USB Bluetooth adapter for headphones possibilities?

[No_windows]

I'm new to Bluetooth. I bought some headphones and use them with my phone, and there are times I thought it would be nice to use them with my computer. I started looking at USB dongles (<---that is such a weird word) and from reading mostly generic reviews on the web it sounds like they often need software to run. Much of the info was more Windows oriented, However. I did take a look at the Debian Bluetooth page, which presented several work arounds.... but I've learned that the Debian pages are often outdated, don't cover what I'm after, or at least don't break it down enough for me to understand.

So my question is this.... how much of a hassle is it really? Are these warnings simply covering all the bases, or is it actually a struggle to get this up and running in Linux? I noticed in one review that some dongles were claimed not to work with Linux, which seems odd to me, unless it was simply a reflection of the manufacturers marketing/support.

I was thinking about this: https://plugable.com/products/usb-bt4le

I found another that's not supposed to need any non-free firmware, but it was about triple the price, and searching this forum for the chipset only brought up 3 threads which weren't much help to me. The CSR8510 chipset.

The computer is an AMD Phenom II X3 720 on a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4p mainboard, running Buster/Xfce.

[CwF]

I'm not sure what it is but:

Code: Select all

Bus 004 Device 007: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

I don't use it much and installed it while under Jessie and it still works upgraded through Buster. It needed non-free. My flip phone sends audio to it fine, similar...

I do have a combo CSR BS8510 that kinda works, not recommended.

[pylkko]

I have seen, used and owned some. I have never seen a version that would not work without software. However, some of then require non-free firmware on Debian. The cheapest ones come from ebay china for like 2 USD or something.

Many old computer/laptops can also get bluetooth if you replace the wifi pci card with a combo wifi/bluetooth card. (with "old" I mean that there hasn't been devices manufacured without bluetooth for years, not truly old)

[eriefisher]

Just do a bit of research and make to get a "dongle" that is known to be working in linux without too much trouble. There are plenty. Once you have one and it's plugged in you will need a few packages, bluetooth, blueman, bluez, bluez-firmare, etc. You may also need some free/non-free-firmware but your research should tell you that.

I have an onboard chip in my laptop. I can connect to anything bluetooth enabled, phone, headphones etc. I can transfer data back and forth from the phone. I have also shared my internet connection on my phone through bluetooth from my phone to get my laptop on line when my wifi wouldn't work. I also have a couple of speakers for audio and such. On my laptop I need to select my bluetooth device in pulseaudio to play audio. This all of course is after all these devices are paired through Blueman-applet. It's pretty easy really.

[pylkko]

Just do a bit of research and make to get a "dongle" that is known to be working in linux without too much trouble. There are plenty. Once you have one and it's plugged in you will need a few packages, bluetooth, blueman, bluez, bluez-firmare, etc. You may also need some free/non-free-firmware but your research should tell you that.

I have an onboard chip in my laptop. I can connect to anything bluetooth enabled, phone, headphones etc. I can transfer data back and forth from the phone. I have also shared my internet connection on my phone through bluetooth from my phone to get my laptop on line when my wifi wouldn't work. I also have a couple of speakers for audio and such. On my laptop I need to select my bluetooth device in pulseaudio to play audio. This all of course is after all these devices are paired through Blueman-applet. It's pretty easy really.

I have never seen a Bluetooth chipset that linux doe not support, but of course it's easy to google it as you suggest. Also, share phone mobile internet to laptops over wifi (access point) because over bluetooth it is slow.

[No_windows]

Just do a bit of research and make to get a "dongle" that is known to be working in linux without too much trouble. There are plenty. Once you have one and it's plugged in you will need a few packages, bluetooth, blueman, bluez, bluez-firmare, etc. You may also need some free/non-free-firmware but your research should tell you that.

I have an onboard chip in my laptop. I can connect to anything bluetooth enabled, phone, headphones etc. I can transfer data back and forth from the phone. I have also shared my internet connection on my phone through bluetooth from my phone to get my laptop on line when my wifi wouldn't work. I also have a couple of speakers for audio and such. On my laptop I need to select my bluetooth device in pulseaudio to play audio. This all of course is after all these devices are paired through Blueman-applet. It's pretty easy really.

Ok thank you that's encouraging.

I went ahead and purchased this a few minutes ago: https://www.ebay.com/itm/123892804040
When I Google the chipset it seems that Linux has had issue with knockoffs of the chipset, so we'll see what happens.

[No_windows]

I have never seen a Bluetooth chipset that linux doe not support, but of course it's easy to google it as you suggest. Also, share phone mobile internet to laptops over wifi (access point) because over bluetooth it is slow.

I had no idea I could share an internet connection over Bluetooth.... no immediate need for it, but one computer doesn't have wifi, so that may be handy in a pinch.

[eriefisher]

I have never seen a Bluetooth chipset that linux doe not support, but of course it's easy to google it as you suggest.

I have never had any trouble either but I have seen several posts on forums about people with combination BT/wifi chips that have some trouble.

Also, share phone mobile internet to laptops over wifi (access point) because over bluetooth it is slow.

My issue was a fresh Siduction install. I new going in that the default kernel had trouble with my wifi chip but I also new a kernel upgrade would fix it. Therefore, connect via BT to my phone(it's wifi gets shared via BT), upgrade the kernel, reboot and voila wifi works.

Bluetooth is great for all kinds of things.

[No_windows]

Plugable Bluetooth 4.0 is a good one you should get it

I ordered a no-name elcheapo on ebay, and I'm still waiting for it. If it doesn't eventually show up, I'll likely go with the Plugable.

[Bloom]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ZIILLI

This one should work out of the box without any drivers or firmware.

[No_windows]

I just got it today..... I was starting to suspect it was coming directly from China even though it was a US shipping origin listed in the auction. It came First Class mail, which explains the lack of a tracking number. It still took longer than what ebay said.... oh well. On to making it work now.

[pylkko]

Many Chinese vendors do this on Ebay, and since it is against the rules, you should report them. OR at least you could, it appears that Evbay is not caring about this any more:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-B ... p/26412837

That is, they claim to be in the US but are not. This is given away by things like 6 weeks shipping times or return address in Shanghai. There are also many vendors there that rip people off. They sell fake memory sticks and cards that are factory rejects (chips that quality assurance deemed needing to be destroyed but which are sold to organized crime). they then fake the firmware to lie to the OS that it has larger capacity than it does. It is really hard to prove too. Because of this, I would avoid buying from China on ebay unless you a) don't care about the quality (many times this makes sense) or b) carefully check that the vendor is honest. Like this one that you bought from, they actually sent you the stuff. So they probably will be honest in the future to dealwith. There are other vendors that do things like don't send stuff and close their account immediately etc. In my experience Ali express and amazon both are more strict and protect the buyer better.