Bluetooth file sharing (ObexPush) in GNOME 3.10

As you might remember, GNOME 3.10 switched to using BlueZ 5.x as its Bluetooth backend.

Switching to BlueZ 5.x meant that the old obex-data-server (which was used in both the gvfs ObexFTP backend, and gnome-user-share) couldn't be used anymore. The previously stand-alone obexd was to be used.

Its API is quite different, and it obviously didn't get much testing apart from its target use case, the single-user phone case.

I fixed a number of bugs this week-end, which should make Obex Push server-side (sending files from your phone to your computer) work as expected.

Distributors' homework

First, distributors will need to do a bit of work for you:
- Ship and apply this (not yet upstreamed) patch if you don't have a systemd-based session, so that obexd can be started via D-Bus.
- And ship this patch to have obexd write to the user's cache dir by default.

With both of those patches to BlueZ and gnome-user-share 3.10.1, you should be golden.

Note that the first patch is also required if you want to send files using bluetooth-sendto.

ObexFTP

You'll notice that we didn't mention ObexFTP yet, but we'll do, one last time. ObexFTP support client side hasn't seen any updates for a couple of years, and the server side support for it in obexd didn't match our expectations (such as the inability to kill existing, already made connections).

So ObexFTP support was never finished porting and re-enabled in gnome-user-share. And given that apart from computers and very few phones, the client side support was lacking, we decided to kill the support for it in gnome-user-share.

TL;DR

ObexPush server support is fixed in gnome-user-share 3.10.1, and ObexFTP server support is gone.

ObexFTP in GNOME, (non-)update

If you've tried to use ObexFTP browsing (browsing files on mobile phones over Bluetooth) in GNOME in recent times, and didn't get a good experience from it (crashes, or very unreliable browsing), those problems are known, and due to the architecture used to implement the functionality.

If you want to help make ObexFTP browsing good again, please try to convince one of your coder friends to help port the existing code to use the "gobex" library that the obexd D-Bus service uses.

Unless somebody steps up in the GNOME 3.4 timeframe, I will disable the access to the functionality in gnome-bluetooth. The brokenness makes us look very bad, and the files are still available through other (cabled) means in most cases.

Geek hardware, for a change

Wireless router

Urgh. After having been fighting with my ISP about connectivity problems, they announced that the problem I was plagued with (a bug in a Motorola UBR on their network) was fixed. I was still getting dropped connections though. Turns out the software on the provided D-Link DIR-615 is DIRe (see what I did there).

Here comes DD-WRT. I followed the instructions from this forum post (just the “How do I install DD-WRT?” part), with a firmware grabbed from the DD-WRT website itself.

After the initial setup, I also switched off 802.11B support, as the last device I have to require this is a Nintendo DS that doesn't even do WPA.

New phone

I got a new phone on Friday, and managed to steer clear of iTunes for now. First off, I exported all the contacts from my old Sony Ericsson phone using obexftp:

obexftp -v -b 00:11:22:33:44:55 -U synch -S -g telecom/pb.vcf

This will give you a pb.vcf file with all your contacts.

With the new device still missing a micro-SIM, I fixed a bunch of nautilus-ideviceinfo bugs. With the micro-SIM inserted, I activated the phone with Free Software. After setting up a minimal network, I sent my pb.vcf file to the new phone via e-mail, and reinserted all the contacts.

Still plenty more integration to be done, though a visit to jailbreakme.com will make this easier.

Living on the edge

If you want to try out the new BlueZ 4 code, and D-Bus API, come to try the upcoming Fedora 10 Beta (coming Tuesday a week). We have BlueZ 4.x and updated obex-data-server, and gvfs working with the new APIs.

gnome-user-share and nautilus-sendto are upcoming as well.

It also allows you to test the PulseAudio Bluetooth integration, if you're feeling particularly adventurous.

Gadgets and gifts

The great sport that is Vincent sent me a copy of Hacking vim for my troubles. Hopefully, I'll be able to get more code written, as requested.


In the free stuff department, last week, a kind soul at Ericsson sent me 2 Sony Ericsson mobile phones, one being the pretty new Sony Ericsson k850i. The other (less interesting) phone is already on its way to one of the gnokii developers without such a device.

I've started playing around with it. It has a good bunch of interesting modes when plugged in via USB, or over Bluetooth, which beg to be (better) supported including:

• MTP device (Rhythmbox and gvfs)
• Mass Storage media player (Rhythmbox)
• ObexFTP over USB and Bluetooth (gvfs, obex-data-server)
• Serial port (NetworkManager, gnome-phone-manager, gnokii)

Funnily enough, poking people at Nokia didn't get me a test phone in the ~2 years I tried. My wishlist is online :)

gvfsd-obexftp

I committed my work on the ObexFTP backend for gvfs yesterday, and fixed a good number of bugs in it today (one deadlock, missing icons, etc.). And it's looking quite neat.

After selecting the device in the Bluetooth applet's "Browse Device..." menu, the device shows up on the desktop with a nice name and a window pops up.

Nice icon!

Photos I need to upload somewhere!

The nice thing is that it'll automatically unmount when the phone is out of range, or the Bluetooth adapter is removed/disabled (such as when suspending).