Arch Linux

s1lentechoes

Member

From: Kansas City, MO USA

Registered: 2016-07-04

Posts: 10

Website

[SOLVED] KDE Connect Not Finding Devices

Hello all.  I know there have been several posts about KDE Connect issues and I have perused them all.  I have tried the AUR git version as well as the normal version, but my devices cannot see each other no matter what I do.  I have opened port ranges, completely disabled my routers firewall, etc...  Nothing.

This is an Arch install, but as a Virtualbox guest in a Windows 10 host.  I even tried disabling Windows' firewall as well, but no luck there either.  I can't seem to find my Arch in my router, but I am assuming that it is tied to my Windows device since it doesn't have an actual network interface and instead uses Windows.  Am I correct in that assumption?  Could Arch being on a Virtualbox install prevent the devices from seeing each other?

Much appreciation for any help.  Even pointing me to the proper log files or any diagnostics that I can run would be immensely helpful.

[EDIT] I am using KDE/Plasma as my DE.  Android device is a Samsung Galaxy SIII running Cyanogen 12.x which is Android v5.x Lollipop.

Last edited by s1lentechoes (2016-07-10 21:32:44)

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I feel somewhat like an inverse tangent function that's approaching an asymptote

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: [SOLVED] KDE Connect Not Finding Devices

Configure Virtualbox, so your virtual machine doesn't have the "local" NAT, but gets an address from your router. At the moment, ip addr should show some 10.0.0.x. I think what you want ia bridging mode, but I'm in the phone and cannot look it up.

s1lentechoes

Member

From: Kansas City, MO USA

Registered: 2016-07-04

Posts: 10

Website

Re: [SOLVED] KDE Connect Not Finding Devices

Thanks Awebb, appreciate the help.  Yeah, the options are -

Not Attached
NAT
NAT Network
Bridged Adaptor
Internal Network
Host-only Adapter
Generic Driver

I did try the Bridged Adaptor and I am getting a normal IP address now, but it still doesn't seem to be working.  I didn't have the time to try disabling all firewalls and all that, but I will do that later on and see if that helps.

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I feel somewhat like an inverse tangent function that's approaching an asymptote

s1lentechoes

Member

From: Kansas City, MO USA

Registered: 2016-07-04

Posts: 10

Website

Re: [SOLVED] KDE Connect Not Finding Devices

Well, I got it working.  It was a dual issue for me.  The 1st was Virtualbox and needing to use the bridged adaptor.  The 2nd was my VPN running getting in the way.

I did try turning my VPN off before, but this was before using the bridged adaptor option in Virtualbox.  I can turn my VPN back on after pairing and it seems to work fine, but then anytime I disconnect from my home network and then reconnect the VPN needs to be disabled again to link the devices.  I assume using a VPN interferes with the KDE connection, and that makes sense although it still needs to go through the router to get to the VPN so maybe someone could explain this to me.  Just for my own curiousity's sake.

After addressing those two options it showed up just fine.  Port forwarding/triggering didn't even need to be set up.

One other question - I didn't have time to play with it a lot just yet, but the 1 notification I did get through KDE Connect showed up unexpanded.  Meaning I could only read 1 line of the 2-3 lines that were in the nofitication.  Is there any way to get the entire text of the notification to show up?  Does KDE Connect have an option like that?  The only thing I can think of would be to set notifications on my Android device to always show up in expanded format.

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I feel somewhat like an inverse tangent function that's approaching an asymptote

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: [SOLVED] KDE Connect Not Finding Devices

I have no idea about the UI, last time I used it was in 2014.

I don't think I understand your VPN setup. You need to describe what you have a bit.

s1lentechoes

Member

From: Kansas City, MO USA

Registered: 2016-07-04

Posts: 10

Website

Re: [SOLVED] KDE Connect Not Finding Devices

Yeah, the notifications first show in a pop up box and display the notification in full.  But if you don't catch that and only see it through the panel widget then it only shows 1 line of the text.  It doesn't matter if the notification is expanded on the Android device or not.  Going to kind of be a deal breaker for me as that is what I mainly use this for.  I have been using Push Bullet for years, but with their recent paywall I started looking for alternatives.  KDE Connect seemed the most promising, integrating directly with Linux, but not being able to read the entire notification is not going to work.

My VPN - I use Private Internet Access, and they have a stand alone app for Android that I use to connect to their servers.  I had to disconnect from/through the app to get KDE Connect working.  Well, to get it to pair to be more exact as again the devices could communicate even with the VPN on once they were paired.  I tested this multiple times - on then try, off then try, on then try and it consistenly worked and then didn't work so I know it was causing issues.  I could connect to my VPN through my router and probably avoid this, but that doesn't work for me as I have devices that must connect outside of a VPN (devices for streaming stuff like Netflix which don't allow VPN's anymore).

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I feel somewhat like an inverse tangent function that's approaching an asymptote