Maybe one needs root access to enquire bluetooth device directly but this information usually is held/collected by the system in the same way as a wifi manager collects AND displays the signal strength of each neighbouring network. So a possibility would be to ask the window manager or whatever other manager instead of accessing system directly.

Here is an example for gnome: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala/DBusClientSamples If I understood correctly you need to detect mobile's presence from your opensuse desktop, so if you are using gnome then ask gnome for it.

My aim is to not need root to check phone proximity, and as bluetoothctl is not setuid, I am convinced it should be possible.

I've been fiddling with Net::DBus, but the docs are not conclusive and missing methods like list_services and list_objects.

I've been playing a bit with d-feet, but that didn't bring me any further (yet) with the correct arguments to Net::DBus. (and time lacks to keep trying).

What I had:

use 5.16.2;
use warnings;

use Net::DBus;
use Data::Peek;

my $bus = Net::DBus->find or die "Cannot connect to DBus\n";
my $hal = $bus->get_service ("org.bluez") or die "Cannot get Handle\n"
+;
[download]

Giving no die message, but a disappointing

org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.bluez was not 
+provided by any .service files
[download]

That plus

$ cat /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.bluez.service
[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth service
Documentation=man:bluetoothd(8)
ConditionPathIsDirectory=/sys/class/bluetooth

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.bluez
ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd
NotifyAccess=main
#WatchdogSec=10
#Restart=on-failure
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_ADMIN CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
LimitNPROC=1
ProtectHome=true
ProtectSystem=full

[Install]
WantedBy=bluetooth.target
Alias=dbus-org.bluez.service
[download]

Made me skip digging into DBus for now


Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.bluez was not 
+provided by any .service files

I am curious why. maybe your bluetooth usb was not plugged in or turned on and the service did not auto-start. I have linux but it is without bluetooth and in my osx, well, i guess they have their own drivers.

Here are some other DIY ideas for unlocking your computer: face recognition, fingerprint recognition, voice recognition, whistle recognition, toe recognition (requires sandals but no socks). Of course security is big concern because someone with your phone or a picture of your iris or your finger can unlock. For this reason I propose to have a 2-level security. Unlock the screen with the proximity test only to reveal the usual login-box. This system is secure and also techie beyond cool. bw