# Blueman

Blueman is a full featured Bluetooth manager written in GTK+. The last stable release of Blueman relies on the, now unmaintained, Bluez4 stack however a version of Blueman that is compatible with Bluez5 is in development.[1]

Related articles

- Bluez4
- Bluetooth

## Installation

- The older Bluez4 version of Blueman can be installed from the blueman-bzr package.
- The newer Bluez5 version of Blueman can be installed from the blueman-bluez5-git package.

Be sure to enable the Bluetooth daemon and start Blueman with `blueman-applet`. A graphical settings panel can be launched with `blueman-manager`.

Tip: If you are using the Bluez4 version and you want to mount and browse remote devices, you may need to install the gvfs-obexftp-bluez4 package from the AUR.

## Usage

### Checking the Bluetooth hardware

Be sure the local Bluetooth device is availabe by running `hcitool dev`. If only `Devices:` is dumped, the local Bluetooth device is unavailable. If this is the case, try restarting the bluetooth service or toggle the WiFi/Bluetooth switch on your laptop (if it exists). For example: the switch is `Fn+F3` on an Acer Aspire laptop. Also try rebooting to activate the local Bluetooth device. If you run `blueman-applet` without an available local Bluetooth device, the Blueman tray icon will not appear.

### Autostarting

The following autostart file should have been created: `/etc/xdg/autostart/blueman.desktop`. This means that Blueman should be autostarted with most desktop environments without manual intervention. See the article for your desktop environment or window manager as well as the Autostarting article for further information on autostarting.

### Permissions

It might be necessary for the user to be added to the `lp` group in order for the user to be able to add and manage Bluetooth devices using Blueman. See `/etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf` for the section that enables users of the `lp` group to communicate with the Bluetooth daemon.

To receive files remember to right click on the Blueman tray icon > Local Services > Transfer > File Receiving" and tick the square box next to "Enabled".

Note: If you are running Blueman in a session that is started with the startx command, you should add `source /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*` to your `~/.xinitrc` to make Nautilus capable of browsing your devices.

### Mounting Bluetooth devices without Nautilus

Blueman is configured to use Nautilus for bluetooth device mounting by default. The instructions below describe a method for using different file managers with Blueman. The examples in this section focus on Thunar. If you are using a different file manager, substitute thunar with the name of the file manager you are using.

    obex_thunar.sh

    #!/bin/bash
    fusermount -u ~/bluetooth
    obexfs -b $1 ~/bluetooth
    thunar ~/bluetooth

Now you will need to move the script to an appropriate location (e.g., `/usr/local/bin`). After that, mark it as executable:

    # chmod +x /usr/local/bin/obex_thunar.sh

The last step is to change the line in Blueman tray icon > Local Services > Transfer > Advanced to `obex_thunar.sh %d`.

Tip: If you do not want to create a script, you could just replace this command: `nautilus --browse obex://` with this one: `thunar obex://` in Local Services > Transfer > Advanced

### Blueman and PulseAudio

Users who want to use PulseAudio with a Bluetooth headset may want to activate the PulseAudio plugin of Blueman. This automatically loads PulseAudio Bluetooth module after audio device is connected and plays all audio through the Bluetooth headset.

## Troubleshooting

### Workaround for a Bug with obex and gvfs

Note: This bug only affects older versions of Blueman.

To browse a mobile phone using Nautilus and Blueman you will need a patched version of GVFS. Install gvfs-rar from AUR. It is possible that you will need to rebuild the obex-data-server package as shown below:

    $ ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc

### Cannot receive files

If you cannot receive files with Blueman, edit the `/etc/conf.d/bluetooth` file and uncomment this line:

    #SDPD_ENABLE="true"

### Blueman applet does not start

If blueman-applet fails to start, try removing the entire `/var/lib/bluetooth` directory and restarting the machine (or just the dbus and bluetooth services).

    # rm -rf /var/lib/bluetooth
    $ systemctl reboot

If you see a notification saying `Incoming file over Bluetooth` then this means that the device isn't marked as trusted. Mark it as trusted and try sending the file again.

## See also

- Blueman development, on Launchpad
- Blueman development, on GitHub

Category:

- Bluetooth