Bluetooth sucks

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a.bowers
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Bluetooth sucks

Post by a.bowers »

Guys, I'm struggling to describe in non-swear words just how much I hate Bluetooth. It wasn't so much designed, as a Wi-Fi card got cancer one day and they decided to market it as a "feature." It's slow, the pairing process is clunkier than a bowling ball in a tumble dryer, it encourages hardware developers to build really, REALLY stupid products like airpods, and half the time it just straight-up doesn't work. And there's NOTHING the Linux Mint developer community can do about that.

What you could do, however, is make Blueberry suck a little less. Guys...why does file sharing fail most--but not all--of the time? Why can't I set my Bluetooth adapter to OFF by default? Why doesn't it stay OFF when I turn it OFF? Why is it so feature and option poor? There's been a lot of work done to the standard X-utility suite of Cinnamon, is Blueberry due for a "make it at least work a little" overhaul?
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MrEen
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by MrEen »

Don't know if this will help you, from a poll elsewhere on this forum regarding bluetooth use:
administrollaattori wrote: Mon Feb 26, 2018 1:22 pm Works perfectly after removing Blueberry and installing Blueman
https://puolanka.info/goto/bluetooth-settings/
rickNS
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by rickNS »

What version of mint ? 18. ?
That poll I started, because I have no bluetooth either on mint 18.0, I've tried everything including blueman. It "seems" (from the small sample) if you have mint 18.2 or newer it does work. I'm not updating to 18.2 or 3 because I don't need bluetooth, and much prefer the theme color tweak, which I would loose with an upgrade.

I understand the wanting to curse when you can't get something working that others have.
Mint 20.0, and 21.0 MATE on Thinkpads, 3 X T420, T450, T470, and X200
a.bowers
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by a.bowers »

Yeah, I have Blueman installed in addition to Blueberry. I've got two bluetooth logos on my panel right now. Blueman seems to work a bit better, but the jury's out if it'll turn bluetooth off and leave it off.

This raises a few questions:
1: If Blueman is compatible with Cinnamon and works better, why isn't it shipped with the OS by default, other than not fitting the Cinnamon style guide?
2: Is it appropriate to uninstall Blueberry?
3: Could Blueberry be improved to eliminate the need for this workaround?

Edit: I meant to say in my OP which distro, but I edited it out and failed to put it back in. I herp'd when I should have derp'd. I'm on 18.2.
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by JeremyB »

It is safe to uninstall Blueberry in Cinnamon and I doubt anyone other than Clem or one of the Mint developers know why Blueberry was used rather than gnome-bluetooth or Blueman
Blueman did have some issues in Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17.? so that might have been a factor
a.bowers
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by a.bowers »

Well I'm in the delicate state of not being a very good programmer (I can make an Arduino blink a light) but I'd like to make my favorite distro even better. What can we do, and how can I help?
a.bowers
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by a.bowers »

Response is noted.
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by JeremyB »

I don't know what you can do as the bluetooth managers aren't maintained by Linux Mint
Hoser Rob
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Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by Hoser Rob »

As mentioned, the Mint developers don't have much to do with this. But I sympathize. Bluetooth is not exactly new technology. It's just ridiculous. It's a good example of why Linux can't succeed on the desktop.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
Ozo

Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by Ozo »

I have had bad luck with bluetooth devises over the years but now have zero problems with them. Because I no longer have any. They have all either died or are in a box. I now use wireless devices but not bluetooth and no more Logitech devices either. And no Windows operating systems, dual boot or otherwise. If it can not be done easily on Mint then it does not get done.

Progress has seen many things fall into disuse. The list is long but starts with Windows, bluetooth, Tape recordings, vinyl recordings, VHS, Beta, optical drives (CD's), platter hard drives, quadraphonic sound systems,

I received this advise once, "Always use the latest technology" . It was referring to motherboards etc. but It applies to other aspects of electronics too. I guess the exception is those who have antique computers running Linux based operating systems. My point is that Bluetooth is old tech and so gets little attention from those who could perfect it so would best be forgotten.
dragondave59

Re: Bluetooth sucks

Post by dragondave59 »

Even Blueman struggles to connect. I've had to dig out the CLI and type in
sudo pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover
then Blueman will connect whereas Blueberry still connects and then disconnects. I thought that this was meant to have been sorted for LM 18.3 - or so their blog said!
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