So I have a Linux with old BT2.0. I want to use it as iBeacon. Energy consumption is not my concern; the only one is API. Is it possible?
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Answer
Unfortunately no. iBeacon and beacons in general depend on BLE advertisements, and this was introduced as part of the Bluetooth Low Energy features that are part of BT4.0. The only way around this is if you added a BT4.0 HCI dongle or a Bluetooth v4.0 device to your Linux machine.
You can find more information here:-
- 5 Things to Know about Beacon Technology
- BLE Beacon Technology Made Simple
- What are BLE Beacons
- Pluggable USB Bluetooth v4.0 Dongle
- Best Bluetooth Adapters in 2020
You will also need a relatively new version of Linux in order to have BlueZ support for BLE. Ideally your laptop should be on Linux v4.4 or later, but theoretically this should work from Linux v3.13 onwards. More details are found here:-