Do I need a dongle ? Any recommended dongle? Please let me know!!!
There isn’t a fully free Bluetooth driver yet, so PureOS doesn’t include one.
I think that if you use a USB Bluetooth dongle, things will likely work, as I think the Bluetooth functionality runs on the dongle chip in that case, but I could be wrong.
You can also add Debian’s non-free repo and install the non-free Bluetooth drivers from there. I know one of the maintainers of PureOS advocates against that option, as mixing repositories from different distros may have unintended side-effects, but it is an option.
There are many posts about Bluetooth on these forums, so you can search a bit and find out more and see what you want to do.
The best solution is to either manually download the firmware from debian non-free and install it with dpkg -i or to temporarily add the Debian non-free repo to /etc/apt/sources.list and then install the firmware and then immediately remove the repo. The later option is easier in my opinion.
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Instead of removing the repo you could use a preferences file to deny everything from Debian non-free except the Bluetooth driver. Then you could have updates available via apt as well without having to re-add the repository manually each time (not that I expect regular updates to the driver)… Just a thought.
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I have had great success with a bluetooth dongle I ordered from Amazon. It is, of course, not FOSS. It is completely plug-and-play however, and leaves nothing on your computer. I discuss it in this Bluetooth Keyboard thread, and include a link to the product there. Results may very, but I have been pleased with mine so far. I don’t use it every day, though, so can’t vouch for its durability or anything.
I just received from Amazon this usb bluetooth and it is working right out of the box. I have used it for x-ferring files, pictures and listening to music…I simply plugged it in and turned on the bluetooth from the task bar. I hope this helps you.
I can not speak for the Librem 13 as I have 15v4 however, when I was experimenting with distro’s I noticed that POPOS allowed me to use Bluetooth just fine in regards to syncing with headphones and a nvidia shield.
There is a love/hate relationship with PureOS right now as like I am missing the cmd.db thus rendering:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/share/command-not-found/CommandNotFound/util.py”, line 23,
in crash_guard
callback()
File “/usr/lib/command-not-found”, line 93, in main
if not cnf.advise(args[0], options.ignore_installed) and not
options.no_failure_msg:
So I cant truly updates, feel secure and/or finish installing my vpn until I figure this out. I like the debian layout and that everything is free software however, possibly too much time spent on the phone instead of fixing issues with current products. You may not have needed the external Bluetooth dongle though.