Connecting Bangle.js 2 to IDE under Linux via Bluetooth consistently takes twenty minutes of fiddling

[espruino-discuss2]

Posted at 2022-11-25 by arthurgleckler

I hope I'm not missing anything obvious, but connecting Bangle.js 2 to the browser IDE under Linux via Bluetooth consistently takes twenty minutes of fiddling, and I never know what I've done that finally makes it work. On the other hand, I almost never have trouble connecting with my phone. I've read and followed the instructions on the various Bluetooth pages, and I've dived into bluetoothctl and other tools, but nothing seems to improve the situation. I'm running Chrome under Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS.

Does anyone have a magic incantation that makes connecting to the IDE under Linux quick?

I've been having a great time hacking my Bangle, but twenty minutes of fiddling is a lot, especially now that I'm writing code that needs GadgetBridge features that aren't supported in the emulator.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[espruino-discuss2]

Posted at 2022-11-25 by @thyttan

In this conversation there're two additional ways to use the web ide, hosted on github and/or installing it as a desktop app in chrome/ium. You could try those and see if you're luckier with them.

The ide works without major hiccups for me most of the time with chromium browser on fedora linux.

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Posted at 2022-11-25 by arthurgleckler

Thanks. I'll try those.

Incidentally, I also tried buying and installing a USB-based Bluetooth adapter.

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Posted at 2022-11-25 by @thyttan

Just to make sure - do you turn off bluetooth on your phone before you try to connect to the web ide on your computer?

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Posted at 2022-11-25 by arthurgleckler

Yes, thank you. I did, indeed, make that mistake one time, but I figured that out.

I tried the IDE using my Mac, too, and have never succeeded there. It may not have BLE support, although it does sometimes show the Bangle.js 2 as a pairing option. But I prefer to write code under Linux.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the suggestions. So far, no go.

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Posted at 2022-11-25 by rigrig

I guess you could try the relay:
On your phone: connect from https://www.espruino.com/ide/relay
On your PC: enter the key under Settings>Communications>Relay Key

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Posted at 2022-11-26 by arthurgleckler

The relay is brilliant! I had no idea that that existed. It worked immediately on both Linux and my Mac.

Thank you so much.

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Posted at 2022-11-28 by @gfwilliams

Glad the relay works! Eventually the plan is to try and make it a bit more user-friendly.

But Linux should be fine - I use it all the time here on a Ubuntu-based system and the only issue I have is that Web Bluetooth doesn't appear to automatically disconnect, so if I want to connect the Bangle somewhere else I have to do /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart to force it to 'drop' the connection.

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Posted at 2022-11-28 by arthurgleckler

I tried the restart, too, but it didn't help.

I'm sure it's going to end up being something obvious, but I don't know what it is. As far as I can tell, I've tried everything.

The relay has been a lifesaver.