this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
-22 points (28.0% liked)

Linux

46794 readers
1019 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
-22
Enabling Bluetooth on Arch Linux (itsfoss.com)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
all 28 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

This is one of the reasons why I am very unsure about the whole archinstall thing. On the one hand, it lowers the barrier of entry for less techy people, which is always good. On the other hand, it allows for installing the OS without ever having to use the archwiki, which leads to people making a blog post like this that could be solved by looking for "bluetooth" in the archwiki and following the instructions. To somebody not familiar with the OS, this makes it seem like arch is much more complicated than it actually is. "To run arch, you have to hope that there is a blog post or youtube video for simple things like bluetooth!"

No, you simply go here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/ (Also very useful resource if you are on any other distro btw)

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

To run arch, you have to hope that there is a blog post or youtube video for simple things like bluetooth!

Or know what systemd is

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Systemd is amazing. Every user should at least know the basics.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What on Earth for. I don't think I've used it more than a couple of times over the last 5 years, and that was for arcane stuff like enabling rc.local (which is something every user should probably not know about...)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Plex, CUPS (printing services), Minecraft servers, VPN, file sharing, DHCP/DNS/Wifi, bluetooth are some examples of basic level things systemd can help regular users manage.

Systemd goes far beyond that too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

scheduling processes, enabling services, debug services and a shit load of other things that advanced users need.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A whole article for starting bluetooth from systemctl?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

itsfoss.com is awful

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Why doesn't it start automatically anyway?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's against the philosophy of Arch. You configure your system the way you want.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So, like, you have to manually enable every service you install?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yes, always.

  • Maybe you want to migrate a PostgreSQL database to a newer version without starting PostgreSQL server.
  • Maybe you installed OpenSSH but don't want sshd to run yet, because you haven't hardened the configs.
  • Maybe you installed Nginx as a part of a migration from Apache httpd, but httpd is already running.

In addition, Arch hardly configures your system in a custom way, too. When you install a package, most of the time, it responds with "here are the files from the developer that you asked for."

If you don't like this philosophy, then your feelings are perfectly valid, and this is a textbook example of why different distributions exist 👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Why would it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because if I install bluetooth it's because I have some bluetooth devices I want to use?...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Not necessarily at all times.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

systemctl enable bluetooth.service
Next time just RTFM

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

author: has Master's degree in engineering

also author: "Let's write a blog post about how to enable a systemd service"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Maybe he was Windows user and only got to know the depth of how to create a Object Oriented Class efficiently or smth.

But basic stufd like, using the terminal or smth, nah.

[–] pastermil -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Meanwhile, Linux Mint users have it on by default.

[–] Jumuta 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

mint and arch aren't made for the same people. Not everyone wants it on by default

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Out of curiosity, what's the point of installing Bluetooth but keeping it disabled?

I imagine the opposite would be the default most people wanted (enable it by default and let power users with a bizarre use case disable it manually).

[–] Jumuta 1 points 9 months ago

because arch is a minimal distro and some people see the processing power used for bt to be wasted

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Because it's a security risk but you might need it sometimes.