Howto install bluetuith to manage bluetooth connections

[goebbe]

Bluetuith is an alternative programme that manages Bluetooth connections.

Overview article about bluetuith:
https://www.makeuseof.com/manage-blueto ... bluetuith/

Project page of bluetuith:
https://github.com/darkhz/bluetuith

This is a small howto that documents the steps to install bluetuith on Linux Mint CE 21.2.

My personal motivation for installing bluetuith: I could pair my Bluetooth devices using the standard tools - however whenever I connected my Bluetooth headphones, the connection was dropped after a very short time. Connecting the same Bluetooth devices with bluetuith gives a stable connection - and I could use my headphones without any issues on my laptop (Lenovo Think Pad T470)

1. Make sure that you have installed everything that you require:

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sudo apt install bluetooth pulseaudio-module-bluetooth wget

2. Download the latest binary of buetuith from github/releases. Here we download bluetuith_0.1.9_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz :
Note: This is a multiline command - you can copy/paste the four lines in one go. Please adapt version (V) if required.

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B=bluetuith;\
V=0.1.9;\
L=Linux_x86_64.tar.gz; \
wget https://github.com/darkhz/$B/releases/download/v$V/$B"_"$V"_"$L

3. Unpack the binary, make it executable and move the binary to /usr/local/bin :

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sudo tar -xf $B_*_$L -C /usr/local/bin/

4. Generate a menu entry:

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echo -e "[Desktop Entry]\nName=Bluetuith\nComment=Bluetooth Frontend\nExec=bash -c '/usr/local/bin/bluetuith;$SHELL'\nTerminal=true\nIcon=bluetooth\nType=Application\nCategories=System;GTK;Utility;TerminalEmulator;\nStartupNotify=true"\
>$HOME/.local/share/applications/bluetuith.desktop

5. Restart the Bluetooth services:

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sudo systemctl restart bluetooth 

That's it! To start bluetuith, open a terminal emulator and type:

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bluetuith

Or use the menu entry, which you can find under "Administration/bluetuith"

Bluetuith uses a terminal interface that can be used with a mouse. Right-click on the entries to trust, pair, connect your devices.

I hope this will be helpful.

Note: This has been tested successfully on Linux Mint 21.2. (based on Ubuntu 22.04) and is likely to work well with 21.3, too (also based on Ubuntu 22.04).

[fossilised]

My problem seems to be an authentication issue, I have given up on Linux Mint and installed Debian 12 bookworm which has exactly the same issue.
I found using bluetoothctl from a terminal gives me the best results and outputs more useful debug info.
I did try bluetuith and it did nothing for me, it's just another front end for the bluez stack.

[goebbe]

Thank you, fossilised, for sharing your experience!
One thing I learned by now is that trusting a device after paring can break the ability to connect to the devices.

So if you want to use a Bluetooth device regularly, you should proceed in the following order:

1. Put your device (your Bluetooth headphones) into pairing mode, to allow Linux Mint to see/ discover the device.
2. Now first trust the device
3. Then pair the device
4. Now you should be able to connect/ disconnect your device.

This should work with different tools: blueman, bluetuith and so on.
If you have authentication problems, or your device is not supported, probably the order of steps does not matter.

[signalterminal]

LMDE 6:
That's the only way I could pair bluetooth headsets without dialing in a PIN (which I do not know)! Somehow "lagacy pairing" is deactivated, using the bluetuith terminal.

while retrofitting old i5 6500T systems with bluetooth m.2 2230 cards (ax210ngw & 8260ngm) and small antennas, i suffered from very bad link signal between the pc and the bluetooth headsets. Even though the pairing process with the built in blueman bluetooth manager was very easy without any need to put in an PIN.

To check & improve the link quality, I bought a cheap, noname bt5.3 bluetooth USB dongle from amazon to try it out. The dongle was recognized by the system without any need of driver installation, but trying to connect to my two bluetooth headsets, blueman suddenly asked after a PIN, which I did not know. Both manuals of the headsets lacked info about that possibility. All pairing attempts, googling, following suggestings, fooling around with bluetoothctl, there was always the question after the PIN. I could not deactivate the "legacy pairing".

With this tutorial and the bluetuith manager it was no problem to pair the devices and it worked like a charm out of the box! No PIN needed, the connections are easily established and stable. Funnily enough "info" of the bluetooth headsets inside the bluetuith manager is showing "legacy pairing = no" - without any involvement!
Again, thanks a lot for sharing that great tutorial! <3 Finally, thanks to you, I can use my bluetooth headset everywhere in my appartement and am happy af