Sunday, March 19, 2017

Bluetooth in Debian Testing (Stretch)

I wrote previously about how Bluetooth file transfer from an Android mobile phone doesn't work in Debian Testing (Stretch), and gave a workaround I'd found.

The issue is a release critical bug, still open at the time of writing. However, there is a permanent fix available.

Obviously if you are installing Debian Stretch after this date, the bug may have been fixed, but here is the fix for anybody who needs it:

# systemctl --global enable obex

 Arch Linux forum was where I found it- thanks go to them.

For me, file transfer does not work unless I have the Bluetooth settings dialogue window open.
As the Gnome help for Bluetooth doesn't seem to have been updated since Gnome 2 (!), I have no idea whether this is a bug or a feature.