Turn on/off Bluetooth from shell not from applet

Question

Ubuntu 13.04 64 bits, on ELiteBook 8740, gnome desktop with bluetooth-applet shown.

I could not figure out how to turn on and off from shell the Bluetooth and not from the notification bt applet menu. I need to turn on the service and the thing from menu from shell or C.

service bluetooth start/stop has noting to do with the applet button menu item because here are the four scenarios I can see.

Service off, menu item from applet is off (shows turn on)

bt-device --list yields bluez service is not found
Service on, (sudo service bluetooth start) menu item from applet is off (shows turn on)

bt-device --list yields rg.bluez.Error.NoSuchAdapter: No such adapter

Service on, menu item from applet is on (shows turn off)

bt-device --list yields

Added devices:
HMDX JAM (36:8F:E8:07:B2:CA)
Mint Speaker (5BA5) (01:19:53:4C:5B:A5)

Service off, menu item from applet is on (shows turn off)

bt-device --list yields bluez service is not found

I want to be able to turn on and off the Bluetooth as is being done from the applet button. How can I do this?

score 118 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 03 '23 at 01:33

118

The commands you're looking for are:

rfkill block bluetooth

and

rfkill unblock bluetooth

To toggle on/off:

rfkill toggle bluetooth

edited Dec 03 '23 at 01:33

Michael Butler

1,848

answered Oct 07 '16 at 20:01

Marcus

2,653

4

Great find! I needed to always use toggle for bluetooth – Anwar Nov 13 '16 at 13:18
4

thanks Marcus, this unstuck my BT on 18.04! saved me a reboot – secretAgent Feb 10 '20 at 13:10
Thank you so much! it is the only workaround for my touchpad-problem that works for me. – graceman9 Mar 10 '20 at 01:01
1

Also works on 20.04, and seems better than stopping / starting the bluetooth service – mivk Jul 28 '21 at 10:00
Thank you, works on Pop_OS! 22.04. My trackpad was someone turned off - happened only when I am not logged in, otherwise the trackpad worked when I was logged out. After executing your commands I managed to get a hold of my blue tooth mouse and go into the settings to enable the trackpad. – George Smith Jan 30 '23 at 11:06
Works on Ubuntu 22.04 – Makaveli84 Sep 24 '23 at 14:12

score 33 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 13 '16 at 13:16

33

To stop :

sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth stop

To start :

sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth start

To restart :

sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart

edited Nov 13 '16 at 13:16

Anwar

77,924

answered Nov 21 '13 at 06:40

Chester

1,098

8

The use of service is preferred over /etc /init.d/, but this works as well. – Gerhard Burger Nov 23 '13 at 21:15
1

this is not correct. turning off bluetooth and stopping the service are different things (most notably, the latter requires sudo permissions). – Marcus Oct 07 '16 at 19:57

score 28 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 14 '23 at 04:18

28

On systems that use systemd, including Ubuntu 15.04 and later:

systemctl start bluetooth

for turning on Bluetooth

systemctl stop bluetooth

for turning off Bluetooth

systemctl restart bluetooth

for restarting Bluetooth

edited Jun 14 '23 at 04:18

éclairevoyant

173

answered Dec 31 '17 at 03:40

moonshadowolf13

391

1

werewolf_65 - FYI you can omit .service because it is assumed if there is no extension (and who likes typing) – Zanna Dec 31 '17 at 10:24
1

@Zanna alright. Now it is clearer, should have considered to edit the answer like you did... – Thomas Dec 31 '17 at 10:26
1

I also discovered that I had too reboot, as there was some state info that wasn't reset without that. Now all is working properly - I hope this helps others. Beware of attempting to turn on bluetooth through Settings. And when working with keyboard/mouse that used a 2.4 Ghz dongle, I needed the bluttooth on, even though I would have thought that as being irrelevant. – JoelParke Apr 23 '21 at 20:54

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 28 '22 at 01:59

7

Try this, it worked for me: From: bluetooth keeps turning off in 19.04 after physically and manually turning off bluetooth device, any fix to this?

$ sudo rmmod btusb
$ sudo modprobe btusb

answered Feb 28 '22 at 01:59

nirala

214
2
4

2

The only working solution for me. The problem happened after a power failure. No other solution worked for me. But this one turned on my bluetooth like a charm. – ar2015 Oct 22 '22 at 13:32
Same here! After a power outage.. – SirOgm Sep 12 '23 at 18:31
It works for me. – Abdul Basit Jun 10 '24 at 09:03
Works on ubuntu noble, ryzen laptop – Richard Barber Oct 21 '24 at 02:28

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 16 '22 at 22:28

3

If you have tlp installed you can use:

$ bluetooth on  # To start 
$ bluetooth off # To stop

To install TLP:

$ sudo apt install tlp

edited Oct 16 '22 at 22:28

Grammargeek

2,792

answered Oct 15 '22 at 12:02

arrazicode

31

1

Did you try it yourself. there is no such command. – Pilot6 Oct 16 '22 at 08:17

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 11 '21 at 18:53

1

I know this is a quite old question.

service

command worked for me.

To stop the service -

service bluetooth stop

To start the service -

service bluetooth start

answered Sep 11 '21 at 18:53

Mitesh Budhabhatti

111

Hi Mitesh. How is your answer better/different from the others? Great you want to contribute though. I recommend you to add this as a comment under existing similar answers, as it is already answered very similarly previously :) – denNorske Sep 11 '21 at 20:15
This answer represents an alternative to "sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth stop" as mentioned in the comments of the above answer. – zx485 Sep 11 '21 at 22:51

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 06 '20 at 08:22

0

What worked for me was to install bluez:

Go to http://en.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/bluez-tools/
Select your compatible version
Install it manually

edited Dec 06 '20 at 08:22

Zanna

72,471

answered Aug 11 '18 at 18:14

noname

1

1

Installing extra SW to achieve something built-in is never a good idea and leads to hellish problems down the road. If systemctl stop doesn't work then there are other issues. https://askubuntu.com/a/990973/232407 – RichieHH May 14 '21 at 07:09

Turn on/off Bluetooth from shell not from applet

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