Manually Install Bluetooth Code on RPi

Current Version: Beta - February 1, 2023

In the early days of deploying this software, I am making changes often based on early adopters comments and experiences. Check here often to see if I have posted a new version - identified by the date.

To check current version date on your Raspberry Pi: Open the btwifiset file (defaults to syslog using install below) and look for the line that starts with ******* Starting BTwifiSet - version date: …

About

Step by Step (manually) install on your Raspberry Pi of a bluetooth BLE Server written in Python . BLE advertises a custom service that communicates with the IOS app to remotely set the wifi on a headless raspberry pi.

Requirements

Python3: version 3.7 or later must be installed on the Raspberry Pi.
Here is one way to install the newest python

General

All commands below are to be typed at the prompt in a terminal window on the Raspberry Pi.

• If you are on a headless RPi - it is assumed you have SSH into the RPi from your computer in a terminal window.
• If you are using the desktop version of the Pi OS - please open a terminal session.

Copy/paste or type the commands in the code blocks into your terminal on the RPi - one line at the time - and run them (hit return on keyboard)

Step 1 - get the Raspberry Pi ready

1. Check your Raspberry pi OS release:

sudo cat /etc/os-release

The software has been tested on Raspbian 10 & 11. Consider upgrading the RPI to a newer release if your release is below 10.

2. Update the Raspberry Pi:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get full-upgrade
sudo reboot

3. Check your version of python3 on the Rpi.

If you have the latest version of the RPi OS - you already have the correct version of Python. If you have an older version, or have installed different versions on you pi, use this command to check the version of python3 on your RPi:

python3 --version

If the version returned is less then Python 3.7, you must install a newer version of Python before continuing. Here is one way to install the newest python

4. Check if you have pip installed (if you installed a newer version of python per the above instructions and created an alias (python) - use the alias below instead of python3 in the commands.)

python3 -m pip --version

Note that the RPi OS lite comes with Python but pip is not installed - so you will need to install it.

5. If it is not installed (returned message: No module named pip) - install it with:

sudo apt install python3-pip

Step 2: download the python files

These instructions install the python file btwifiset.py in usr/local/ in a directory called btwifiset. You can install it anywhere else you prefer - simply modify the “ExecStart” line in the btwifiset.service file (see step 6) to use the location where you install the btwifiset.py file.

1. Navigate to /usr/local directory, create a directory named btwifiset, then navigate there:

cd /usr/local
sudo mkdir btwifiset
cd btwifiset

2. Download the python file into this directory. Type this command: (use capital letter O in the option)

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nksan/Rpi-SetWiFi-viaBluetooth/main/btwifiset.py

Step 3 - Check for/Install Python modules:

The BLE server python script requires the use of two python modules: dbus and GLib

Note: If you installed a new version of python and created an alias (for example: python) - replace all instances of python3 in the commands below with your alias.

1. Prepare for the installation of libpythonX.Y-dev. You need the first two digit of the python version . Run this command - it will return a python version in the format X.Y.Z (for example 3.9.2).

python3 --version

Note down the first number (X) and the second number (Y) of the python version that is returned, and replace X.Y in the command line below with these values. - keep everything else the same. (For example replace libpythonX.Y-dev with libpython3.9-dev if your version showed something like 3.9.2). Run the command thus constructed and answer yes to all prompts.

sudo apt install python3-gi libdbus-glib-1-dev python3-pip libpythonX.Y-dev

2. Then install the Python module dbus using pip:

(make sure you installed pip from step 1.5 above)

python3 -m pip install dbus-python

3. Test the installs - these command should return nothing if properly installed:

python3 -c 'import dbus'
python3 -c 'from gi.repository import GLib'

Step 4 - Modify the BlueZ service (and symlinks) that came with Raspbian:

The system service for bluetooth needs to be modified to run BLE, and to stop it from constantly requesting the battery status of the iphone/ipad that will connect to it (default behavior).

1. Copy the existing bluetooth.service file to /etc/systemd/system and navigate there:

sudo cp /lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service /etc/systemd/system
cd /etc/systemd/system

1. Open the copied .service file in your preferred editor - here we use nano:

sudo nano bluetooth.service

2. Find the line that starts with ExecStart and add the following at the end of the line - on the same line, leaving a space before the two hyphens:

  --experimental -P battery

the line should read something like: ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd —experimental -P battery

3. Save the file (for nano: Ctrl o + return) and exit (for nano: Ctrl x)
4. Update the symlink bluetooth.target.wants to point to our versions of bluetooth.service

sudo rm -f /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.target.wants/bluetooth.service
sudo ln -s /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.service /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.target.wants/bluetooth.service

5. Similarly update symlink for bluez service:

sudo rm -f /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.bluez.service
sudo ln -s /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.service /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.bluez.service

6. Reboot the Raspberry Pi for changes to take effect:

sudo reboot

step 5 - Verify that wpa_supplicant.conf exists

If your pi has ever connected to wifi, it should have a file named wpa_supplicant.conf. If not, we need to create it. Run this command to check if you have this file on your Raspberry Pi:

sudo cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

If you get a message with : No such file or directory, The file does not exists and you need to create it (see below: If the file does not exists).

If the file exists:

At this point, you are seeing the content of the file in the terminal window. Please check that both of the following lines appear at the top of the file (order is not important) - XX is a country code such as US, GB, CA etc.

country=XX     
update_config=1

If either (or both) of these lines are missing - open the file in an editor and add the missing lines below the first line of the file. To edit the file:

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Then add the missing lines from above to the file. For country code - make sure you use your own country code

If the file does exists:

Create the file and open it in an editor:

sudo touch /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Then copy/paste the following at the top of the file - making sure to replace the country code XX with your correct country code

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
country=US
update_config=1

Save the file and exit the editor.

Step 6 - Create the btwifiset.service file

This creates a Systemd service file that will automatically starts btwifiset.py when your RPi boots up. This is assumed to be the desired behavior for a RPi in headless mode. (If your RPi is connected to a terminal and keyboard - you don’t need to set the wifi using an iphone app and bluetooth…)

These instructions assume that you installed (step 2) the btwifiset.py file in /usr/local/btwifiset. If you used a different location, replace /usr/local/btwifiset/ with the full path location to where you installed it.

These instructions also assume that python3 resides in /bin/ - which is typical of the python that comes with RPi OS. You can test this by running:

/bin/python3 --version

which should return the version of python. If this fails and python3 is not in /bin/ run this:

command -v python3

this will return the location of python3 - Substitute this location to the /bin/python3 on the ExecStart line below.

Command Line switches: btwifiset accepts the following command line switches - which you can modify on the ExecStart line below. The installation shown here uses the —syslog switch to store log entries in syslog. This can be modified as below:

--syslog    (Logs messages to syslog)  
--console   (Logs messages to console - this should not be used in the service file)  
--logfile  /path/to/filename.log   (Logs messages to specified file using absolute path)  
--timeout x  (where x is the number of minutes btwifiset will run before shuting down)    

timeout defaults to 15 minutes if —timeout x switch is not included. The timeout is the number of minutes that btwifiset will run after booting up if it does not receives any command from the IOS app (timeout resets to 15 min each time a command is received). The idea behind timeout is that a headless RPi that requires to have its wifi set-up will do this upon boot - after which the set wifi via bluetooth function is not needed, since it is then possible to ssh into the RPi using the wifi. Since I do not know what other bluetooth program may be running on the pi - it is prudent to shutdown btwifiset if it is not used.

1. Now, Create the btwifiset.service file and open it in an editor:

sudo  touch /etc/systemd/system/btwifiset.service
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/btwifiset.service

2. Copy the below and insert in the editor:

[Unit]
Description=btwifiset Wi-Fi Configuration over Bluetooth
After=hciuart.service bluetooth.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/bin/python3 /usr/local/btwifiset/btwifiset.py --syslog

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

3. Save the file and exit the editor.

4. Run the following commands:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable hciuart btwifiset

6. Now reboot the RPi:

sudo reboot

5. At this point, the bluetooth BLE service is running automatically upon boot of the RPi.
   • you can check it’s status with:

   systemctl status btwifiset.service

   • If you want to stop it :

   sudo systemctl stop btwifiset.service</span>

   • If you want to start it again :

   sudo systemctl restart btwifiset.service</span>

Remember, unless you modified the timeout using the —timeout x switch, btwifiset will run for 15 minutes and then shut down unless you connect to it with the companion IOS app.

You are now ready to use the ios app BTBerryWifi with the raspberry pi. Enjoy!

Note- the ios app is called BTBerryWifi in the Apple App Store. Best to search for its name exactly, since I messed up the keywords - but a search for “Raspberry pi wifi bluetooth” should work also.

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