Bluetooth won't turn on or pair

ch3252 · April 9, 2025, 8:51am

Hi. I really like Zorin 17, fast and beautiful. Everything works fine except Bluetooth. Most of the time it won't turn on, even when the toggle is set to on. Sometimes a reboot gets Bluetooth started, sometimes not. But even when it's enabled, it refuses to pair with anything. When I turn it off and try to turn it on, I get a message saying Airplane Mode is on, which is weird because I don't have wifi on my desktop computer. When I turn Airplane Mode off using the button on the notification, then I can toggle Bluetooth to the on position but it never activates. Here's a screenshot of what I see in Settings > Bluetooth:

Any suggestions?

zenzen · April 9, 2025, 9:09am

Hi, and welcome to the community

In the application menu you will find "Terminal". Launch that and run the following commands:

This should tell us more information about your network cards and drivers.
```
sudo lshw -C network
```
And this might show some useful information as to why it's not working.
```
sudo systemctl status bluetooth
```

Paste the output of both these commands in here. Please note that there's a formatting option in the editor, just to make it a little easier to read:

Ponce-De-Leon · April 9, 2025, 9:55am

Welcome to the Forum!

Did You take a Look in Software & Updates and there in the ''Additional Drivers'' Tab if there is a Driver offered?

ch3252 · April 9, 2025, 11:52am

Hi Zenzen

Thanks for responding, below are the results of those commands in terminal. Even after running both commands, Bluetooth appears the same as in my screenshots (toggled on, but screen says off).

I should note that my Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and mouse are working just fine. They are connected to my computer via a Logitech Bluetooth USB dongle. I'm puzzled that they're working correctly (I'm typing on the wireless keyboard now) but not showing up in my Bluetooth settings, which appears to be off even though the toggle is set to on.

Also, both the Logitech and Asus BT500 are recognised by the system, here's a screenshot from Examine:

I use the ASUS BT500 for audio (ear buds).

chuck@chuck-zorin:~$ sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for chuck:         
  *-network                 
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: I210 Gigabit Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       logical name: enp9s0
       version: 03
       serial: 0c:9d:92:c5:fb:e7
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi msix pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=igb driverversion=6.8.0-57-generic duplex=full firmware=3.25, 0x800005d0 ip=192.168.64.11 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
       resources: irq:17 memory:a4500000-a457ffff ioport:3000(size=32) memory:a4580000-a4583fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1f.6
       bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6
       logical name: eno1
       version: 10
       serial: 0c:9d:92:c5:fb:e8
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=6.8.0-57-generic firmware=0.5-4 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:138 memory:a4800000-a481ffff
chuck@chuck-zorin:~$

chuck@chuck-zorin:~$ sudo systemctl status bluetooth
[sudo] password for chuck:         
● bluetooth.service - LSB: Start bluetooth daemons
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/bluetooth; generated)
     Active: active (exited) since Wed 2025-04-09 15:29:23 CEST; 1h 38min left
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
    Process: 779 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/bluetooth start (code=exited, status=0/S>
        CPU: 797us

ápr 09 15:29:23 chuck-zorin systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Start bluetooth daemons...
ápr 09 15:29:23 chuck-zorin systemd[1]: Started LSB: Start bluetooth daemons.

ch3252 · April 9, 2025, 12:05pm

Hi Ponce

Yes, I checked in Software Updater > Additional Drivers, and the only additional drivers listed were for NVIDIA.

applecheeks37 · April 9, 2025, 2:54pm

Could you post the output of rfkill list all ? That should show if we're being blocked in which way as well.

If it comes back that we're blocked "soft", then you could try running a rfkill unblock all to try to get it working.

zenzen · April 9, 2025, 4:21pm

The bluetooth connection happens between the device itself (mouse, keyboard) and the receiver which you then plug over USB. Therefore, as far as the computer is concerned, those are USB devices even if it's able to read the metadata that labels them as bluetooth or wireless peripherals.

Since everything else seems fine, try running these commands. First one, wait a few seconds, and then the other:

rfkill unblock bluetooth
sudo systemctl start bluetooth

And let's see what happens...

Ponce-De-Leon · April 9, 2025, 5:35pm

Because they run over the Dongle, they are not listed in the Bluetooth Settings. There are only Devices which are connected directly with built-in Bluetooth from Your Motherboard.

Another thing what You could check: Open the Terminal and type sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/main.conf and goo all the Way to the last Line where AutoEnable= stands. Look if there stands true or false. If there should stand false change it to true and then press ctrl+o to save the Change, Enter to confirm and ctrl+x to exit. Then make a Reboot.

ch3252 · April 10, 2025, 9:13am

Thanks, AutoEnable is set to true. No change.

ch3252 · April 10, 2025, 9:17am

Thanks, restarting Bluetooth generated no errors, but also no change.

Ponce-De-Leon · April 10, 2025, 9:19am

And You don't have a built-in Wifi Module in Your Machine, yes? Or is it only turned off or broken?

ch3252 · April 10, 2025, 9:27am

Correct, no wifi adapter or module on this desktop.

zabadabadoo · April 10, 2025, 9:36am

Are you able to move WiFi off 2.7GHz band by selecting and using a 5GHz channel on your Router to avoid bluetooth?

EDIT: I just realised my reply was to the wrong thread. No good suggesting moving WiFi from 2.4Ghz to 5Ghz if you do not have WiFi on that machine. Facepalm. Zab

ch3252 · April 10, 2025, 12:04pm

Hi @Ponce-De-Leon @zenzen @applecheeks37 @zabadabadoo. I got it working by downloading the iso again, and reinstalling from scratch. Bluetooth is working now. Don't know why but I'm happy. I'll keep an eye on it and get back to you all if it somehow stops working again. Thanks for your help, I learned a few things about linux!

zenzen · April 10, 2025, 2:21pm

Good thinking. Sometimes, a good restart is all it takes (the ghost in the shell and all that )

ch3252 · April 11, 2025, 8:03am

Hi @Ponce-De-Leon @zenzen @applecheeks37 @zabadabadoo. Unfortunately, I was able to reproduce the issue, and it appears there's a bug somewhere.

To reproduce:

Open this window in the lower right of the taskbar (I call it quick settings but I don't know the actual name).

quick settings425×327 32.2 KB
Click on the activated Bluetooth button - it will turn grey/deactivated.
In settings, open the Bluetooth panel - the toggle to switch in on/off will be set to on, but it will be greyed out and the panel will say Bluetooth is off.
Click on the Bluetooth panel on/off toggle - it will have no effect.
Go back to the quick settings window and click on the greyed out Bluetooth button - no effect.

At this point i felt sick that I might have to reinstall Zorin. Instead I restarted my computer, and the problem went away. I'm not going to do any more testing on that because I have Bluetooth working again and I don't want to mess with it if it's not broke.

I hesitate to ask any of you to test this because you might not get it back working as easily as I did this time (remember I couldn't the last go-round). Instead, I think this should be escalated to QA or development for further testing. It might be my machine, but I doubt it, because this happened just after I had reinstalled freshly, and I was just testing to make sure my Bluetooth issue had been resolved.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Ponce-De-Leon · April 11, 2025, 9:54am

Okay, I will tag @AZorin here because of the Possibility of a Bug.

Another Thing what You could try is switching between Wayland and Xorg and check if this Behavour happens there, too. To switch go to the Login Screen (not the Lock Screen). Simply reboot for that. On the Login Screen click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. It has to be appeared. When it is appeared, You should see in the bottom right Corner a Gear Icon. Click on it and You should see 2 Options:

Zorin Desktop (that is the Wayland Option)
Zorin Desktop on Xorg

Which Option is active, You can see at the Dot at the Beginning of the Line. To choose the other one simply click on the one without the Dot. Then log in and check if the Problem still persists.

ch3252 · April 11, 2025, 10:00am

Thanks, I'd like to try the xorg option but I just finished customising my desktop and don't want to lose anything on my Wayland desktop. Can I switch back and forth between xorg and Wayland without losing anything in each?

Ponce-De-Leon · April 11, 2025, 10:05am

Yes, You can. You have maybe have to set up the Resolution again when You use not the default one.

ch3252 · April 11, 2025, 10:35am

On second thought, if there's an underlying bug about Bluetooth, I don't think that would matter on Wayland vs xorg. I'm sorry, but I don't want to risk losing what I've got going, in case the Bluetooth breaks badly again. I'll have to leave it to the developers to investigate. If it's just me, then that's fine, I can work with what I've got. But if it's a bug that needs fixing, I'll look forwarding to that update.