use bluetooth & connect Mint-12 laptop to 'droid 2.3.3 phone

[SaintDanBert]

I can dance with the Bluetooth tools and "pair" my phone with my Mint-12 laptop. However, I cannot "connect" and get anything done.

• cannot move named files in either direction
• cannot browse in either direction
• cannot do music or anything audio
• cannot watch phone-made videos on the laptop [see note]
• cannot activate DUN to use the phone as a modem

Once I get file transfer and various networking solid over bluetooth,
then I want to work of getting DUN to work with the phone as modem.
First, I need basic bluetooth.

Laptop is:
Lenovo, Thinkpad X220t Tablet-PC
Linux Mint-12 with Cinnamon
Phone is:
HTC Inspire 4G/LTE, AT&T
'droid v2.3.3
kernel v2.6.35.10-gd2564fb

NOTE:
I can use Remote Web Desktop and wifi and much of this works (except DUN).
So the basic parts are in there somewhere. It is the bluetooth parts that are not
working well.

[xox101]

I'm trying to do almost exactly the same thing with very similar equipment. In my case a Lenovo X200 with Mint 12 and a HTC Desire running a custom rom...2.35.

This is around the fifth or sixth install of Mint 12 on this laptop due to various problems with both wireless and bluetooth. Interestingly I had to upgrade the kernel to the latest version before being able to get anything to work with bluetooth on all the previous installs. I was also able to connect to and transfer files to my phone after doing this. Then last week all the bluetooth devices disappeared from my laptop never to return! I spent hours trying to get the laptop's bluetooth to see my headset, phone and Windows 7 laptop without success. So I went for a full reinstall.

This time my headset connected without a problem without upgrading the kernel. My phone pairs with the laptop but the "connection" button is greyed out for some reason so transferring files is impossible. I haven't tried my Win 7 laptop as I don't want to lose the bluetooth connections again and I'm now heartily sick of reinstalling Mint 12!

In my opinion bluetooth is broken in some way. I did try Blueman with the last install as I had read that it is supposed to be better than the built in bluetooth but again without success. This might be something you might want to try though.

One thing I have noticed is that the built in bluetooth icon on the panel often bears no resemblance to what is being stated in bluetooth settings. ie...setting the headset to "connection" in the icon's drop down menu but then finding that I have to set it again in bluetooth settings as the settings panel does not seem to follow along with the icon.

Somebody needs to take a really close look at this. I know that bluetooth is a bit of a minefield but it should and I'm sure could work better than this!

I'm not going to say a word about network manager working in 11 and not in 12 or I will really lose the plot!

[SaintDanBert]

Boy do I share your pain...

My X220 is the "tablet-pc". Not only do I have not quite normal hardware of the Lenovo Thinkpad, but its a tablet-PC with the convertible display and friends.

Do you have the UltraBase(tm) port replicator with DVD?

Everything I've tried under win-dose has worked without troubles. I encourage you
to return to win-dose, use the Lenovo tools and get all the updates. There was at least one firmware update as I recall. You are free to ignore anything Redmond, but the Lenovo firmware is a good thing.

Please lets keep in touch.
~~~ 0;-Dan

[xox101]

My X200 runs both Win7 and Mint as a dual boot. I simply don't trust Mint 12 to the point of being able to do without Windows on this machine although I much prefer the lightness and security of Mint on a travelling laptop.

It really is a shame as Mint has been my distribution of choice for years on my smaller laptops, IBM A22m,A31,T40 and T42 and now the X200. On all the previous models I ran Mint exclusively without any problems only occasionally changing back to the dark side for one reason or another but Mint 12 is flakey to say the least!

No Ultrabase as I don't really need one, I have an ASUS beast sitting beside me that does all the heavy work.

On the Windows side I have downloaded Lenovo ThinkVantage tools and done all the updates. No firmware update that I can find either through ThinkVantage or on the Lenovo support site.

As a side note I have now ordered an older version of the wireless card fitted to my X200, an Intel AGN4965 in place of the fitted AGN5100, in the hope that it may work with Network Manager. I don't hold out much hope though! LOL!

Good luck.