I used to run KDE 3.5.9 (the openSUSE 11.0 version). All my bluetooth devices were working well. My mouse, keyboard, Palm Treo 650 (I never got hotsync going but could at least bluetooth contacts, appointments etc to from the phone), and my wife’s Nokia phone all worked.
Then one day an update stopped my keyboard working.
Later after yet another update it started working again.
Then I updated to KDE 4.3.0. I lost the keyboard again. Now my most recent update has lost all bluetooth functionality.
hcitool scan could see them but nothing I could do was getting them to work.
This has been bugging me for some time. Then tonight I noticed that gnome had the tool “Bluetooth Applet 1.8”. I ran this and was able to connect my mouse and keyboard straight away.
Why is Gnome able to get them working (even in a KDE environment) and KDE is not?
Next stop is getting OBEX file transfers going and Hotsync with my Palm Treo 650. No luck on these as yet.
I don’t use blue tooth, but I have had puzzling things over the years happen. What I have found helps, is going the extra distance to pin down the application/detailed update that causes a problem.
Identifying a KDE-4.3.0 update as a culpret possibly helps.
What I find now, is when I lose functionality and I believe an update is at fault, is to type: rpm -qa --last > myrpms.txt#and then open up “myrpms.txt” with a text editor.
This gives a chronological list of the installed rpms, and then when I examine the rpms around the time of the breakage (sometimes I need to surf on them to see what they do) I can on occasion point a finger at the culpret that caused the problem. Then when I raise a bug report, the bug report has a higher probabilty of success in fixing the problem, or sometimes I’m able to surf on the offending package, and find a work around.
I can’t help you on your specific blue tooth observation with KDE-4.3.0. I do note KDE-4.3.1 is now released, but I have no idea if it addresses the bluetooth problems you encountered.
Good luck with your efforts, and its good to read that gnome is successful.
There is an openSUSE wiki page for bluetooth. You could check it out to see if there is anything on it which may help re: KDE: Category:Bluetooth - openSUSE
Good on the packagers of Gnome for finding a way around any hiccups.
One thing that the openSUSE community offers, to try and mitigate the pain of users who want to use openSUSE for the first time (and they do not know if their bluetooth devices will work), is the live CD for KDE-3.5.10, KDE-4.1.3, and KDE-4.3.1 (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of those desktops), which regular users can boot to, and check to see how well (or how poor) their bluetooth devices are supported. That way they can use the information obtained from such a test to influence their installation or no installation decision. Live CD - openSUSE
Upgrading to 11.2 at that time (last Sept) fixed the problem. The only nagging issues are:
that occasionally my mouse stop responding at all. When this happens turning the mouse off and then on again usually fixes the problem. If not I might simply have to wait 5 minutes or more for it to start responding again.
sometimes it goes into a “drunken” state, where the cursor has a big time delay between mouse movement and cursor response - about 5 seconds. This makes it very hard to position the mouse where I want it to go. This state lasts anywhere from a minute to 20 or so minutes.