kdeconnect - sync your phone and KDE desktop
Hi all, I thought I would take kdeconnect-kde for a spin, I used the OpenSUSE13.1 version and installed the Android App on my Samsung Galaxy s2. My phone is connected to the WiFi network but the desktop can't see it and vice versa. Has anyone else used this, yet, and do I need to register my phone name in my desktop hosts file for this to work? In theory, when I walk in the door at home my computer should automatically link with my phone. At the moment they are not on speaking terms. Cheers Andrew Greig
On Sat, 14 Dec 2013 05:11:59 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
I thought I would take kdeconnect-kde for a spin, I used the OpenSUSE13.1 version and installed the Android App on my Samsung Galaxy s2. My phone is connected to the WiFi network but the desktop can't see it and vice versa. Has anyone else used this, yet, and do I need to register my phone name in my desktop hosts file for this to work?
Wow, I had no idea about this project! Installed the KDE package (version 0.4.1) under Kubuntu 13.10 and the Android app (0.4.2) on my Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.3) and they discovered each other and I've been able to pair them. Now I can pick a photo from my device and share it and it ends up on my desktop, if I get an SMS I get a notification. One thing that doesn't work (not surprisingly) is that as this is a desktop I cannot see my phone battery status as the KDE battery monitor detects no battery in my desktop and so doesn't attempt to display battery status at all. One caveat I noticed is that one of the permissions it needs on the device is wireless multicast and so Android warns that can affect your battery usage. cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On Sat, 2013-12-14 at 18:05 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote:
On Sat, 14 Dec 2013 05:11:59 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
I thought I would take kdeconnect-kde for a spin, I used the OpenSUSE13.1 version and installed the Android App on my Samsung Galaxy s2. My phone is connected to the WiFi network but the desktop can't see it and vice versa. Has anyone else used this, yet, and do I need to register my phone name in my desktop hosts file for this to work?
Wow, I had no idea about this project!
Installed the KDE package (version 0.4.1) under Kubuntu 13.10 and the Android app (0.4.2) on my Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.3) and they discovered each other and I've been able to pair them.
Now I can pick a photo from my device and share it and it ends up on my desktop, if I get an SMS I get a notification.
One thing that doesn't work (not surprisingly) is that as this is a desktop I cannot see my phone battery status as the KDE battery monitor detects no battery in my desktop and so doesn't attempt to display battery status at all.
One caveat I noticed is that one of the permissions it needs on the device is wireless multicast and so Android warns that can affect your battery usage.
cheers, Chris
Hi Chris, One of the reasons for the app was to enhance productivity by removing the "check my mobile, get some work done, check my mobile, maybe get some more work done, check my mobile, oh what the hell, I'll see if I can get to the next level in Angry Birds" routine. Now if you phone is safely ou of the way on charge, who cares about multicast. On the subject of multicast, since my Desktop is not wifi enabled, is that what is hampering the connection? I will try it on my Notebook, and see. Cheers Andrew
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 03:17:44 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
Hi Chris,
Hiya!
One of the reasons for the app was to enhance productivity by removing the "check my mobile, get some work done, check my mobile, maybe get some more work done, check my mobile, oh what the hell, I'll see if I can get to the next level in Angry Birds" routine. Now if you phone is safely ou of the way on charge, who cares about multicast.
Makes sense. :-)
On the subject of multicast, since my Desktop is not wifi enabled, is that what is hampering the connection?
Nope, my desktop is connected via a good old cable to the AP, plus there's a blog article from September saying they stopped using multicast and went to their own UDP broadcast system due to the Android Avahi implementation being poor and because some APs were not sending on multicast properly. http://albertvaka.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/how-kde-connect-encryption-works/ Could it be that you've got some firewall rules on your desktop that might be blocking these UDP packets?
I will try it on my Notebook, and see.
Best of luck! Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On Sun, 2013-12-15 at 18:48 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote:
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 03:17:44 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
Hi Chris,
Hiya!
One of the reasons for the app was to enhance productivity by removing the "check my mobile, get some work done, check my mobile, maybe get some more work done, check my mobile, oh what the hell, I'll see if I can get to the next level in Angry Birds" routine. Now if you phone is safely ou of the way on charge, who cares about multicast.
Makes sense. :-)
On the subject of multicast, since my Desktop is not wifi enabled, is that what is hampering the connection?
Nope, my desktop is connected via a good old cable to the AP, plus there's a blog article from September saying they stopped using multicast and went to their own UDP broadcast system due to the Android Avahi implementation being poor and because some APs were not sending on multicast properly.
http://albertvaka.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/how-kde-connect-encryption-works/
Could it be that you've got some firewall rules on your desktop that might be blocking these UDP packets?
I will try it on my Notebook, and see.
Best of luck! Chris
Hi Chris, thanks for the firewall tip. I shut it down, access obtained, now paired, added a rule about allowing multicast and it has remained connected. Thanks Andrew Greig
On Sun, 2013-12-15 at 18:48 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote:
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 03:17:44 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
Hi Chris,
Hiya!
One of the reasons for the app was to enhance productivity by removing the "check my mobile, get some work done, check my mobile, maybe get some more work done, check my mobile, oh what the hell, I'll see if I can get to the next level in Angry Birds" routine. Now if you phone is safely ou of the way on charge, who cares about multicast.
Makes sense. :-)
On the subject of multicast, since my Desktop is not wifi enabled, is that what is hampering the connection?
Nope, my desktop is connected via a good old cable to the AP, plus there's a blog article from September saying they stopped using multicast and went to their own UDP broadcast system due to the Android Avahi implementation being poor and because some APs were not sending on multicast properly.
http://albertvaka.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/how-kde-connect-encryption-works/
Could it be that you've got some firewall rules on your desktop that might be blocking these UDP packets?
I will try it on my Notebook, and see.
Best of luck! Chris
Hi Chris, I now have connection on both my desktop and notebook computers, the phone is paired with each of them, and I aske my wife to send me an SMS. Where would this appear on the desktop, all of my KDE stuff is down the bottom of the screen. Is there a flashing alert? Or a sound? Andrew
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 08:44:17 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
I now have connection on both my desktop and notebook computers, the phone is paired with each of them, and I aske my wife to send me an SMS. Where would this appear on the desktop, all of my KDE stuff is down the bottom of the screen. Is there a flashing alert? Or a sound?
SMS's (and presumably calls, though I've not had one to test with yet) will appear in amongst your usual KDE notifications. If you find one from the phone then you can use the wrench icon to configure them so they do play sounds but here at least they default to just appearing in the notification list. There is also a widget you can use that will show you the notifications on the phone at present. How's that? cheers! Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On Sun, 2013-12-15 at 21:20 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote:
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 08:44:17 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
I now have connection on both my desktop and notebook computers, the phone is paired with each of them, and I aske my wife to send me an SMS. Where would this appear on the desktop, all of my KDE stuff is down the bottom of the screen. Is there a flashing alert? Or a sound?
SMS's (and presumably calls, though I've not had one to test with yet) will appear in amongst your usual KDE notifications.
If you find one from the phone then you can use the wrench icon to configure them so they do play sounds but here at least they default to just appearing in the notification list.
There is also a widget you can use that will show you the notifications on the phone at present.
How's that?
cheers! Chris
Hi Chris, That is encouraging, I had a long look through the range of widgets I could import to add to my desktop, but did not find a description which suggested it might be "the one". Do you have the name for that widget, please? Andrew
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 09:29:25 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
That is encouraging, I had a long look through the range of widgets I could import to add to my desktop, but did not find a description which suggested it might be "the one".
Do you have the name for that widget, please?
It's called "KdeConnect". I've now got Jovie (speech synthesis) configured and working so now it's speaking the notifications to me. :-) cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On Sun, 2013-12-15 at 21:49 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote:
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 09:29:25 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
That is encouraging, I had a long look through the range of widgets I could import to add to my desktop, but did not find a description which suggested it might be "the one".
Do you have the name for that widget, please?
It's called "KdeConnect".
I've now got Jovie (speech synthesis) configured and working so now it's speaking the notifications to me. :-)
cheers, Chris _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
Hi Chris, Very cool indeed. I know I am using kdeconnect to link phone and desktop but I was expecting some icon to flash when an event in the phone took place. Did not see KdeConnect in the list of widgets. Thanks Andrew Greig
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 10:20:59 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
I know I am using kdeconnect to link phone and desktop but I was expecting some icon to flash when an event in the phone took place.
Hmm, I'm running the RC of KDE 4.12, but I think the current release version does the same, I get a notification pop up at the bottom before going into the usual notification widget.
Did not see KdeConnect in the list of widgets.
That's odd, which version do you have installed? Does the package you have include the plasmoid? In the version packaged for Kubuntu I see: $ dpkg -L kdeconnect-kde | grep plasmoid /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/CompactRepresentation.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/DeviceDelegate.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/config.ui /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/kdeconnect.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/metadata.desktop cheers! Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On Mon, 2013-12-16 at 22:05 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote:
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 10:20:59 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
I know I am using kdeconnect to link phone and desktop but I was expecting some icon to flash when an event in the phone took place.
Hmm, I'm running the RC of KDE 4.12, but I think the current release version does the same, I get a notification pop up at the bottom before going into the usual notification widget.
Did not see KdeConnect in the list of widgets.
That's odd, which version do you have installed?
Does the package you have include the plasmoid?
In the version packaged for Kubuntu I see:
$ dpkg -L kdeconnect-kde | grep plasmoid /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/CompactRepresentation.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/DeviceDelegate.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/config.ui /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/kdeconnect.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/metadata.desktop
cheers! Chris
Hi Chris, yes I have all of those plasmoid files in the complete package I have 44 files kdeconnect-kde - KDE Android integration /usr/lib64/kde4/imports/org/kde/kdeconnect /usr/lib64/kde4/imports/org/kde/kdeconnect/libkdeconnectdeclarativeplugin.so /usr/lib64/kde4/imports/org/kde/kdeconnect/qmldir /usr/lib64/kde4/kcm_kdeconnect.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_battery.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_clipboard.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_mpriscontrol.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_notifications.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_pausemusic.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_ping.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_sharereceiver.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kdeconnect_telephony.so /usr/lib64/kde4/kded_kdeconnect.so /usr/lib64/libkdeconnect.so.1 /usr/lib64/libkdeconnect.so.1.0.1 /usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon.xml /usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/org.kde.kdeconnect.device.battery.xml /usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/org.kde.kdeconnect.device.notifications.notification.xml /usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/org.kde.kdeconnect.device.notifications.xml /usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/org.kde.kdeconnect.device.xml /usr/share/doc/packages/kdeconnect-kde /usr/share/doc/packages/kdeconnect-kde/README /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdeconnect /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdeconnect/kdeconnect.notifyrc /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/CompactRepresentation.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/DeviceDelegate.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/config.ui /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/contents/ui/kdeconnect.qml /usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma/plasmoids/kdeconnect/metadata.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kcm_kdeconnect.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_battery.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_clipboard.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_mpriscontrol.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_notifications.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_pausemusic.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_ping.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_sharereceiver.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kdeconnect_telephony.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/kded/kdeconnect.desktop /usr/share/kde4/services/plasma-kdeconnect.desktop /usr/share/kde4/servicetypes/kdeconnect_plugin.desktop 44 files total So I would expect to see battery condition of my phone presented at least. I have not used KDE for the last 3 years, but I thought I would give it a go because it is meant to handle multimedia better than Gnome. Thanks Andrew
On Tue, 17 Dec 2013 12:47:54 AM Andrew Greig wrote: [...]
44 files total
That's odd - what version of KDE is this?
So I would expect to see battery condition of my phone presented at least. I have not used KDE for the last 3 years, but I thought I would give it a go because it is meant to handle multimedia better than Gnome.
Well I've paired it with my laptop too, but the battery doesn't appear there. However, everything else seems to work happily. If it helps, the icon for the widget is a white smartphone with a black screen and what appears to be a stylised green Q on the screen. Good luck! Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On Sun, 2013-12-15 at 21:49 +1100, Chris Samuel wrote:
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 09:29:25 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
That is encouraging, I had a long look through the range of widgets I could import to add to my desktop, but did not find a description which suggested it might be "the one".
Do you have the name for that widget, please?
It's called "KdeConnect".
I've now got Jovie (speech synthesis) configured and working so now it's speaking the notifications to me. :-)
cheers, Chris _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
Are you familiar with Airdroid? Load this address into a browser on the desktop http://web.airdroid.com and it will display a QR code, in the App on the phone "scan" the QR code and phone and desktop (browser page) will be linked. From here you can use the camera remotely, shove files to and fro, send SMS through the phone from the desktop, view battery life and storage capacity of drives, and several other features . I thought kdeconnect may have been a "lite" version of that idea. But at least KDEconnect should auto sync the desktop and phone, when the phone joins the wifi network. Andrew
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 10:27:58 PM Andrew Greig wrote:
Are you familiar with Airdroid?
Nope, and I'm a little more leery of that given it looks like it's closed source. [...]
I thought kdeconnect may have been a "lite" version of that idea. But at least KDEconnect should auto sync the desktop and phone, when the phone joins the wifi network.
It's still very early days for this project, but I'm liking what I see so far. If my computer speaks an alert to me from the CFA^H^H^H Office of the Fire Commissioner FireReady app before I've got a chance to get the phone out of my pocket I'll be happy.. cheers! Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
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