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Sometimes your Linux distribution doesn’t detect your laptop’s Bluetooth hardware.
Or perhaps you want to add a USB Bluetooth dongle to a desktop computer.
Either way, here’s how to get Bluetooth working.
This low-profile USB adapter supports Linux, as documented by several reviewers.
The Bluetooth Saga
Bluetoothis named after a 10th-century Danish king, Harald Bluetooth.
He was known as the unifying king.
By encouraging communication between the many differing factions, he consolidated the country under Christianity.
Ericssonreleased Bluetooth, the short-range wireless communication standard in 1998.
The Linux kernel first supported Bluetooth functionality in 2001, with full support coming in 2005.
This low-profile USB adapter supports Linux, as documented by several reviewers.
The official Linux Bluetooth software suite is BlueZ, created and administered by theBlueZ Project.
Blueman is an independent project to provide afront-end for BlueZ.
Installing the Software
We need to install BlueZ and its associated utilities.
We also need to install Blueman, which is packaged separately.
We do this withsystemctl.
Enabling the service means it’ll be started with each boot of your setup.
Starting the service makes it run right away, so you might use Bluetooth without having toreboot your rig.
Checking the Status
We can check that Bluetooth is up and running using therfkillcommand.
Usingrfkillwithout any command-line parameters lists the wireless adapters, and shows whether they are blocked or unblocked.
We can see that Bluetooth is present, but blocked.
We can sort that out usingrfkillwith itsunblockoption.
Now we can check the status once more.
The Bluetooth adapter is now unblocked, so we can go ahead and start to use Bluetooth.
Using Bluetooth in GNOME
InGNOME, Bluetooth functionality can be accessed from the system menu.
When active Bluetooth hardware is detected, a new “Bluetooth” menu item appears.
Expanding the menu item reveals two options.
You canturn Bluetooth offor on, and you’ve got the option to dive into the Bluetooth prefs.
This opens the regular “tweaks” tool and takes you to the “Bluetooth” pane.
So that we had something to connect to, we set a Bluetoothheadsetto broadcast its availability for pairing.
Our laptop found the gear and listed it as a Bluetooth gear in the vicinity of the laptop.
It had been detected, but it was not paired to the laptop.
Its status was reported as “Not set up.”
Clicking on the “Not set up” text started the connection process.
In our case, the devices communicated and connected.
Some devices send a code number to the computer, which GNOME displays.
In our case, there were a couple of bleeps and the gear was connected.
Its status was updated in the “controls” software.
Clicking anywhere in the gray shaded bar around the Bluetooth equipment opens an options window.
This gives you some information about the connected machine.
your box will forget everything about the machine.
You’ll need to reconnect to it if you wish to use it in the future.
Because our equipment was a headset, the tweaks control the audio output of the equipment.
Our button was labeled “Sound controls.”
Clicking the “Sound configs” button opened a dialog with audio configs in it.
If there’s not, you’re free to use Blueman to manage your Bluetooth connections.
Or perhaps you administer a collection of Linux computers, with different desktop environments on them.
Using Blueman allows you to have a consistent management experience across them all.
Blueman is short for Bluetooth Manager.
The Blueman icon will appear.
Click it to launch the tool.
The Blueman system will appear.
We’d disconnected our Bluetooth headset, and had set it to “discoverable.”
Clicking the “Search” button in the Blueman toolbar started a search for nearby Bluetooth devices.
Our headset was discovered and listed.
Your gadget will be listed with a name or label that tells you what it is.
This lets you quickly hop between adapters.
Get Connected
Using Bluetooth on Linux is a lot easier than it used to be.
It’s quick and easy to set up and painless to connect to devices.
It’s good to connect, as King Harald may have once said.
Related:Fix: Why Isn’t Linux Detecting My Wi-Fi Adapter?
