Bluetooth – How to Run a Script When a Bluetooth Device Connects

automationbluetoothdbuspythonscripts

I'd like to start my music player (Clementine) when my bluetooth headset connects to my computer. How do I detect the bluetooth device connecting so I can run a script to start the player?

Best Answer

I didn't like the polling approach, so I did some digging on bluez and DBus. I ended up writing the following script:

#!/usr/bin/python

import dbus
from dbus.mainloop.glib import DBusGMainLoop
import gobject

import subprocess

# ID of the device we care about
DEV_ID = '00_1D_54_AB_DC_72'

dbus_loop = DBusGMainLoop()
bus = dbus.SystemBus(mainloop=dbus_loop)

# Figure out the path to the headset
man = bus.get_object('org.bluez', '/')
iface = dbus.Interface(man, 'org.bluez.Manager')
adapterPath = iface.DefaultAdapter()

headset = bus.get_object('org.bluez', adapterPath + '/dev_' + DEV_ID)
    # ^^^ I'm not sure if that's kosher. But it works.

def cb(iface=None, mbr=None, path=None):

    if ("org.bluez.Headset" == iface and path.find(DEV_ID) > -1):
        print 'iface: %s' % iface
        print 'mbr: %s' % mbr
        print 'path: %s' % path
        print "\n"
        print "matched"

        if mbr == "Connected":
            subprocess.call(["clementine", "--play"])
            print 'conn'

        elif mbr == "Disconnected":
            subprocess.call(["clementine", "--stop"])
            print 'dconn'

headset.connect_to_signal("Connected", cb, interface_keyword='iface', member_keyword='mbr', path_keyword='path')
headset.connect_to_signal("Disconnected", cb, interface_keyword='iface', member_keyword='mbr', path_keyword='path')

loop = gobject.MainLoop()
loop.run()

Bluetooth daemon

In the default installation a daemon (bluetoothd) runs in the background (run from the file /etc/init.d/bluetooth). This daemon takes care on recognizing and connecting to known bluetooth devices and may be cofigured with configuration files in /etc/bluetooth. For autoconneting a headset the following line in audio.conf should be uncommented (remove #):

AutoConnect=true

To restart the daemon type sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart.

_{Remark: Using the command line tool sudo hcitool cc <MAC-Adress> did not lead to a stable connection to a known device in the test environment here when the daemon was running.}

DBus

In order to connect a disconnected but physically present and paired headset we can use D-Bus from a script. Here's an example in python:

#!/usr/bin/python
# Toggles headset connection

import dbus
from dbus.mainloop.glib import DBusGMainLoop

dbus_loop = DBusGMainLoop()
bus = dbus.SystemBus(mainloop=dbus_loop)

#Get dbus interface for headset
manager = bus.get_object('org.bluez', '/')
iface_m = dbus.Interface(manager, 'org.bluez.Manager')
adapterPath = iface_m.DefaultAdapter()
adapter = bus.get_object('org.bluez', adapterPath)
iface_a = dbus.Interface(adapter, 'org.bluez.Adapter')
devicePath = iface_a.ListDevices()[0]  # assuming first device
device = bus.get_object('org.bluez', devicePath)
iface_h = dbus.Interface(device, 'org.bluez.Headset')

#Check state of connection
connected = iface_h.IsConnected()
print 'Toggling connection. Please wait'
# toggle connection
if not connected:
    try:
        iface_h.Connect()
        print 'Connecting: ', devicePath
    except:
        print 'Device not found'
else:
    iface_h.Disconnect()
    print 'Disconnecting: ', devicePath

In case we have more than one Bluetooth device we will have to adapt the devicePath appropriately, of course. The example above will connect a Headset. Change the interface to a different protocol for any other service (e.g. AudioSink).

Pulseaudio

If you know the MAC adress of your Bluetooth device you can connect it as an output sink for pulseaudio by:

pacmd set-default-sink bluez_sink.xx_xx_xx_xx_xx_xx

Where xx_xx_xx_xx_xx_xx is the MAC address (replace ':' by '_' for pulseaudio to recognize it).

Ubuntu – How to run a script on a dbus signal

You need the dbus-monitor

The script will look something like

#!/bin/bash

interface=org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Player
member=playingUriChanged

# listen for playingUriChanged DBus events,
# each time we enter the loop, we just got an event
# so handle the event, e.g. by printing the artist and title
# see rhythmbox-client --print-playing-format for more output options

dbus-monitor --profile "interface='$interface',member='$member'" |
while read -r line; do
  printf "Now playing: "
  rhythmbox-client --print-playing
done

Taken from stackoverflow.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Connect to bluetooth device from command line

Bluetooth daemon

DBus

Pulseaudio

Ubuntu – How to run a script on a dbus signal

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