Frequently Asked Questions About Blueman
1. I have a problem - how do I begin the debugging process?
To retrieve useful information, the best starting point is to run
"blueman-applet" from a terminal window. Since only one instance may
be running at a time, you will first need to stop any instances
already running (use "ps x | grep [b]lueman" to find the pid and then
run "kill ####" or use "killall blueman-applet").
There will be plenty of output in the terminal window, which will also
include messages from blueman-manager.
See our Troubleshooting page for more information on this process:
https://github.com/blueman-project/blueman/wiki/Troubleshooting
2. The blueman applet does not show any detected bluetooth adapters - what
is wrong?
First, make sure that your kernel supports your bluetooth device. You
can use "bluez-test-adapter" (for BlueZ-4.x) or "bluetoothctl list"
(for BlueZ-5.x) to see if your device is recognized. If it is not,
then either your kernel doesn't support the device or some hardware
killswitch is preventing it from working.
To check for killswitch problems, first ensure that you have rfkill
support enabled in your kernel and it is loaded (i.e. the "rfkill"
module is loaded or it is built into your kernel statically).
Check the output of "rfkill list" and ensure that the bluetooth device
is not listed as either "Soft blocked" or "Hard blocked" - if it is,
then use the appropriate rfkill command to remove a soft block, and/or
check for a hardware switch on your machine to remove a hard block.
To check for kernel support, use "lsusb" and/or "lspci" to find the
hardware ID and do a web search to determine whether it should be
supported. If you are not sure how to do tihs and/or are not sure
how to interpret the results, scroll to the bottom of this document
for information on how to open an issue with the Blueman project.
3. How do I install blueman on my operating system?
Consult your operating system's documentation and/or help areas;
blueman is probably either already installed or available already
in a package repository.
4. I have another question or am experiencing some other issue/bug:
Now what?
For bugs in blueman, we recommend that you first attempt to resolve
any issues through your OS vendor's designated support areas to
ensure that problems aren't caused by e.g. packaging issues or
OS-specific configurations. If you've already tried that and still
are unable to solve your problem, visit our Troubleshooting page:
https://github.com/blueman-project/blueman/wiki/Troubleshooting
and if needed, open a new issue:
https://github.com/blueman-project/blueman/issues
Be sure to provide the blueman version you are using, the version of
bluez you are running, your kernel version, your operating system
name and version, and the desktop environment you are running.
5. How can I help with blueman development?
Visit our github project page:
https://github.com/blueman-project/blueman
You can clone the git repository, view the code, and/or submit
pull requests.
You will probably also want to join our mailing list:
http://ml.mate-desktop.org/listinfo/blueman
6. What other resources are available for help with blueman?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Blueman
http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Bluetooth/Blueman
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Sat Apr 19 01:16:52 CEST 2025.