bluetoothd

Bluetooth system daemon

TLDR

Start the daemon

$ bluetoothd

Start the daemon, logging to stdout

$ bluetoothd -n

Start with a specific configuration file

$ bluetoothd -f [path/to/file]

Start with verbose debug output

$ bluetoothd -d

Start with debug output from specific source files

$ bluetoothd -d=[path/to/file1:path/to/file2]

bluetoothd is the Bluetooth system daemon that manages Bluetooth devices, connections, and services. It handles device discovery, pairing, and connection management for all Bluetooth functionality on the system.The daemon is typically started automatically by systemd. It reads configuration from /etc/bluetooth/main.conf and manages the Bluetooth adapter(s) and connected devices.

PARAMETERS

-n, --nodetach

Run in the foreground; do not detach and become a daemon. Log goes to stdout.

-f, --configfile file

Use alternate configuration file instead of /etc/bluetooth/main.conf.

-d, --debug [files]

Enable debug output, optionally limited to a colon-separated list of source files.

-E, --experimental

Enable experimental D-Bus interfaces and features.

-p, --plugin name

Specify plugins to load

-P, --noplugin name

Specify plugins to exclude

CONFIGURATION

/etc/bluetooth/main.conf

Main configuration file controlling device class, name, pairing timeout, discoverable mode, and adapter defaults.

INSTALL

sudo apt install bluez

sudo dnf install bluez

sudo pacman -S bluez

sudo zypper install bluez

brew install bluez

nix profile install nixpkgs#bluez

CAVEATS

Usually managed by systemd; manual invocation rarely needed. Requires root privileges. Configuration changes require daemon restart. Debug mode generates extensive output.

HISTORY

bluetoothd is part of BlueZ, the official Linux Bluetooth protocol stack maintained since the early 2000s. It replaced the older per-profile daemons of BlueZ 4 with a single plugin-based daemon in BlueZ 5 (2012), exposing its functionality over D-Bus.

RESOURCES

Homepage · Source code