Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Hi all.

I only use BT for my keyboard and gps when needed and so like to leave it turned off to preserve battery normally.

But turning it on is such a pain as you need to drill down through the control panel each time you want it back on again.

Is there a way (or has anyone already got) to add an icon or shortcut to the menu which would turn BT on?

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

In the 770, the BT icon was persistent, but Nokia in all their wisdom (not!) decided that was too convenient for the users of its tablets, so they made the icon disappear when not used. Until this day, they haven't found it necessary to listen to the complaints about that "feature", so: no.

I have a control panel icon in my Simple Launcher strip, which makes the procedure marginally less irritating.

You know what gets me most? The Bluetooth applet for the 770 was written by community members and it worked perfectly as it was. And yet Nokia thought they had to change it. Like just about any community software for the tablets that Nokia thought they could "improve", they f*cked it up.

Dumbass corporates...

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

As I am currently only using Bluetooth for listening to audio selections on Kagu using Bluetooth A2DP-enabled headphones, the Kagu application itself contains a Bluetooth icon switch.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

+1
I was lamenting this just today myself (less than 2 weeks into using my N800). Seems they should have just left the icon in the panel but put a slash thru it or something when it is off. The WiFi icon is persistent... so why not Bluetooth?

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

The only rationale I've seen was that "it took up too much space"... which I don't buy. If too many icons are added to the top bar, you get a nice little arrow that leads you to the hidden ones. So why can't the user have control over that? I'm mystified.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

as kagu and maemo mapper clearly show it is possible then mayeb someone clever could knock up a script or something that could be run from a menu icon or simple launcher?

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

... which spotlights the asininity of Nokia's "designers" even more.

They had an example of how it had to be done (the 770 BT hack), there were no copyright issues to hide themselves behind, there was no mentionable work to be done (other than the work they gave themselves by incompatibilising the early IT software) and now we're at the point where every developer has to reinvent the wheel.

Woo -- f*cking -- hoo.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Yep. And the second thing is.. there's _lots_ of space.. but it can't be utilized, because that bar is fixed-size and can't be adjusted in the applet control. There's room for 2 more icons to the right, but now it's just a black space. To the left there's a huge gray bar which says just 'Home', it can't be shrinked and the status bar can't be stretched to the left. It could _easily_ have room for 7-8 more icons if the UI designers had used some common sense.

You can see the design (or rather, implementation) problem elsewhere too, in the Nokia-provided applets: For most of them you can't shrink them as much as you like. The internet radio, the FM radio, you can't adjust them properly. Unlike good 3party applets like simple-launcher and many others, where you have full freedom to shrink and stretch as you wish. For OS2007, at least, this is critical, because applets are not allowed to overlap.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

If you'd like to voice this concern to the developers, you could vote for bug 971. However, it's rather unclear how much help that might be as the bug has been closed with "WONTFIX".

Wait! Wait! There is a glimmer of hope, as in closing the bug Antti Peltomaa commented:

We are going to change this design in future releases. Maybe not as a permanent
indicator, but let's see.

So, perhaps an improvement will come in a future OS release. Maybe.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

I may have been precipitous in posting this exception. While Kagu does have its own built-in Bluetooth icon switch, I have subsequently found -- both to my embarrassment and displeasure -- that it does not apparently work if Bluetooth has been turned off in the control panel. Sorry if I have mislead and/or inconvenienced anyone.

Karel: How do you get the Simple Launcher to pick it up. I can't figure out how to implement that. (I do have Simple Launcher, though, working for other applications.)

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

I don't buy the argument about saving space either as the icon will appear when BT is activated so why not just leave it visible all the time? What happens if the status bar is full and BT is then enabled? Oh, the icon isn't visible even when it's active? Genius! No, I'd rather position it where I can see it all the time and have other less critical icons disappear from the status bar.

Also, I suspect someone at Nokia had a brainwave and realised that the icon can be made to appear in most cases since Bluetooth can be activated by an application or an external device. The trouble is there are a few corner cases where this isn't possible, and I suspect Nokia completely overlooked these cases when redesigning the icon usage. And after reading the bug, I get the impression Nokia don't want to admit they have made a mistake.

As I posted in that bug some time ago, just add a user selectable option (in the Bluetooth control panel) to control the icon visibility and be done with it. This way Nokia don't have to admit that their disappering icon solution is flawed, and users can have the permanently visible icon behaviour if they want it.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Man... user options. What a magnificent concept! ;)

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

I just selected Control Panel from the list of applications. No black magickx was involved, although IIRC it didn't work for the very first release of Simple-Launcher.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Well, it's got to be the easiest solution when Nokia insist their way is the right way yet the customers disagree! :)

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

I agree. Usabilty is related users!

Question is, will this situation be remedied in OS08? One of my hopes for the new OS is that it will give users more options when it comes to 'designing' the interface. As it stands, while I like being able to change the wallpaper, so to speak, I'd really prefer to have some 'real' flexibilty in the elements in the UI.

For example, right now, the space occupied by the 'people' icon in the upper left corner of the UI is essentially wasted for me, as I use GPE contacts, don't use the native email app (straight up gmail) nor the native internet call function (I'd use gizmo if/when it works).

Now, if I could just 'customize' the UI and (re)use the icons there in the same way I am able to use IDEA (or Simple Launcher, both are good) I'd have the kind of 'control' over my device that results in 'high user satisfaction'.

If Nokia engineers are in the room, please note that the use of usability buzzwords in the preceding paragraph is intended to give you the ammunition you to advocate for users at your next design/management meeting! ;)

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

oops... might wanna lower those expectations just a tad...

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Karel: Guess I misunderstood. I already have Control Panel as one of my Simple Launcher designated applications. I had inferred from your initial comment that one could get Simple Launcher to include the Bluetooth icon and switch specifically, rather than going through the Control Panel. I guess I'm getting a number of things mixed up today. Thanks and regards, Jim

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

That's why I said it's only slightly less irritating. Still, it saves at least two stylus taps...

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

It's a pretty simple command:

/usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 up
/usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 down
and... wait for it..
/usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 reset

Add to /etc/sudoers:
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 up
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 down
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 reset

and then call the above commands with sudo and you're all set! Someone want to wrap a try icon around this and close this issue like a good o-s community?

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

:) I'm probably not going make friends here, but I've just had two cups of strong coffee so I feel compelled to stick my head up in this thread.
Now bare with me for a second.

The first post stated that the reason for asking for a Bluetooth switch was to conserve battery power. So, my first question is, has anyone measured how much additional drain having Bluetooth switched on and idling puts on the battery. I.e say, 5 complete charge-discharge cycles leaving BT switched on, but not using it (that's important), versus 5 complete charge-discharge cycles with BT totally switched off..?! "Just a thought, like". :)

If the difference is minimal, I would wholeheartedly support Nokias' decision to remove BT control and stick it on by default. The reason for that is that those pesky users (not us surely ;) ) sometimes forget to switch BT on before using, and that results in confusion and confusion results in support calls, angry blog postings etc, etc. :) And the less options you have, the less can go wrong. :D

Looking at myself (remember I don't own an IT, yet), I'd probably want a BT control widget by default. I'm such a control freak that it makes me feel good seeing the icon there. However, also, knowing myself, I'd probably leave it turned on all the time, probably because I'm lazy and can't be bothered. :cool: :D

... Now, where's my flame-******ant coat...? ;) :D ;)

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

If BT is off it comes on if you start a program that uses it. So, there should be no support calls from those users because they had BT turned off. The problem is things like BT keyboards where you need to turn BT on first.
There are a couple of valid problems with leaving BT on permanently:
- As far as I have been able to tell, in an unscientific way, leaving it on seems to drain the battery slightly more. Not much, but measurable.
- Some users will want to keep the BT visible as default, and just switch BT off when not using it. If BT were permanently on then it would be visible all the time, which is not always what you want, and you would have to go in and reconfigure it whenever you wanted to receive a file, for example. Much much easier to just turn it on and off, it it wasn't for the fact that the current BT icon disappears.

This is one of those cases where the designers tried to be too smart for their own good.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

@joker - no flames from here matey. if someone can show me that it doesn't use more power in idle then I'm all for leaving BT turned on if not connected.

But like you I am a control freak, and because I don't use either my keyboard or gps all the time would just like to be able to easily turn it on and off.

My laptop had a hardware switch - overkill but that script should solve it. Now just for an icon.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Bluetooth is a problem in the US Army. Not allowed to be on in any building where I work, and occasionally they "sniff" for it to tell people to turn off their BT devices. We can have it, just not turned on inside.
And we are required to use "hands free" devices for cell phones while driving on post, so BT is very popular.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

TA-t3, Not all programs that need BT will turn it on. My Navicore doesn't. When I select "Activate GPS" from the menu, it won't turn on BT to find my GPS. I have to do that manually. I wish the BT icon were persistent, whether or not BT was actually on (different icon for off vs. on), with the ability to turn BT on from the icon's menu, just the way you can turn it off from the icon's menu.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Yep, the only sensible thing is to get that BT icon persistent. Hopefully someone at Nokia listens, or maybe we'll just have to dig out the means to replace it ourselves.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

I'm going to add those sudo commands in my status-bar cpu-load applet thingy. (Sorry, can't remember what it's called.)
That's probably the easiest way to run them.
Many thanks!

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Done..

I have created a shell script to launch 'sudo hciconfig hci0 up'. This will installed in the menu, and so can be launched with 2 clicks!

I have uploaded the deb file in switchOnBT Home Page

switchOnBT 1.0
A simple script to start bluetooth.
It will add a line to /etc/sudoers
user ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hciconfig hci0 up'

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

This works a treat. Instant promotion to the realms of useful people for that man.:)

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

karma[vabgeo]++

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

vabgeo you are a beautiful person! By selecting your script in my simplelauncher applet I can now turn on bluetooth with one tap. That's twice as fast as I can turn it off!
One question: I have the icons in simplelauncher set to "extra-large", yet the bluetooth icon is still very tiny. Is there any way to change this?

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

:)

I am not sure how to specify different sized icons, I will have to check on that. The current icon is 26x26 size and is kept in "/usr/share/pixmaps/switchOnBT.png". Try copying an existing bigger bluetooth icon and overwrite this file.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

:):):):):)That worked like a charm Vabgeo. Thanks again!

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

That little tool jumped straight into my top-4 "must have" applications. Thanks again Varghese!

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Glad to be of help.

ajh33: Which icon did you use? Does it scale automatically in small and large icon sizes?

OS2008 still has the same issue that bluetooth icon disappears, but i couldnt get hciconfig in chinook. I will have to check repo's for it and bring out a new deb

Edit: found a repository http://repository.maemo.org/pool/chinook/

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Try http://old.tuaw.com/category/bluetooth/ Vabgeo.
I am using the one maybe 3/4 of the way down the page that looks like it is standing up on its point... that way it looks different than the "bluetooth off" icon and I can remember which is which.
Oh yeah... it does scale, but I use my simplelauncher on extra large so I can easily start apps with a finger.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Please check my maemo wiki entry about this: you need to add a 48x48 icon into the "share/pixmaps" and "share/icons/hicolor/scalable/hildon" subfolders, and the 26x26 one into the "share/icons/hicolor/26x26/hildon" subfolder.
At least that's what I did with mClock - and it works quite well :D

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

I've totally removed the BT icon from my bar.
I leave WiFi and BT always on and rely on the tablet switching them off automagically whenever they are not used.
The only thing I do is to put the tablet in offline mode as THAT is the only way to KEEP it from automatically looking for connections when I am sure I don't want it to connect (or I am sure I am going in a place where no network as been before..ehm.. where no network connection is available [either cellphone of WiFi]).

So far, the tablet battery has been lasting a lot.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

pyPackager doesnt work in my N800 with leaked OS2008 since it throws up cannot find glade error. khertan says libglade is not supported in chinook. In my other app pyaxelwii, I have removed dependency of glade to support OS2008. so i will wait pypackager for os2008 is out or I have to go back to os2007.

for OS2008, i havent been able to install the hciconfig util. I guess it comes as part of bluez-tools

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

So far Gizmo works in OS2008 just as it did in OS2007.
I just tried it on my N800 reflashed with OS2008 and it dialed my cell phone just fine.

Re: Bluetooth On/Off Icon or Menu Option
 

Ah, the salad days of my youth where I was one of the people hunting down BT and wi-fi users in bizarre places like Bosnia, Kosovo, Middle East, etc.
There ARE approved BT devices though it's only one I know of: the encrypted-BT-connection CAC sled for Blackberry phones.

The bluetooth-on app released in here does install on my N800/OS2008 but doesn't seem to work. I turn bluetooth off, the icon disappears (damn you Nokia!), then I run the app and....nothing. Icon is still gone.