Trying to revive 'ubtd' (Bluetooth file transfer)

gpatel-fr

Well, if my calculation is correct that means about 2Mbits/s, it seems quite decent for Bluetooth.

PhAndersson

@domubpkm said:

@phandersson I transferred a RAR file from UT smartphone to another with Volla OS, because no function to decompress RAR on UT. Did not work directly, extension not recognized. On the other hand, workaround by transforming the RAR extension into mp4: ok, worked. Then I put the RAR extension back in, and unzipped it without any problem. Just tested this.

Thanks for the feedback.

Make Ratatoskr recognize various extensions?

Well spotted -- the main app will accept incoming files of any type, but the SharePlugin only registers itself as handler for a limited number of file types. For no particular reason, as far as I know.

I've created the following issue to track this: https://github.com/petroniusniger/ratatoskr/issues/34

PhAndersson

@gpatel-fr said:

@domubpkm

Well, if my calculation is correct that means about 2Mbits/s, it seems quite decent for Bluetooth.

Agreed.

PhAndersson

@domubpkm said:

Make Ratatoskr recognize various extensions?

I just wanted to give a quick feedback on this request. I initially thought it would be a simple matter of registering the BT SharePlugin for all file types. It turns out it's not as easy as that: as currently written, the ContentHub component of UT doesn't allow that (although it allows it for "destinations", e.g. when using FileManager to "download" a file). To make a long story short, if I register the BT SharePlugin for all file types, it no longer appears for any file type.

I tried another approach, which was to report unknown file types as Documents. This sort of works, but it has two shortcomings:

it only works from inside Ratatoskr, i.e. you could re-share arbitrary files that are already sitting in the app cache, but you could still not use FileManager to share them directly.
now, when sharing a raw binary file from Ratatoskr, the "share with" dialog also offers unsuitable apps like the editor.

Considering this, I'm rather reluctant to implement this "half-baked" workaround. There is already an enhancement request on the ContentHub's Gitlab to "cover all file types for the Share functionality", but it's open since 2021 and doesn't seem to be getting much traction.

lduboeuf

FYI, on 24.04.2 and 26.04 obexd is now auto started

gpatel-fr

@PhAndersson said:

f I register the BT SharePlugin for all file types, it no longer appears for any file type.

you said in the GH issue (sorry for posting it here, I'm too lazy to login to the MS thingy):
' For files with unrecognized extensions (which map to ContentType.Unknown) '

it's possible to add to the file viewer new relationships between extension and contenttype, see this MR

Don't know if this quite fits your problem, but it never hurts to spread information

gpatel-fr

@lduboeuf said:

on 24.04.2 and 26.04 obexd is now auto started

I think it was backported to stable.

Keneda

@domubpkm
I guess you know but for larger files than few MB, and/or for larger sbandwich, plus all files support, you have wifi transfert.

gpatel-fr

@Keneda said:

sandwich

bandwidth I guess

Keneda

@gpatel-fr
WOW another "autocorrection" that passed my vigilance

PhAndersson

@lduboeuf said:

FYI, on 24.04.2 and 26.04 obexd is now auto started

That's good to know -- thanks!

gpatel-fr

@PhAndersson

I have just switched my phone back to 24.04-1.3 and obex is definitely started automatically.

PhAndersson

@gpatel-fr said:

@PhAndersson

I have just switched my phone back to 24.04-1.3 and obex is definitely started automatically.

Not in my case (Volla Quintus upgraded to 24.04-1.3 from 20.04/OTA-12). obexd is not started by default, but Ratatoskr is still able to start it transparently, so the end result is the same.

But the Quintus is currently unable to successfully connect over BT to my laptop (or another UT phone, for that matter) -- see Noble bluetooth issues -- so I'm a bit stuck in my plans to validate Ratatoskr on Noble at the moment.

gpatel-fr

@PhAndersson said:

(Volla Quintus upgraded to 24.04-1.3 from 20.04/OTA-12). obexd is not started by default,

that's strange.

What's the output of

systemctl --user cat obex

and

systemctl --user status obex

(obviously do this after a phone restart)

PhAndersson

@gpatel-fr said:

@PhAndersson said:

(Volla Quintus upgraded to 24.04-1.3 from 20.04/OTA-12). obexd is not started by default,

that's strange.

What's the output of

systemctl --user cat obex

# /usr/lib/systemd/user/obex.service
[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth OBEX service

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.bluez.obex
ExecStart=/usr/libexec/bluetooth/obexd

[Install]
Alias=dbus-org.bluez.obex.service

# /usr/lib/systemd/user/obex.service.d/ubuntu-touch-session.conf
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/libexec/bluetooth/obexd -P ftp,irmc,mas,pcsuite -r $HOME

and

systemctl --user status obex

â obex.service - Bluetooth OBEX service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/obex.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/obex.service.d
             ââubuntu-touch-session.conf
     Active: inactive (dead)

I also checked 'journal' for any OBEX-related message, but there aren't any.

gpatel-fr

@PhAndersson

you are correct, I missed that because I'm mostly on 26.02 these days. I switched back briefly to 24.04 stable and I could repro.
It's probably a service order start problem since starting obex manually succeeds, I will have to investigate it.

kristatos

I'm having a problem with sending/receiving files and my Volla22. I opened the Gallery, selected a picture and tapped on sharing via Bluetooth-Plugin. In the next window I selected my Laptop and then the transmission dialog comes up. On my Laptop there comes up a notification that my Volla22 is now connected and 1-2 seconds later a notification that it's disconnected. At the same time the Bluetooth-Plugin on my phone says that the transmission has failed. In the output of
systemctl --user status obex
I found for this time
Unable to find service record
Sending/receiving between my Laptop and other devices is working like expected, only the Volla with BT-Plugin and 24.04.-1.x stable does not. Any idea?

gpatel-fr

@kristatos

maybe doing some more tests.
I tried it again with my phone (FP5) setup with 24.04-1.3 stable and succeeded with receiving and sending test files.

However I have reproduced some of your problems.

Not the obex service not known. This was not happening for me.

I have seen the disconnection of Bluetooth happening though. Strangely the Bluetooth page for the device (an Android phone) was displaying the device as connected BUT with no signal, then disconnected very soon after (may seem logical given there was no signal).
I removed each phone from the Bluetooth configuration of both phones, tried again and this time the signal was rated 'excellent'. It then stayed connected. Needless to say, for all these tests the phones were sitting on a table very near of each other. It looks as if the state of connection is rated with 'no signal', it's staying so even if the real connection is good. In this case the pairing had been done much before and the phones had both been off or way to distant of each other to talk with Bluetooth.

After solving this connection problem, I think another trouble may be that if a transfer is not acknowledged by the receiving end, all following transfers fail. Not sure but it looks like that. This problem was happening with a transfer UT -> Android.
If my impression is correct, it may be a problem with the app (the connection problem mentioned before is probably more caused by the system bluetooth stack).

kristatos

@gpatel-fr I tried some things again and now I can send files from my Laptop to my phone. The other way still doesn't work and almost instantly ends up in an error of failed transmission.
I deleted each of the devices in their list of paired devices. After that I paired them again. Now the connection doesn't get disconnected after the failed transmission, but the transmission from phone to laptop still fails. Is the BT-Plugin providing any Logs where I can look at?

gpatel-fr

@kristatos

yes however logging happens at the generic journal level, there is no prefix to filter on. Entries are listed under 'aa-exec' and usually include the app name (ratatoskr) in the listed paths, you can try

journalctl -b | grep ratato

There is also logging done by obex that you can list using

systemctl --user -e -u obex