No way to configure a remote through Bluetooth Applet

[Nick B.]

Binary package hint: bluez-gnome

The removal of hidd breaks some bluetooth remote control functionality. My cell phone can act as an hidd input device for various things like media players, Open Office presentations etc. Previously I was able to set this up with hidd however I can no longer do this in Intrepid with the new bluez packages. From what I understand everything now should be done through the bluetooth applet, however I see no way to make my phone act as a remote through there.
The hidd binary is provided in the bluez-compat package, however installing this doesn't seem to be a long term solution from the description of the package.

"These binaries are not supported, and will go away again in the future."

If hidd is to be completely removed from the bluez stack there should be some way to configure a remote control through the Bluetooth Applet.

bluez-gnome:
  Installed: 1.8-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.8-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.8-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

Have you tried simply pairing the phone with PC and starting the remote control feature?

[Nick B. (futurepilot)]

Yes, it pairs ok, but I can't control anything with it. When I start the remote it looks like it does make a connection, but no input is registered.

[Nick B. (futurepilot)]

This is all that shows up in the logs when attempting to use my phone as a remote.

bluetoothd[5878]: link_key_request (sba=00:02:72:CE:58:A8, dba=00:16:20:63:CF:CD)

Could this possibly be related to a missing "Services" tab in Bluetooth Applet?

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

Nick,

What was previously a 'bluetooth service' is a bluetooth plugin now. This is true for audio, input, network etc. So you don't need service configuration tab anymore.

One thing you can try is try deleting all the content in /var/lib/bluetooth and then restart bluetooth service with 'sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart'

By the way, I will try testing this on my phone as well in a day or two and report back.

[Nick B. (futurepilot)]

Thanks for the clarification on the "Services" tab. I removed everything from /var/lib/bluetooth and did /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart, but I still can't control anything. It definitely does make a connection to the computer, but it's not picking up any input.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Hi Nick:

You can get the old hidd binary from the bluez-compat package if you need to (but of course this isn't the preferred method).

[Wowbagger (ha87psc02)]

So, do I understand you to say that there is no way to configure an external Bluetooth HID device (such as a keyboard or mouse) such that when the device connects to the computer, *something* will actually take the events from the device and route them to the user interface so that they can be acted upon, save by installing an older, deprecated package and MANUALLY, FROM THE COMMAND LINE launching the appropriate commands?

Do I understand that, due to the way the Bluetooth tools are shipped in the latest versions of Ubuntu, all the the guides a user is likely to find on the Web that instruct them to simply select the Bluetooth Icon on the panel, and switch to the "Services" tab are now invalid, because there is no "Services" tab, and there is now some new, undocumented way to enable things like HID support?

Let me be clear here: this is something that should Just Work: I pair an HID device to the machine, and when that device connects the appropriate services/daemons/plugins/whatever should be launched WITHOUT having to manually start them from the command line.