Make your laptop lock without touching a button! | NotebookReview

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**These instructions are merely my attempt to demystify the installation process; much of the material was adapted from BlueProximity's homepage, and I advise you to read the Web site in full before continuing.

This guide is written as a very basic how-to on pairing a Bluetooth phone with a computer running Linux. I run Ubuntu 7.10 on an IBM T60. I am very, very new to Linux so this guide is written with the complete novice in mind.

Ever thought about how cool it would be to have your computer know when you leave and shut off your music, set an away message and lock itself? Have it resume music and unlock when you return? This guide aims to at least point you in the right direction.

First you need to pair your phone with the computer. There are several ways to do this, but I will show you using the Bluetooth manager. This icon should show up by default on your panel, but if it's not, you can either start it by holding alt-F2 and then typing bluetooth-applet, or by going to: System -> Preferences -> Bluetooth Preferences. Make sure that your computer is visible and connectable.
Your screen should look something like this (Yeah I have an OSX theme, I know, I know ... I will get hate for it; it's on the way out ):

After you have allowed your computer to be viewed by your mobile, device, go into your phone's settings, enable Bluetooth and search for your computer. It should show up as as whatever you've named it in adapter name. Connect to the computer. Your phone should (mine does at least) ask for a PIN. Enter whatever you like. I will use '1111' in this case. Once your computer lets you know that a request is pending, like this:

Go ahead and enter the same PIN you typed into your phone, like this:

OK, now your computer and phone should be paired. You should see the phone show up in your 'bonded devices' list.

Now that your phone is paired, the fun stuff begins. You do need a few things installed to make this work. Go to System ->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager and click search. (Make sure you have the universe and multiverse repositories enabled in your sources.list file.

Search for and install bluez-utils, pyton-gtk2, python-glade2, python-configobj and python-bluez (and all other necessary corequisites) Also make sure to grab the most important part, BlueProximity, from here.
I also had to install the some obex stuff, your mileage may vary, but I had to add gnome-vfs-obexftp and libopenobex1.

Alright, now that you've hopefully gotten all of the necessary packages, it's time to install and configure BlueProximity. Install the blueproximity deb file or unpack the tar file then load the program by holding alt-F2 and typing blueproximity or opening the start_proximity.sh file in BlueProximity's folder.

A menu like this should show up:

Go ahead and either 'scan for device' and 'use selected device' or enter your phone's MAC address if you know what it is (via sudo hcitool scan, for example) You'll then want to enter the next tab, 'Proximity Details' and set what a suitable distance for locking/unlocking is. The distance is not in any set number of feet, meters, etc; it's just based on signal strength. Play around with the settings until you find something that you're comfortable with. Under the 'Locking' tab you can change what commands BlueProximity will carry out based on whether your phone is here or away.

Fool around with the program until you are satisfied with its operation. Remember, in order to have BlueProximity load with your session, you'll need to add blueproximity to your session manager. (System->Preferences->Sessions)

Questions, comments, issues? As I mentioned I'm pretty new to this; however, I'm happy to help if at all possible.