Re: [Tails-dev] [Tails-support] BlueTooth keyboard

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Author: intrigeri
Date:  
To: The Tails public development discussion list
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] [Tails-support] BlueTooth keyboard
sajolida@??? wrote (06 May 2014 11:43:45 GMT) :
> That means that it cannot be used in Tails Greeter. I think this
> deserves to be documented somewhere.


Agreed.

> Shall we consider that the same thing is probably true for
> a BlueTooth mouse?


I think that's a reasonable guess.

> → We could add to "System requirements" that Tails requires a USB or PS2
> keyboard and mouse.


... or add the lack of bluetooth input devices support to known
issues: there may be more than USB and PS/2 that work just fine.

> Unfortunately, #5336 which is blocking #5451 has no description,


I'm not sure what #5336 has to do with that. It's just one future step
on the road to #5451, which is about implementing the general "disable
unsafe bus unless used at boot" plan, whose main sub-ticket is #5547.
I have just added some relationships between these sub-ticket to help
make this clearer. There is probably some more ticket gardening that
could be worth doing in this area.

> but does that mean that until #5336 is resolved


I doubt you really mean #5336 here.

> we want to discourage our users from using BlueTooth at all?


We're effectively already discouraging them from using BlueTooth,
since we don't ship the software stack needed to use it. So, I don't
really get the question. Did I miss anything?

Regarding #5751, I see value in supporting BlueTooth in some cases
(e.g. to use one's phone to provide Internet access), but I'm not sure
that we should support BlueTooth keyboards without displaying
a warning, advicing to plug another kind of keyboard if possible.
This kind of hardware is not that widespread, and it is *very* unsafe.
OTOH, we don't try to detect wireless keyboards plugged via USB, so
I'm maybe over-engineering it.

> → So we could also add a FAQ "Can I use a bluetooth keyboard or mouse?"
> and explain there the workaround with gnome-bluetooth unless we think
> that's too risky.


Maybe:

* document how to use some BlueTooth devices we definitely want to
support, e.g. to get Internet access
* warn against using BlueTooth input devices

OTOH, it's really not a frequently asked question in my experience, so
I am really not sure it is worth spending any time, and making the FAQ
longer, just for this.

My current take on it is to just add something to known issues, and be
done with it.

Cheers,
--
intrigeri
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