Which USB Bluetooth adapters will work with Puppy?

[dancytron]

I want to get one of those cheap usb bluetooth adapters so I can use my new cheap bluetooth headphones with my desktop.

There seem to be a large variety on ebay for $5 or so. Is it like wireless cards where some are supported by the kernel and work out of the box, some need effort to make work and some will never work? Or do they pretty much all work?

Any way to tell which ones work out of the box without actually trying them out?

edit: I saw this and will search for them on ebay, but they don't seem to be the $5 ones. https://wiki.ubuntu.comHardwareSupportC ... sbAdapters

[dancytron]

Okay, for $5 I am just going to take my chances. I got the cheapest one on ebay shipping from the U.S. that has "Linux" in the description.

I'll report back if it works.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-USB-Bluet ... 3372416634

[jamesbond]

Anything that isn't made by broadcom would be a good start.
But please do report back

[dancytron]

I've got it and it works (Debian Dog Stretch) in the sense that I can pair my head phones and my android phone with it. I can send files to my android phone (which I can also do over wifi). To do this, all I had to do was install "bluetooth" and "blueman" and their dependencies and reboot.

The problem is that in order to use the headphones (which was the main thing), you need to have pulse audio. There is some software that looks kind of like apulse for bluetooth that needs to be compiled. See https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa I will try to use this, but it might be the middle of next week before I can do it.

These 2 links seem at least somewhat relevant

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/123 ... pulseaudio

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... -bt-device

This is it:

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

edit: I found the application "bluealsa" on the Raspberry Pi website almost by mistake. https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ ... /bluealsa/

Now my headset connects without error.

I am closer, but not quite there yet.

[gychang]

Is there an easier usb bluetooth transmitter that is less hassle to setup in puppy (BionicPup64 and Quirky Beaver64)??, willing to pay little more from Amazon....

[belham2]

Hi all,

Has anyone gotten bluetooth (specifically, that is a Broadcom-based usb dongle---which the vast majority on Amazon are) to work in any puppy? Especially Phil's Xenial/Bionic ?

If so, can you specify what you did exactly? Neither Mistfire's excellent p3bluetooth or Rsrcn51's bluetooth apps help much when it the USB bluetooth dongle is based on these sh#tty Broadcom chips.

This is one case, imho, where it should be Intel all the way.

My old, trusty Intel USB bluetooth dongle in my Fatdog laptop fires right up, but this other USB bluetooth dongle based on Broadcom is just crap---across all Phil's/Peebee's/Mistfire/Barrys/etc creations.

Frustrating.....

[mistfire]

@belham

Bluetooth devices work depends on your kernel and firmware that the puppy is using. Here are the options:

1. Switch kernel
2. Install firmware driver

Make sure that bluez was installed

[rcrsn51]

This has nothing to do with kernels or chipsets or firmware. Bluetooth client packages are NOT portable. They only work on the platform where they were built.

[perdido]

Hi all,

Has anyone gotten bluetooth (specifically, that is a Broadcom-based usb dongle---which the vast majority on Amazon are) to work in any puppy? Especially Phil's Xenial/Bionic ?

If so, can you specify what you did exactly? Neither Mistfire's excellent p3bluetooth or Rsrcn51's bluetooth apps help much when it the USB bluetooth dongle is based on these sh#tty Broadcom chips.

This is one case, imho, where it should be Intel all the way.

My old, trusty Intel USB bluetooth dongle in my Fatdog laptop fires right up, but this other USB bluetooth dongle based on Broadcom is just crap---across all Phil's/Peebee's/Mistfire/Barrys/etc creations.

Frustrating.....

I have wasted more time than I will admit to trying to get my Broadcom BT device working consistently.

Code: Select all

Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth)
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0a5c:5801 Broadcom Corp. BCM5880 Secure Applications Processor with fingerprint swipe sensor

These are an integrated device from Dell (Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Minicard).
Just adding this for info purposes, not looking for the magic to make it useable.

/

[gychang]

I've got it and it works (Debian Dog Stretch) in the sense that I can pair my head phones and my android phone with it. I can send files to my android phone (which I can also do over wifi). To do this, all I had to do was install "bluetooth" and "blueman" and their dependencies and reboot.

The problem is that in order to use the headphones (which was the main thing), you need to have pulse audio. There is some software that looks kind of like apulse for bluetooth that needs to be compiled. See https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa I will try to use this, but it might be the middle of next week before I can do it.

These 2 links seem at least somewhat relevant

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/123 ... pulseaudio

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... -bt-device

This is it:

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

edit: I found the application "bluealsa" on the Raspberry Pi website almost by mistake. https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ ... /bluealsa/

Now my headset connects without error.

I am closer, but not quite there yet.

Can I assume this dongle works without difficulty in bionicpup?

[dancytron]

I wouldn't assume that it works. I've never gotten my BT headset to work dependably, although I have been able to use it for file transfer between my phone and desktop (which I don't need because I've got wifi and samba shares).

[rcrsn51]

Can I assume this dongle works without difficulty in bionicpup?

That dongle (and most BT hardware) is Linux-compatible. The issue is almost always about software.

My BT package in the Buster Starter Kit will do A2DP audio streaming with every hardware combination I throw at it.

[rcrsn51]

No replies?

People bitch constantly about bluetooth, but won't try something that actually works.

[dancytron]

No replies?

People bitch constantly about bluetooth, but won't try something that actually works.

I tried your program in stretch. I gave up. Perhaps my bluetooth adapter is just junk (it was only $4 online from China).

I appreciate the effort, but it's not something I actually need and I don't get to test as much stuff as I'd like as it is, so I'm not planning on spending anymore time on it... . . . .

[rcrsn51]

It's not just about the adapter - it also depends on the target BT device.

You mentioned somewhere that you are trying to connect a BT headset. In order for a headset to work with this system, it must recognize the A2DP audio profile. Many headsets only use the hands-free phone protocol, so bluealsa won't connect.

But without details about what goes wrong, it's hard to say. I can't find a test report from you in the Stretch threads.

[dancytron]

It must have been bad hardware before. I got a new HP laptop, installed it in a pretty fresh buster dog install, followed the instructions, and was up and running with my bluetooth headphones in 10 minutes.