Do Librem 13 and 15s come with Bluetooth

Librem
#21

The easiest way to get Bluetooth is to install all the proprietary Atheros firmware with these commands:
wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-atheros_20190114-2_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i firmware-atheros_20190114-2_all.deb

If you want to only install the proprietary firmware for the Atheros Bluetooth, you need to do it this way:
sudo apt install git
git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git
(Wait while it downloads 360MB)
cd linux-firmware
sudo cp -r ar3k /lib/firmware/

If you want to delete the 360MB that you downloaded:
cd ..
rm -r linux-firmware

@nicole.faerber, @mladen, @joao.azevedo,
In my opinion, these instructions should be added to https://docs.puri.sm

3 Likes
How to get Bluetooth working on Librem 15?
#22

Official guides cannot explain how to get proprietary firmware if you want PureOS RYF certified.

2 Likes
#23

Anyone see anything contradictory in that? :slight_smile:

True freedom includes the freedom to install proprietary, blackbox, potentially backdoored software?

1 Like
#24

true freedom ALSO includes the freedom to do your own research somewhere else ā€¦ :slight_smile:
if that research takes you to some other distributionā€™s wiki then that doesnā€™t mean you canā€™t apply said instructions retroactively in a RYF certified distribution ā€¦ that being said PureOS is STILL a pure OS precisely because itā€™s NOT named FreedomOS :sweat_smile:

#25

Why is that a question? Of course that is what freedom is about. It is YOUR hardware, and you can use it however you see fit.

Honestly, if this was not the case, I never would have bought a single Purism product.

3 Likes
#26

My comment was more about the meaning of ā€œrespect your freedomā€.

1 Like
#27

Because it was an agrammatical continuation of the previous sentence. :wink:

1 Like
#28

Thanks a lot amosbatto.
I went with your second option (installing only the firmware of the Atheros Bluetooth),
and it works perfectly fine now !

Cheers.

#29

First of all, get the terminology right. The RYF certification is for hardware that runs on 100% free software, and the Librem 13/14/15/Mini will never get this certification because they contain microcode, FSP and 9% of the ME, which is proprietary. Purism is only trying to get RYF certification for the Librem 5 phone, not for its PCs. You may be right that the FSF wonā€™t grant RYF certification for products that have official instructions on how to install proprietary software, but the RYF criteria page doesnā€™t explicitly say that.

However, we are not talking about the Librem 5 here (since its RS9116 doesnā€™t require proprietary firmware in the Linux file system to use Bluetooth).

The FSF officially endorses distributions that contain 100% free software, and PureOS has received that endorsement. It is an open question whether the FSF would have endorsed PureOS, if Purism had instructions on its web site how to install proprietary firmware. When I have asked the FSF questions like this in the past that are matters of interpretation, I havenā€™t received a reply.

Personally, I think that Purism should set up a general community wiki for all its devices (like it has for the Librem 5), where the community is encouraged to post ā€œunofficialā€ documentation. I have answered questions on how to deal with WiFi/Bluetooth on Librem devices at least 3 different times, and this kind of information should be centralized somewhere, so we donā€™t have to keep repeating ourselves.

2 Likes
#30

there are already distributions that are FAR better suited for this sort of hardware. such as Debian, Ubuntu, PopOS, Linux-Mint, Fedora, Suse and others that are more closely related to the LinuxFromScratch way of setting up an OS.

itā€™s my impression that the majority of people who want to put PureOS on non-open-hardware only do so out of masochism or to brag to their audience that they are running a ā€œPureā€ OS ā€¦ there are legitimate exceptions though (as always)

#31

This is an example of why we need a community wiki, so people can find info like this and we donā€™t have to keep explaining things on forums:

#32

people will always keep asking about what they are interested in mainly on forums because they feel itā€™s more personal, direct and up-to-date that way and also because they want to relate to other ACTUAL people instead of just reading a community wiki that might very well be out-of-date or incomplete.

they also regularly post in multiple forums the SAME questions most of the time because ā€¦ well ā€¦ they ARE lazy/impatient :sweat_smile:

1 Like
#33

And yet a wiki is a better more efficient way to help people than spamming the same questions ad nauseum. The personal convenience of someone asking a question is not a relevant concern when it is someone else whose help you need.

1 Like
#34

I agree with @reC. There is a legitimate concern that a vast amount of information available on the internet about Linux is out of date, for the wrong distro, or both.

An ideal wiki (for a specific distro) would therefore have an indication of ā€œrelease version last checked againstā€ - but would need that to be backed by people putting in the time to recheck information periodically against new releases.

3 Likes
#35

@nicole.faerber, could this challenge be of help for future Purism products if it succeeds?

3 Likes
#36

Iā€™m doubtful it will be successful. You donā€™t just stumble across making drivers and be good at it. Still no harm in hoping.

#37

been to that linkā€¦ how do you copy it .which actual part? the whole lot.? and then what? put the whole thing in the terminal with what command?

#38

thanks ā€¦ iā€™m a newbie to all this and bluetooth now seems to be workingā€¦ do you know how I get it to recognise my airpod pros ( headphones)?

#39

This is what I usually do:
sudo apt install blueman
Then, you can start it:
blueman-manager &

Do you see your airpod pros in the list of devices?

#40

Thanksā€¦ Iā€™ve been trying for hours and Finally! they are connected and workingā€¦ It was soo longwinded but after a few hours it just seemed to recognise then finally connect them ā€¦ sooo frustrating for a beginner