• On Linux, you have to be running Gnome or KDE. There is a headless option called mconnect, but (a) it’s essentially unmaintained, (b) it’s written in Vala, a niche¹ language, © either KDE Connect or mconnect can’t maintain an association - leaving the LAN and returning always forces a re-authentication.

    It’s promising, and nice when it works, but the supported linux daemons are - sadly - tightly coupled to two DEs, making it useless for headless and the large number of people running neither KDE or Gnome.

    Device Connect, OTOH, works flawlessly, remembers device authorization, and the Linux server is completely headless. It uses standard tooling for desktop integration tasks, like opening links. It lacks many of KDE connect’s features, such as using the phone as a touchpad and media control (the latter would be easy to support through MPRIS2, but media control could also be a separate app; it’s kitchen-sinking, so I understand leaving it out).

    • Shareni@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      On Linux, you have to be running Gnome or KDE.

      I’ve used it without those issues on cinnamon, xfce, and a variety of of tiling WMs. It fails to connect sometimes, but that happens on KDE as well, and I most certainly didn’t need to reauth every time I connect to the network. So idk what you’re talking about.

      • So, you’re basically running the KDE infrastructure, just not using the KDE WM? Have you done a ps and counted the number of KDE services that are running, just to run KDE Connect?

        Here are the (KDE) dependencies on the Arch KDE Connect package:

        kcmutils 
        kconfig
        kcoreaddons 
        kcrash
        kdbusaddons
        kdeclarative
        kguiaddons
        ki18n
        kiconthemes
        kio
        kirigami
        kirigami-addons                               kitemmodels
        kjobwidgets
        knotifications
        kpeople
        kservice
        kstatusnotifieritem                           kwidgetsaddons
        kwindowsystem
        pulseaudio-qt
        qqc2-desktop-style
        qt6-base
        qt6-connectivity
        qt6-declarative
        qt6-multimedia
        qt6-wayland
        

        When you run KDE Connect, you’re running most of the KDE Desktop and Qt; you’re just not using it.

        Have you ever tried running it headless? I have; it doesn’t work.