install my mobile phones software package to communicate with the phone. This was before i used Ubuntu.
Last week i tried the dongle with my Ubuntu and, voila, i just had to install one bluetooth package and i was able to send and receive files from and to my mobile phone.
Thumbs up for this