Bluetooth Handsfree Bounty

[JohnA]

I've been trying to get the ofonod program to work,

I still do not understand why all this focus on ofono, considering that:

Note that Phosh (by default – it supports both) and Plasma Mobile (since 21.12) both use ModemManager, not ofono.

Why do you think that ModemManager would have the full suite of bluetooth connectability? It did seem to me that ofono had more chance of having all the stuff you need. Keep in mind I did get some very limited bluetooth operation with ModemManager, but it did not seem to be able to run the full gamut. Any approach I come up with, if successful, would include replacing ModemManager with ofono. I thought ofono was there as an option with Phosh, just not connected in, but yes I could be wrong. In any case, if it does not work, you can hope the next person manages to pull it off.

[Kevin Kofler]

As far as I know (though I mostly know the story from the Plasma side, which dropped ofono support in favor of ModemManager), ofono is mostly deprecated, poorly maintained upstream, and ModemManager is what everyone works on nowadays. And keep in mind that ModemManager originally comes from GNOME developers, so it is also the more natural target for Phosh, even though Phosh indeed supports both. The main reason ofono is still a thing at all (and also why some not-really-GNU mobile Linux distributions such as SailfishOS and Ubuntu Touch still use it) is that it has a port working on top of Halium, so it can be used on Android kernels, whereas ModemManager does not support that. But that feature is not relevant for the PinePhone.

ModemManager is also by design not going to try to handle Bluetooth on its own, but rely on BlueZ and on either PulseAudio or Pipewire (where PulseAudio is also deprecated, but most PinePhone distros still use it because callaudiod profile switching is still designed for it) to do their part of the job. Otherwise, it would conflict with them, whereas environments like Plasma Mobile rely on BlueZ and PulseAudio/Pipewire APIs for their Bluetooth-related UI. In particular, Bluetooth audio is something I would not expect to be handled in ModemManager or ofono at all, but in PulseAudio or Pipewire, with maybe some changes to callaudiod to pick the correct profile for the Bluetooth headset instead of the internal mic&earpiece. The remote control (number key) part also does not belong into ModemManager or ofono at all, but probably into BlueZ.

At least that is how I would expect things to work and what I would expect to be upstreamable in the long run (though I do not work in any of the affected projects). You may be able to get something done more quickly with a different architecture, but then please do not be disappointed if you are unable to get your solution upstreamed or shipped by most distributions.

[walter1950]

Hello,

As far as I know (though I mostly know the story from the Plasma side, which dropped ofono support in favor of ModemManager), ofono is mostly deprecated, poorly maintained upstream, and ModemManager is what everyone works on nowadays.

Adam Pigg is heavily working on ofono (Sailfish)!
https://www.piggz.co.uk/sites/pgz/blog

Ciao
Walter

[conifera]

JohnA,

For what it's worth, my understanding of the situation was more or less consistent with Kevin Kofler's description (he probably understands it better than I), but as Walter1950 points out Adam Pigg is working on ofono.

For myself, I'd be happy with either a solution that works with ofono or with ModemManager. For me ofono has the advantage that it is what is being used with mameo leste which uses Devuan, which I prefer to Debian. But I imagine I am in a small minority there, and I don't know how long it will be before leste will get to be practically usable.

[Kevin Kofler]

Sailfish's ofono, i.e., what Adam Pigg is working on, is a downstream fork. The reason Sailfish developers, and hence mostly Adam Pigg, are working on ofono at all is that it is basically dead upstream.

As I understand it, the only changes going into upstream ofono at all are changes from the Sailfish fork that Adam Pigg managed to upstream.

[JohnA]

Sailfish's ofono, i.e., what Adam Pigg is working on, is a downstream fork. The reason Sailfish developers, and hence mostly Adam Pigg, are working on ofono at all is that it is basically dead upstream.

As I understand it, the only changes going into upstream ofono at all are changes from the Sailfish fork that Adam Pigg managed to upstream.

How much progress has he made that would be applicable to pine phone pro bluetooth ( non-audio ) comms? I'm still working on my project,
but better let the faster car overtake if I know it's there. There's other things I can do with my time ...