How can I deactivate Bluetooth on system startup?

Question

score 315 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 14 '21 at 06:10

For Ubuntu 20.10

For this ubuntu edit /etc/bluetooth/main.conf and find the line

AutoEnable=true

and replace it with:

AutoEnable=false

18.04+

18.04* users who don't naturally have a /etc/rc.local, you'll need to create one and make it executable. To make things slightly easier, you can just paste the following command into a terminal:

sudo install -b -m 755 /dev/stdin /etc/rc.local << EOF
#!/bin/sh
rfkill block bluetooth
exit 0
EOF

Run sudoedit /etc/rc.local and add this before line with exit 0:

rfkill block bluetooth

You should still be able to enable Bluetooth through the top bar applet.

This should work for most systems but it looks like there are a few bugs lurking in the kernel's ACPI for Thinkpads. If you're on a Thinkpad, add the following to /etc/rc.local:

echo disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth

Or check out ibm-acpi - IBM ThinkPad ACPI Extras Driver -- some reports suggest that ibm-acpi includes bluetooth control (amongst other nice things). But I don't have the hardware so I'm completely unable to verify these claims. Good luck.

score 178 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 19 '19 at 12:57

178

I found a how-to with a clean "workaround" here (archive link for posterity)

Actually changing /etc/bluetooth/main.conf was enough for me.

Search for the entry:

AutoEnable=true

and change the value to:

AutoEnable=false

It was enough for me, although the article describes some other steps that may or may not be necessary.

On Ubuntu 17.04 and older the option was named InitiallyPowered.

edited Apr 19 '19 at 12:57

FliegendeWurst

626

answered Jun 25 '12 at 18:00

Stepbaer

1,875

Scott Stensland · Answer 3 · 2019-08-22T13:18:08.367

54

16.04+

From ubuntu 16.04 onwards systemd manages startup services like bluetooth ... to view current status issue following in a terminal

sudo systemctl status bluetooth.service

to deactivate bluetooth on startup issue this

sudo systemctl disable bluetooth.service

then on next reboot bluetooth will not be active ... to enable bluetooth issue ( then reboot )

sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service

edited Aug 22 '19 at 13:18

answered Aug 01 '17 at 15:08

Scott Stensland

17,385

score 30 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 18 '10 at 16:59

30

To disable the bluetooth driver from loading on startup:

sudo $EDITOR /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

add:

blacklist btusb

Enabling it later should just be:

sudo modprobe btusb

answered Aug 18 '10 at 16:59

maco

16,132

score 18 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 28 '13 at 01:39

18

Step 1: Go to the terminal and type in the following command to edit system's /etc/rc.local file:

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Step 2: Add the following line before the exit 0 line:

rfkill block bluetooth

edited Nov 28 '13 at 01:39

behnam

221

answered May 04 '12 at 20:44

Varun

349

bmaupin · Answer 6 · 2021-05-04T13:17:42.660

Note: These instructions are for users who want to disable Bluetooth at boot by default in a way that it can easily be enabled afterward.

Gnome (Ubuntu 18.04+)

Disable Bluetooth by default

In Gnome, Bluetooth is managed by gnome-bluetooth, which should remember the last setting you used. But you can force it to always be disabled at boot like this:

echo "rfkill block bluetooth" >> ~/.profile

(Replace ~/.profile with ~/.zprofile if you're using zsh)

This avoids having to edit any system files such as /etc/rc.local

Manually enable Bluetooth

Whenever you're ready to turn it on click in the top-right > Settings > Bluetooth > click the switch near the top right

Or using the command line:

rfkill unblock bluetooth

Unity/Xfce (Ubuntu < 18.04, Xubuntu)

Disable Bluetooth by default

If you're using the Bluetooth applet in the top panel (blueman-applet), it has its own setting that will automatically turn Bluetooth on even if you've disabled it in other places (like /etc/bluetooth/main.conf or /etc/default/tlp).

To prevent Bluetooth from turning on at startup using the command line:

gsettings set org.blueman.plugins.powermanager auto-power-on false

Or through the GUI:

Click the Bluetooth applet > Plugins > PowerManager > Configuration
Uncheck Auto power-on

Next time you reboot, the Bluetooth applet will still be visible but Bluetooth will be off.

Manually enable Bluetooth

Click the Bluetooth applet > Turn Bluetooth On

score 10 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

1. block bluetooth in rc.local

Add this line at the end of the file /etc/rc.local right before the line exit 0:

rfkill block bluetooth

This will do the trick, but only in older Ubuntu versions using upstart.

2. reenable rc.local on systemd

On Ubuntu 15.10 with systemd as startup manager the /etc/rc.local file is not used by default any more, so call this on a terminal:

sudo systemctl edit --full rc-local

Which opens an editor. At the end of the file i added:

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Those changes are activated by

sudo systemctl reenable rc-local

Now the file /etc/rc.local is used as you know it.

3. disable blueman-applet on start

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/blueman.desktop
gnome-session-properties

Now blueman-applet is visible and you can disable it from startup programs

4. Reboot to see the effect

Thomas Sablik · Answer 8 · 2019-02-11T18:11:19.330

I found another answer using tlp that works great for me with Ubuntu 18.04. Probably first tlp must be installed with

sudo apt install tlp

Then the file

/etc/default/tlp

contains some settings about devices like wifi and bluetooth. There is the key

RESTORE_DEVICE_STATE_ON_STARTUP

which is by default set to 0. After I switched it to 1 my last setting is remembered on the next boot. That means when I disable bluetooth in the top panel it stays disabled and when I enable bluetooth it stays enabled. Also there is the key

DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_STARTUP

which can be set to

DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_STARTUP="bluetooth"

Now bluetooth will be disabled on each boot. After changing this configuration bluetooth will can be enabled and disabled through menu and panel item. I think it's better than removing it from kernel modules.

Nathan Osman · Answer 9 · 2011-10-16T23:45:52.670

9

Type the following into a terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

At the bottom of the file, add the line:

blacklist bluetooth

Save the file and restart - Bluetooth should now be disabled.

edited Oct 16 '11 at 23:45

answered Oct 16 '11 at 21:25

Nathan Osman

32,495

score 7 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 01 '17 at 14:46

7

You can change the services started at boot with the help of BUM.

Install it: sudo apt-get install bum

Run: sudo bum

enter image description here

Uncheck the box and click Apply.

edited Aug 01 '17 at 14:46

Scott Stensland

17,385

answered May 05 '12 at 00:09

desgua

33,215

score 6 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 22 '14 at 17:03

6

I add

"/etc/init.d/bluetooth stop"

into

"/etc/rc.local"

before "exit 0" command for boot with bluetooth turned off.

edited Aug 22 '14 at 17:03

Seth

59,332

answered Aug 23 '12 at 13:00

Saeed Zarinfam

17,872

score 5 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 18 '14 at 09:49

I think that the best way is to disable the service from being started in the first place. There is a general method for disabling services which works perfectly:

sudo sh -c "echo 'manual' > /etc/init/bluetooth.override"

That works for Ubuntu 13.10 and probably for earlier versions as well.

score 4 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 13 '13 at 15:50

4

You can edit your update-rc.d settings. I used something similar to:

sudo update-rc.d bluetooth remove

In Debian Wheezy. Check out man update-rc.d for more info on how to use it.

answered Feb 13 '13 at 15:50

Keith Smiley

140

score 3 · Answer 14 · edited Jan 30 '18 at 22:06

3

On Ubuntu Studio 16.04 you can disable Bluetooth Applet in Startup in:

Session and Startup > Application Autostart > Bluetooth Applet

Here you can click in the field to disable it.

edited Jan 30 '18 at 22:06

Adrian Keister

227
2
6
18

answered Aug 26 '16 at 18:05

score 2 · Answer 15 · answered Feb 20 '18 at 14:47

We can disable bluetooth auto start this way:

sudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

(gedit is my fav editor, you can replace this with xed or whatever that's installed on your system.)

At the very bottom of this file, there's this line:

#AutoEnable=false

Un-comment it, like this:

AutoEnable=false

naXa stands with Ukraine · Answer 16 · 2018-10-25T22:23:30.410

Since Ubuntu 18.04 (with GNOME) you need to

Edit /etc/bluetooth/main.conf and find
```
AutoEnable = true
```
and change the value to:
```
AutoEnable = false
```
So this device is not powered on startup.

Edit /etc/default/tlp and find:

#DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_STARTUP="bluetooth wifi wwan"

Edit this line to read:

DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_STARTUP="bluetooth"

So this device is disabled on startup.

Then open Dash and search for "Startup Applications". Uncheck any items related to Bluetooth in the list. Click [Close] to save.

score 2 · Answer 17 · answered Sep 08 '20 at 14:33

I've tried several above answers, but they didn't work on Linux Mint with kernel 5.8.5. So, now I'm using cron job to turn off bluetooth when system boots. And the applet can be used to turn it back on.

Open root crontab on terminal

sudo crontab -e

And add following line and save (with sleep to make sure the processes have started)

@reboot sleep 10; /usr/bin/bluetooth off

score 2 · Answer 18 · edited Jun 10 '13 at 20:58

2

No. It is not always in the startup applcations list. I think that the best solution is to add the rfkill command in rc.local script or to set the InitiallyPowered parameter in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf.

edited Jun 10 '13 at 20:58

Robie Basak

15,910

answered May 05 '12 at 00:06

Robert

351

score 2 · Answer 19 · answered May 05 '12 at 08:50

Maybe you can turn it off in the Startup Applications. But these applications are hidden by default. Unhide the hidden Startup Applications in 12.04: Open the terminal and run these two commands:

cd /etc/xdg/autostart/

sudo sed --in-place 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' *.desktop

Now you can uncheck bluetooth. (Don't remove!)

score 2 · Answer 20 · edited Mar 15 '14 at 16:27

1) Install the package smbios-utils and add it to Startup Applications with:

sudo smbios-wireless-ctl --bt 0

2) In terminal type:

sudo visudo

and add to the end of opened file /etc/sudoers the line:

<your username> ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/smbios-wireless-ctl

3) To switch bluetooth on during session, run in terminal:

sudo smbios-wireless-ctl --bt 1

This works for me on my Dell D630 with Ubuntu 13.10

score 2 · Answer 21 · answered Aug 22 '17 at 03:57

On Ubuntu 16.04, I simply disabled the service from starting up using systemctl.

To do this, open up a terminal window and type the following:

sudo systemctl disable bluetooth

You can either reboot since now bluetooth will be disabled from starting up, or if you do not want to reboot and want to stop bluetooth right away, you can type:

sudo service bluetooth stop

jII · Answer 22 · 2019-09-02T10:53:56.137

Pure systemd solution (16.04+)

Rather than use the legacy rc-local solution, here is a clean and portable systemd service that suspends bluetooth upon boot and also after waking up from sleep.

Using sudo, create /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth-suspend.service with the following contents:

[Unit]
Description=Disable bluetooth after waking up.
After=suspend.target network.target

[Service]
User=root
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/rfkill block bluetooth

[Install]
WantedBy=suspend.target network.target

Enable the service: sudo systemctl enable bluetooth-suspend.service
Reload systemd: sudo systemctl daemon-reload

To re-enable bluetooth, run rfkill unblock bluetooth in the terminal.

score 1 · Answer 23 · answered Aug 06 '19 at 01:17

Unfortunately, nothing above work for me. Instead, I add this to the bottom line of ~/.profile

( sleep 10; rfkill block bluetooth ) &

In my case, I must wait for the blueman applet to start and enable bluetooth(unavoidably) before I could switch it off.

score 1 · Answer 24 · answered Jun 18 '20 at 11:42

Here is what worked for me on MX Linux 19.2. Both parts of this solutions have been mentioned in other answers, but not both together.

Edit /etc/bluetooth/main.conf to set AutoEnable to false:
```
AutoEnable=false
```
(or just comment it out).
As suggested in this issue comment, execute
```
gsettings set org.blueman.plugins.powermanager auto-power-on false
```
to prevent Blueman's power-manager plugin from auto powering the adapter.

score 1 · Answer 25 · edited Oct 06 '12 at 12:16

1

I using Sputnik Kernel, which fixed this on my Dell Inspiron 14R N4110.

edited Oct 06 '12 at 12:16

Eliah Kagan

119,640

answered Sep 24 '12 at 23:53

Alex Wiedermann

11

score 1 · Answer 26 · answered Mar 06 '14 at 20:17

1

I think you should edit

/etc/default/bluetooth

and set

BLUETOOTH_ENABLED=0

to disable the bluetooth service at boot

answered Mar 06 '14 at 20:17

Fabio

11

score 1 · Answer 27 · answered Oct 19 '14 at 12:10

For those of you where inserting the line rfkill block bluetooth (or any other) in /etc/rc.local doesn't work, try to include the same line in the end of ~/.bashrc

In my set up (Ubuntu 14.04, Thinkpad W540), no option worked inserting it in /etc/rc.local but the former did work in bashrc. Note this will work just for the current user, not globally for all users.

score 0 · Answer 28 · answered May 24 '25 at 04:24

0

In xubuntu it's just to remove from Auto Start applications (Session & start up)

answered May 24 '25 at 04:24

Sergio Abreu

271

score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Aug 23 '12 at 13:05

0

I add

"/etc/init.d/bluetooth stop"

into

"/etc/rc.local"

before "exit 0" command for boot with bluetooth turned off.

answered Aug 23 '12 at 13:05

Saeed Zarinfam

17,872

MSP · Answer 30 · 2014-03-27T19:17:09.233

0

Solution for my notebook

"BIOS - USB Configuration - EHCI2 : Disabled"

EHCI1 is for usb ports (actually My notebook has 2 usb 2.0 ports)

edited Mar 27 '14 at 19:17

answered Mar 27 '14 at 18:46

MSP

1

score 0 · Answer 31 · answered Sep 21 '15 at 05:58

0

Edit /etc/default/grub:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

and change the following line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to say this instead:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="bluetooth.blacklist=yes"

Then, update grub and reboot:

sudo update-grub

answered Sep 21 '15 at 05:58

mchid

44,904
8
102
162

score 0 · Answer 32 · answered Oct 16 '17 at 20:18

0

This should disable bluetooth from starting on Debian based systems:

sudo chkconfig bluetooth off

or on RedHat based systems

systemctl disable bluetooth.service

answered Oct 16 '17 at 20:18

Stanislav

223

score -1 · Answer 33 · answered Dec 27 '14 at 13:26

-1

You can also use this Graphic application that also does this bluetooth manager

answered Dec 27 '14 at 13:26

deFreitas

258

score -2 · Answer 34 · edited Feb 01 '13 at 08:17

-2

I had to use a brute-force method to stop bluetoothd from being automatically started at boot. I renamed the executable so it couldn't be found.

edited Feb 01 '13 at 08:17

Flimm

44,031

answered Jul 06 '12 at 01:02

bluesdiva2001

5
1

score -3 · Answer 35 · answered Oct 16 '11 at 21:13

You need to disable it from the Start Up Applications list in System Settings.

Click on the cog in the top right hand side of the menu bar and then select System Settings.

Click on Start Up Applications then scroll down until you find the bluetooth setting, take the tick from the box and you all done.

How can I deactivate Bluetooth on system startup?

35 Answers35

For Ubuntu 20.10

18.04+

16.04+

Gnome (Ubuntu 18.04+)

Disable Bluetooth by default

Manually enable Bluetooth

Unity/Xfce (Ubuntu < 18.04, Xubuntu)

Disable Bluetooth by default

Manually enable Bluetooth

1. block bluetooth in rc.local

2. reenable rc.local on systemd

3. disable blueman-applet on start

4. Reboot to see the effect

Pure systemd solution (16.04+)

Linked

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