Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a standard for the short-range wireless interconnection of cellular phones, computers, and other electronic devices. In Linux, the canonical implementation of the Bluetooth protocol stack is BlueZ.

Installation

Install the bluez package, providing the Bluetooth protocol stack.
Install the bluez-utils package, providing the bluetoothctl utility. Alternatively install bluez-utils-compat^AUR to additionally have the deprecated BlueZ tools.
The generic Bluetooth driver is the btusb Kernel module. Check whether that module is loaded. If it's not, then load the module.
Start/enable bluetooth.service.

Note:

By default the bluetooth daemon will only give out bnep0 devices to users that are a member of the lp group. Make sure to add your user to that group if you intend to connect to a bluetooth tether. You can change the group that is required in the file /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf.
Some Bluetooth adapters are bundled with a Wi-Fi card (e.g. Intel Centrino). These require that the Wi-Fi card is firstly enabled (typically a keyboard shortcut on a laptop) in order to make the Bluetooth adapter visible to the kernel.
Some Bluetooth cards (e.g. Broadcom) conflict with the network adapter. Thus, you need to make sure that your Bluetooth device get connected before the network service boot.
Some tools such as hcitool and hciconfig have been deprecated upstream, and are no longer included in bluez-utils. Since these tools will no longer be updated, it is recommended that scripts be updated to avoid using them. If you still desire to use them, install bluez-utils-compat^AUR. See FS#53110 and the Bluez mailing list for more information.

Front-ends

Console

bluetoothctl — Pairing a device from the shell is one of the simplest and most reliable options.

http://www.bluez.org/ || bluez-utils

Tip: To automate bluetoothctl commands, use echo -e "<command1>\n<command2>\n" | bluetoothctl or bluetoothctl -- command

Graphical

The following packages allow for a graphical interface to customize Bluetooth.

GNOME Bluetooth — GNOME's Bluetooth tool.
- gnome-bluetooth provides the back-end
- gnome-shell provides the status monitor applet
- gnome-control-center provides the configuration front-end GUI that can be accessed by typing Bluetooth on the Activities overview, or with the gnome-control-center bluetooth command.
- You can also launch the bluetooth-sendto command directly to send files to a remote device.
- nautilus-bluetooth^AUR adds a "Send via Bluetooth" entry to Nautilus' right-click menu
- To receive files, open the Bluetooth settings panel; you can only receive whilst the Bluetooth panel is open.
- To add a Bluetooth entry to the Send To menu in Thunar's file properties menu, see instructions here. (The command that needs to be configured is bluetooth-sendto %F).

https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeBluetooth ||

Bluedevil — KDE's Bluetooth tool. If there is no Bluetooth icon visible in Dolphin and in the system tray, enable it in the system tray options or add a widget. You can configure Bluedevil and detect Bluetooth devices by clicking the icon. An interface is also available from the KDE System Settings.

https://cgit.kde.org/bluedevil.git || bluedevil

Blueberry — Linux Mint's spin-off of GNOME Bluetooth, which works in all desktop environments. Blueberry does not support receiving files through Obex Object Push.

https://github.com/linuxmint/blueberry || blueberry

Blueman — A full featured Bluetooth manager.

https://github.com/blueman-project/blueman || blueman

ObexFTP — A tool for transferring files to/from any OBEX enabled device.

http://dev.zuckschwerdt.org/openobex/wiki/ObexFtp || obexftp^AUR

Pairing

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: Step 5 is unclear. What are Bluetooth agents? (Discuss in Talk:Bluetooth#)

Note: Before using the bluetooth device, make sure that it is not blocked by rfkill.

This section describes directly configuring bluez5 via the bluetoothctl CLI, which might not be necessary if you are using an alternative front-end tool (such as GNOME Bluetooth).

The exact procedure depends on the devices involved and their input functionality. What follows is a general outline of pairing a device using bluetoothctl.

Start the bluetoothctl interactive command. Input help to get a list of available commands.

(optional) Select a default controller with select MAC_address.
Enter power on to turn the power to the controller on. It is off by default and will turn off again each reboot, see #Auto power-on after boot.
Enter devices to get the MAC Address of the device with which to pair.
Enter device discovery mode with scan on command if device is not yet on the list.
Turn the agent on with agent on or choose a specific agent: if you press tab twice after agent you should see a list of available agents, e.g. DisplayOnly KeyboardDisplay NoInputNoOutput DisplayYesNo KeyboardOnly off on.
Enter pair MAC_address to do the pairing (tab completion works).
If using a device without a PIN, one may need to manually trust the device before it can reconnect successfully. Enter trust MAC_address to do so.
Enter connect MAC_address to establish a connection.

An example session may look this way:

# bluetoothctl

[NEW] Controller 00:10:20:30:40:50 pi [default]

[bluetooth]# agent KeyboardOnly

Agent registered

[bluetooth]# default-agent

Default agent request successful

[bluetooth]# power on

Changing power on succeeded
[CHG] Controller 00:10:20:30:40:50 Powered: yes

[bluetooth]# scan on

Discovery started
[CHG] Controller 00:10:20:30:40:50 Discovering: yes
[NEW] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 myLino
[CHG] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 LegacyPairing: yes

[bluetooth]# pair 00:12:34:56:78:90

Attempting to pair with 00:12:34:56:78:90
[CHG] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 Connected: yes
[CHG] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 Connected: no
[CHG] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 Connected: yes
Request PIN code
[agent] Enter PIN code: 1234
[CHG] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 Paired: yes
Pairing successful
[CHG] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 Connected: no

[bluetooth]# connect 00:12:34:56:78:90

Attempting to connect to 00:12:34:56:78:90
[CHG] Device 00:12:34:56:78:90 Connected: yes
Connection successful

Configuration

Auto power-on after boot

By default, your Bluetooth adapter will not power on after a reboot. The former method by using hciconfig hci0 up is deprecated, see the release note. Now you just need to add the line AutoEnable=true in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf at the bottom in the [Policy] section:

/etc/bluetooth/main.conf

[Policy]
AutoEnable=true

Discoverable on startup

If the device should always be visible and directly connectable:

/etc/bluetooth/main.conf

[General]
DiscoverableTimeout = 0
Discoverable=true

Audio

In order to be able to use audio equipment like bluetooth headphones or speakers, you need to install the additional pulseaudio-bluetooth package. With a default PulseAudio installation you should immediately be able to stream audio from a bluetooth device to your speakers.

If you have a system-wide PulseAudio setup make sure the user running the daemon (usually pulse) is in the lp group and you load the bluetooth modules in your PulseAudio config:

/etc/pulse/system.pa

...
load-module module-bluetooth-policy
load-module module-bluetooth-discover
...

See the Bluetooth headset page for more information about bluetooth audio and bluetooth headsets.

Bluetooth serial

To get bluetooth serial communication working on Bluetooth-to-Serial modules (HC-05, HC-06) do the following steps:

Pair your bluetooth device using bluetoothctl as described above.

Install bluez-rfcomm^AUR and bluez-hcitool^AUR, as they provide certain functionality which is missing from newer tools.

Bind paired device MAC address to tty terminal:

# rfcomm bind rfcomm0 <MAC address of bluetooth device>

Now you can open /dev/rfcomm0 for serial communication.

Troubleshooting

This article or section is out of date.

Reason: Replace hciconfig with newer commands. (Discuss in Talk:Bluetooth#)

Debugging

In order to debug, first stop bluetooth.service.

And then start it with the -d parameter:

# /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd -n -d

Another option is via the btmon tool.

Deprecated BlueZ tools

Eight BlueZ tools were deprecated and removed from bluez-utils, although not all of them were superseded by newer tools. The bluez-utils-compat^AUR package provides an alternative version of bluez-utils with the deprecated tools.

Deprecated tool	Most likely replacement
gatttool	btgatt-client, D-Bus Gatt API
hciattach	btattach
hciconfig	btmgmt (and bluetoothctl?)
hcidump	btmon (and btsnoop)
hcitool	missing, D-Bus Device API available
rfcomm	missing, implement with D-Bus Profile1 API?
ciptool	missing, implement with D-Bus Profile1 API?
sdptool	missing, functionality seems to be scattered over different D-Bus objects: Profile, Advertising, and the UUIDs arrays in device and adapter.

gnome-bluetooth

If you see this when trying to enable receiving files in bluetooth-properties:

Bluetooth OBEX start failed: Invalid path
Bluetooth FTP start failed: Invalid path

Then make sure that the XDG user directories exist.

Bluetooth USB Dongle

If you are using a USB dongle, you should check that your Bluetooth dongle is recognized. You can do that by running journalctl -f when you have plugged in the USB dongle (or inspecting /var/log/messages.log). It should look something like the following (look out for hci):

Feb 20 15:00:24 hostname kernel: [ 2661.349823] usb 4-1: new full-speed USB device number 3 using uhci_hcd
Feb 20 15:00:24 hostname bluetoothd[4568]: HCI dev 0 registered
Feb 20 15:00:24 hostname bluetoothd[4568]: Listening for HCI events on hci0
Feb 20 15:00:25 hostname bluetoothd[4568]: HCI dev 0 up
Feb 20 15:00:25 hostname bluetoothd[4568]: Adapter /org/bluez/4568/hci0 has been enabled

If you only get the first two lines, you may see that it found the device but you need to bring it up. Example:

# btmgmt

[mgmt]# info

Index list with 1 item
hci0:	Primary controller
	addr 00:1A:7D:DA:71:10 version 6 manufacturer 10 class 0x000000
	supported settings: powered connectable fast-connectable discoverable bondable link-security ssp br/edr hs le advertising secure-conn debug-keys privacy static-addr 
	current settings: connectable discoverable bondable ssp br/edr le secure-conn 
	name Mozart
	short name

[mgmt]# select hci0

Selected index 0

[hci0]# power up

hci0 Set Powered complete, settings: powered connectable discoverable bondable ssp br/edr le secure-conn

[hci0]# info

hci0:	Primary controller
	addr 00:1A:7D:DA:71:10 version 6 manufacturer 10 class 0x1c0104
	supported settings: powered connectable fast-connectable discoverable bondable link-security ssp br/edr hs le advertising secure-conn debug-keys privacy static-addr 
	current settings: powered connectable discoverable bondable ssp br/edr le secure-conn

Or

# bluetoothctl

[bluetooth]# show

Controller 00:1A:7D:DA:71:10 (public)
	Name: Mozart
	Alias: Mozart
	Class: 0x0000095c
	Powered: no
	Discoverable: yes
	Pairable: yes

[bluetooth]# power on

[CHG] Controller 00:1A:7D:DA:71:10 Class: 0x001c0104
Changing power on succeeded
[CHG] Controller 00:1A:7D:DA:71:10 Powered: yes

[bluetooth]# show

Controller 00:1A:7D:DA:71:10 (public)
	Name: Mozart
	Alias: Mozart
	Class: 0x001c0104
	Powered: yes
	Discoverable: yes
	Pairable: yes

To verify that the device was detected you can use btmgmt which is part of the bluez-utils. You can get a list of available devices and their identifiers and their MAC address by issuing:

$ btmgmt info

Index list with 1 item
hci0:	Primary controller
	addr 00:1A:7D:DA:71:10 version 6 manufacturer 10 class 0x1c0104
	supported settings: powered connectable fast-connectable discoverable bondable link-security ssp br/edr hs le advertising secure-conn debug-keys privacy static-addr 
	current settings: powered connectable discoverable bondable ssp br/edr le secure-conn

It is possible to check the Bluetooth version as mapped to the HCI version according to the table in the official specification. For example, in the previous output, HCI version 6 is Bluetooth version 4.0.

More detailed information about the device can be retrieved by using the deprecated hciconfig. (bluez-utils-compat^AUR)

$ hciconfig -a hci0

hci0:   Type: USB
        BD Address: 00:1B:DC:0F:DB:40 ACL MTU: 310:10 SCO MTU: 64:8
        UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
        RX bytes:1226 acl:0 sco:0 events:27 errors:0
        TX bytes:351 acl:0 sco:0 commands:26 errors:0
        Features: 0xff 0xff 0x8f 0xfe 0x9b 0xf9 0x00 0x80
        Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3
        Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK
        Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 
        Name: 'BlueZ (0)'
        Class: 0x000100
        Service Classes: Unspecified
        Device Class: Computer, Uncategorized
        HCI Ver: 2.0 (0x3) HCI Rev: 0xc5c LMP Ver: 2.0 (0x3) LMP Subver: 0xc5c
        Manufacturer: Cambridge Silicon Radio (10)

Audio devices start to skip at short distance from dongle

If other devices share the same USB host, they can interrupt communication with audio devices. Make sure it is the only device attached to its bus. For example:

$ lsusb

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 048d:1345 Integrated Technology Express, Inc. Multi Cardreader
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:a700 Standard Microsystems Corp. 2 Port Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

CSR Dongle 0a12:0001

The device ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) has a regression bug, and currently only works in the kernel version ≤ 3.9.11. There is a patch available for newer versions. For more information, see Kernel Bug 60824.

Logitech Bluetooth USB Dongle

There are Logitech dongles (ex. Logitech MX5000) that can work in two modes: Embedded and HCI. In embedded mode dongle emulates a USB device so it seems to your PC that you are using a normal USB mouse/keyoard.

If you hold the little red Button on the USB BT mini-receiver it will enable the other mode. Hold the red button on the BT dongle and plug it into the computer, and after 3-5 seconds of holding the button, the Bluetooth icon will appear in the system tray. Discussion

Alternatively, you can install the bluez-hid2hci package. When you connect your Logitech dongle it will automatically switch.

hcitool scan: Device not found

On some laptops (e.g. Dell Studio 15, Lenovo Thinkpad X1) you have to switch the Bluetooth mode from HID to HCI. Install the bluez-hid2hci package, then udev should do this automatically. Alternatively, you can run this command to switch to HCI manually:

# /usr/lib/udev/hid2hci

If the device will not show up and you have a Windows operating system on your machine, try booting it and enable the bluetooth adapter from windows.

Sometimes also this simple command helps:

# bluetoothctl power on

rfkill unblock: Do not unblock

If your device still soft blocked and you run connman, try this:

$ connmanctl enable bluetooth

My computer is not visible

Cannot discover computer from your phone? Enable discoverable mode:

# bluetoothctl discoverable on

to check if it worked:

# bluetoothctl show

	Powered: yes
	Discoverable: yes
	Pairable: yes

Note: Check DiscoverableTimeout and PairableTimeout in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

If even so it does not show up, try changing the device class in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf as following:

# Default device class. Only the major and minor device class bits are
# considered.
#Class = 0x000100 (from default config)
Class = 0x100100

A user reported that this was the only solution to make his computer visible for his phone.

Logitech keyboard does not pair

If you do not get the passkey when you try to pair your Logitech keyboard, type the following command:

# btmgmt ssp off

If after pairing, the keyboard still does not connect, check the output of hcidump -at. If the latter indicates repeatedly connections-disconnections like the following message:

   status 0x00 handle 11 reason 0x13
   Reason: Remote User Terminated Connection

then, the only solution for now is to install the old Bluetooth stack.

HSP/HFP profiles

bluez5 removed support for the HSP/HFP profiles (telephony headset for TeamSpeak, Skype, etc.). You need to install PulseAudio (>= version 6) or another application that implements HSP/HFP itself.

Foxconn / Hon Hai / Lite-On Broadcom device

Some of these devices require the firmware to be flashed into the device at boot. The firmware is not provided but can converted from a Microsoft Windows .hex file into a .hcd using hex2hcd (which is installed with bluez-utils).

In order to get the right .hex file, try searching the device vendor:product code obtained with lsusb, for example:

   ...
   Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04ca:2006 Lite-On Technology Corp. Broadcom BCM43142A0 Bluetooth Device
   ...

or

   Bus 004 Device 004: Id 0489:e031 Foxconn / Hon Hai

Alternatively, boot into Windows (a virtual machine installation will suffice) and get the firmware name from the Device Manager utility. If you want to know the model of your device but cannot see it in lsusb, you might see it in lsusb -v as iProduct.

The .hex file can be extracted from the downloaded Windows driver without having to run Windows for it. Download the right driver, for example Bluetooth Widcomm (listed among the drivers for Lifebook P771), which contains the drivers for many Broadcomm devices. In case of Bluetooth Widcomm, the driver is a self-extracting RAR archive, so it can be extracted using unrar x. To find out which of the many .hex files is the right one for you, look in the file Win32/bcbtums-win7x86-brcm.inf and search for [RAMUSBE031.CopyList], where E031 should be replaced with the product code (the second hex number in lsusb) of your device in upper-case. Underneath you should see the file name of the right .hex file.

Once you have the .hcd file, copy it into /lib/firmware/brcm/BCM.hcd - this filename is suggested by dmesg and it may change in your case so check your dmesg output in order to verify. Then reload the btusb module:

# rmmod btusb
# modprobe btusb

The device should now be available. See BBS#162688 for information on making these changes persistent.

Intel combined wifi and bluetooth cards

See Wireless network configuration#Bluetooth coexistence.

Device connects, then disconnects after a few moments

If you see messages like the following in journalctl output, and your device fails to connect or disconnects shortly after connecting:

bluetoothd: Unable to get connect data for Headset Voice gateway: getpeername: Transport endpoint is not connected (107)
bluetoothd: connect error: Connection refused (111)

This may be because you have already paired the device with another operating system using the same bluetooth adapter (e.g., dual-booting). Some devices cannot handle multiple pairings associated with the same MAC address (i.e., bluetooth adapter). You can fix this by re-pairing the device. Start by removing the device:

$ bluetoothctl

[bluetooth]# devices

Device XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX My Device

[bluetooth]# remove XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

Then restart bluetooth.service, turn on your bluetooth adapter, make your device discoverable, re-scan for devices, and re-pair your device. Depending on your bluetooth manager, you may need to perform a full reboot in order to re-discover the device.

Device does not connect with an error in journal

If you see a message like the following in journalctl output while trying to connect to a device:

a2dp-source profile connect failed for 9C:64:40:22:E1:3F: Protocol not available

try installing pulseaudio-bluetooth and restarting PulseAudio. This error can manifest even while using only file transfer.

Device does not show up in scan

Some devices using bluetooth low energy do not appear when scanning with bluetoothctl, for example the Logitech MX Master. The simplest way I have found to connect them is by installing bluez-utils-compat^AUR, then start bluetooth.service and do:

# bluetoothctl

[NEW] Controller (MAC) myhostname [default]

[bluetooth]# power on

[CHG] Controller (MAC) Class: 0x0c010c
Changing power on succeeded
[CHG] Controller (MAC) Powered: yes

[bluetooth]# scan on

Discovery started
[CHG] Controller (MAC) Discovering: yes

In another terminal:

# hcitool lescan

Wait until your device shows up, then Ctrl+c hcitool. bluetoothctl should now see your device and pair normally.

Interference between Headphones and Mouse

If you experience audio stuttering while using a bluetooth mouse and keyboard simultaneously, you can try the following as referenced in #23 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bluez/+bug/424215

# hciconfig hci0 lm ACCEPT,MASTER
# hciconfig hci0 lp HOLD,SNIFF,PARK

Bluetooth mouse laggy movements

Try edit the file /var/lib/bluetooth/XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX/YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY/info (XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX - your Bluetooth adapter MAC-address, YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY - your mouse MAC-address) and add those lines:

[ConnectionParameters]
MinInterval=6
MaxInterval=9
Latency=44
Timeout=216

You can see your local adapter MAC address by running command hcitool dev, your can see MAC addresses of currently connected remote devices by running command hcitool con

Adapter disappears after suspend/resume

First, find vendor and product ID of the adapter. For example:

lsusb -tv

/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/12p, 480M
    ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    ...
    |__ Port 3: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
        ID 8087:0025 Intel Corp. 
    |__ Port 3: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
        ID 8087:0025 Intel Corp. 
    ...

In this case, the vendor ID is 8087 and the product ID is 0025.

Then, use usb_modeswitch to reset the adapter:

# usb_modeswitch -R -v <vendor ID> -p <product ID>