Troubleshooting
The least information we typically need to help with an issue is the version of blueman you're using. In most cases the BlueZ version makes sense as well. You can use the following template to make sure you're providing the most basic information:
blueman:
BlueZ:
Distribution:
Desktop environment:
It may also be useful to provide the debugging output from the next section, sometimes even multiple examples (e.g. a working one and one where the issue comes up). Make sure to describe the exact steps you took when producing it.
To retrieve useful information, the best starting point is to run blueman-applet from a Terminal window. It needs to be shut down, since only one instance may be running. You should always be able to do that with killall blueman-applet.
There will be plenty of output in the Terminal window, also including messages from blueman-manager. If you're unsure how to get behind a given problem, please provide the full output in your error report.
The blueman-report tool is a simple helper to log blueman output. It also provides a way to comment on the steps you take while creating the log and uploads the commented log file.
Test if your device is recognized by BlueZ using bluez-test-adapater list (BlueZ 4) or bluetoothctl list (BlueZ 5).
If not, you either have some hardware killswitch enabled or the device is not supported by the Linux bluetooth stack. To check the later, you can find the hardware ID with lsusb or lspci depending on the interface to google for it.
If you require turning on your bluetooth device at boot time automatically, for instance when you require keyboard / mouse support. You can add a udev rule to enable that. Additionally, you need to make sure you have the package bluez-utils installed.
Add the following line to the file:
/lib/udev/rules.d/50-bluetooth-hci-auto-poweron.rules (Might be on /etc/udev depending on your distribution, be sure to verify that.
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="bluetooth", KERNEL=="hci[0-9]*", RUN+="/bin/hciconfig %k up"