Ubuntu 15.04 Might Finally Migrate To BlueZ 5 Bluetooth

Discussed today during the first day of the Ubuntu 15.04 Online Developers' Summit was about finally migrating over to BlueZ 5 for its Bluetooth stack. BlueZ 5 was originally released at the end of 2012 but still hasn't shipped by default in Ubuntu Linux.

BlueZ features support for new protocols, API improvements, new Bluetooth Low-Energy profiles, D-Bus interaction improvements, a new btmon Bluetooth monitoring tool, a bluetoothctl command line tool for interacting with BlueZ, and tons of other changes. BlueZ 5 was a huge release and it's still been improved since with support for new profiles, Android improvements, and much more.

Ubuntu hasn't updated its Bluetooth support to BlueZ 5 though since there's API breaks and other changes compared to BlueZ 4. Today during the vUDS event it was said about Bluetooth in Ubuntu 15.04, "the transition may happen in vivid with the right amount of coordination. However, bluez 5 is uncompatible with bluez 4 and most applications needs to be update cross-desktops."

GNOME already supports BlueZ 5, the current Ubuntu Phone stack still needs modifications for BlueZ support, and many other Ubuntu packaged software components would need to be ported to BlueZ 5 or checked for compatibility.

Those wishing to learn more about the potential BlueZ 5 plans for Ubuntu 15.04 can see today's session notes.