Bluetooth won't connect to an audio device

Not sure if this is in the correct thread. Since BT can be used for limited data transfer, then I figure it might work under Network & Wifi. My problem is that I just reinstalled Manjaro Gnome last night and Bluetooth only connects to my phone for data transfers, I’m unable to connect to my Beats headset. Is this not a function of BT yet in Manjaro or is this something that can be corrected?

I’m using a dual boot, Macbook Pro, early 2013, 15’, Retina with 1TB SSD with 2 27" Thunderbolt Displays.

The graphical method will not work to set up headphones.
See here.
also see the section on setting up auto connection
I recently had to do the same task - I used (had to use) the cli method for pairing described here.
HTH

1 Like

Thank you, however, I’m not a programmer and these instructions are not something I can follow. Is there a simpler explanation somewhere? For example it says at the top to make sure BT is not shut off by rfkill, but it doesn’t say how to do that so I guessed with rfkill unblock bluetooth. I didn’t get an error so perhaps that worked. Then the first line says to enter in bluetoothctl but when i do that I get an error that command is not found.

I am confused, why do you need to be a programmer to follow instructions? I am not a programmer at all, and I am able to follow instructions, use the wiki, and help people out.

You click on the rfkill link where you just read that, and it directly links you how to check current status of rfkill stuff with the rfkill list command. Each instruction has a link that goes into more detail on what to do for that specific instruction if you don’t know how to do that.

Because you didn’t follow the directions, the first line definitely does not say to enter bluetoothctl. This means you don’t have bluetoothctl installed. The directions tells you:

Install pulseaudio-alsa, pulseaudio-bluetooth and bluez-utils providing the bluetoothctl utility.

Personally for me, after I have all the above installed, I was able to use my GUI Bluetooth program blueman (on Openbox) and bluedevil (on KDE) without issues.

I checked and I had both pulseaudio-alsa and pulseaudio-bluetooth installed already but I guess it was missing bluez-utils. However, still no success. The instructions are quite complicated and assume a level of expertise that I do not have. I have tried running it after installing bluez-utils and bluetoothctl did work now. However, I was unable to pair. There were 2 devices showing and only one actually attempted but I get Attempting to pair with 3F:D4:C5:0F:73:2C
Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.ConnectionAttemptFailed. I tried pulseaudio -k but got a message that that is an invalid command. So I’m stuck, again, and that’s as far as my understanding of that page takes me. Perhaps if you are getting frustrated, you can leave this to someone else to try.

Have you attempted to use whatever GUI bluetooth program you have installed after installing the other part? And if you used the GUI program, which program did you use? If it spouts out an error, what is the exact message did it say when you try to connect to your device?

I’ve tried both Blueman and the Bluetooth that’s in Settings. There is no error. The device is not presented to be paired.

I’ll try to guide you step by step - if you don’t mind.
Let’s see how far we get.
Please report where you get stuck and what the message says at that point.

software wise, everything seems to be installed
so, first, just to be sure
restart the bluetooth service

systemctl restart bluetooth.service
and check the status
systemctl status bluetooth.service

it should say:

● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-02-04 10:02:09 CET; 8s ago

“enabled” in the second line and “Active” in the third

then start bluetoothctl
the prompt will change to
[bluetooth]
or to some other name if, like for me, a bluetooth mouse is already in use

Now put the headphones in pairing mode!

and at the prompt enter
power on
agent on
default-agent

(you can perhaps skip these three, but not the next one)
scan on

it can take a while 'till the headphones show up - but not as long as a minute
it’s just not instantaneous

the output looks like this:

[CHG] Controller 68:5D:43:58:FC:40 Discovering: yes
[NEW] Device C0:28:8D:33:9D:24 C0-28-8D-33-9D-24
[NEW] Device E8:AB:FA:25:94:79 TaoTronics TT-BH060
[CHG] Device E8:AB:FA:25:94:79 RSSI: -37

this is my headphones:
[NEW] Device E8:AB:FA:25:94:79 TaoTronics TT-BH060

use the mac address in further commands

enter:
pair E8:AB:FA:25:94:79

it should print some lines, ending with “Pairing successful”
But they are not connected yet!

enter:
trust E8:AB:FA:25:94:79

it needs to state:
Changing E8:AB:FA:25:94:79 trust succeeded

enter:
connect E8:AB:FA:25:94:79

it needs to state:
Connection successful

enter:
scan off

and:
quit

That is the whole process I went through - I then also set up auto-connect. But only after this initially worked.

At which stage in the process does it stop working for you?
With what message?

edit:
because @realmain said that he did manage to use the GUI to set his headphones up
just now I tried again to use the GUI (blueman-manager) to do this - and this time, it worked too.
Maybe I wasn’t doing the steps in the right order previously or missed some - because I had no idea how the process worked - it got clear after having done it via command line.

headphones in pairing mode
from the bluetooth icon in the panel: right click → new device
run through the wizard to pair it
then go to “devices” via the same panel icon
set it to trusted
connect it
done

Right at the beginning, it does say Active, however, I’m getting error messages “Key file does not have a key…” I’ll keep working your solution meanwhile, unless I hear otherwise.

● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-02-04 11:50:57 CST; 17s ago
Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Main PID: 18364 (bluetoothd)
Status: “Running”
Tasks: 1 (limit: 19077)
Memory: 848.0K
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
└─18364 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: src/main.c:parse_controller_config() Key file does not have key “LEMinConnectionInterval” in group “Controller”
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: src/main.c:parse_controller_config() Key file does not have key “LEMaxConnectionInterval” in group “Controller”
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: src/main.c:parse_controller_config() Key file does not have key “LEConnectionLatency” in group “Controller”
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: src/main.c:parse_controller_config() Key file does not have key “LEConnectionSupervisionTimeout” in group “Controller”
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: src/main.c:parse_controller_config() Key file does not have key “LEAutoconnecttimeout” in group “Controller”
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: Starting SDP server
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: Bluetooth management interface 1.18 initialized
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.47 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/sbc
Feb 04 11:50:57 manjaro bluetoothd[18364]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.47 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/sbc
~

It could be that a different (probably an older) kernel version would work where this one doesn’t.
Try installing another kernel (alongside) and boot using this one.
Don’t know which you are using right now - I’d install and try the LTS version.
It’s always good to have at least two to choose from if need be.

I tried every device showing. One appeared to be my Apple TV called Workout Room and another my wife’s macbook pro. However, none of the rest had any identifiers. So I tried every single BT device showing, about 10 in total. Some tried to connect, but didn’t. Others tried to sent a passkey, but since I didn’t know what device it was I couldn’t give it the passkey. I was supposedly able to connect to the Apple TV called Workout Room and did the pair, trust and connect and got a positive response but the Apple TV showed no connections under Bluetooth. But nothing tried to pair to my Beats headsets. However, there was one 63:7F:0C:0F:1D:53 that did attempt to pair, and said “Connected: yes” but then I’d get an immediate error message “Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AuthenticationFailed”.

Aside from installing and booting using a different kernel - which could make a difference …

Maybe it helps you to identify which device is your headphones just by the MAC, without an identifier (which is strange …)
when you connect the headphones to your phone (if present)
Maybe this can provide the neccessary clues …

Perhaps the device MAC is even documented on the package or the paperwork that came with it.
Just a possibility.

To put the headphones into pairing mode - not just switch them on - is essential.
… I know you know this … :wink:

My headphones provide audible feedback - they literally tell me when they are switched on, or connected, or, when I hold the button a bit longer, that they are now in pairing mode …
Not sure whether that is the same with all of them.

Well, that is a good point. Just by turning them on they pair to my iphone automatically, but perhaps there is a different way to pair the device to anything non apple. Let me check on that.

That’s it. We were barking up the wrong tree. It didn’t occur to me until you mentioned it that pairing might be different for non apple devices. It actually worked straight out of the box in the bluetooth settings GUI.

well, that is very nice to hear!
perseverance pays - sometines :wink:
Glad that it now works
Cheers!

… I’ll make a mental bookmark on this being a potential issue with anything involving Apple devices
… the headphones (Beats) are not
… the OS (now Manjaro/Linux) is not
… but it’s run on an Apple Notebook

Now I’d go and set up autoconnect.
… the Arch Wiki link …
(automatically connect the headphones as soon as they are turned on and in range - switch the audio output to them)
… If I where you …
I sure did :wink:

Hold our horses here. Yes, it’s paired, yes… But, I hear nothing from it except a click when I test it and the microphone isn’t recognized as an input device… But this may be beyond the scope of this forum.

I’m not on or with horses - I just read what you wrote seemed to mean that it now worked …

What you said sounded like it worked as it should.
It still doesn’t - apparently.

What I’d do now is go through the steps, manually, via the cli,
and see where it might have failed

The gui method is no good for that - not easily.

at least you now have some information re the correct mac address of the device
… in the config files created in the process …

and the microphone working …
I didn’t even test that yet for my device.
because I don’t need it - and it wasn’t within the scope of this question as well …
I have no idea whether that should just be magically working as well
or whether it does

My headphones, when I turn them on, will just connect to whatever device they where paired to previously.
To pair them to a new device
I have to put them into
pairing mode
which is done, on these headphones,
by pressing and holding the power on button for longer than it takes to turn them on
they will then, audibly, literally tell me, that they are in pairing mode.
How to put a device into pairing mode is likely different from device to device.
Mine works like that.
Hold the button till it says: power on
Hold it longer than that till it says: pairing

That’s how they work.
No IPhone could convince them remotely to enter pairing mode when they are just turned on.
I’ll manually, intentionally, have to put them into pairing mode.

I deleted the Beats from the Bluetooth GUI and when if I put the beats headsets into non apple pairing mode and I enter in bluetoothctl then I’m getting a ton of items that look like this:

[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -60
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -68
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -64
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -63
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -64
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -69
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -67
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -60
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -67
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -63
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -63
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -61
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -67
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -64
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -64
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -67
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -67
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -62
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -67
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -60
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -67
[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -61
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -61

The are frequent and non stop. I have tried scan off and power off but these [CHG] items keep going at a rate of about 5 a second. Quit stops it until I enter bluetoothctl and it starts again.

At one point I did see this entry:
[bluetooth]# scan off
Failed to stop discovery: org.bluez.Error.NotReady
[DEL] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B 44-57-18-AD-96-0B
[DEL] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F Bryan’s BeatsX

So the BeatsX were recognized, sort of.

[CHG] Device 44:57:18:AD:96:0B RSSI: -61
[CHG] Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F RSSI: -61

these are two devices
one of them are your headphones, I assume.
since this was in the output:

Device EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F Bryan’s BeatsX
I’d say it’s this MAC

So now you know the MAC
and don’t need to scan anymore
The scanning was just to find the MAC with which to attempt to pair.

headphones in pairing mode!

bluetoothctl pair EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F
bluetoothctl trust EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F
bluetoothctl connect EC:2C:E2:E7:D8:4F

That’s what I’d do - or try.

What’s the make and model?

If it is problematic, then it is likely that someone else already had a similar problem and documented what it takes to solve it.
Beats headphones are very common.

From the looks of it
without having specific information on make and model,
getting the device into pairing mode should be quite easy and straightforward,
just the push of a button …

Bluetooth Basics—Wireless