bluetoothctl No default controller available

Question

It\'s a bit wired here.

I have a problem is bluetoothctl always said \"No default controller available\". I found there are many people had same problem with me. But th

Answer 1

Also happens if rfkill switch is blocking Bluetooth (for some inadvertent reason, in my case):

$ rfkill list all

0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: no

To unblock, pass the ID for your Bluetooth device from the list above to the unblock subcommand:

$ rfkill unblock 0

Then controller should be back:

$ bluetoothctl list
Controller .... [default]

Answer 2

The answer above probably works on some distributions, but may get you into trouble in others. Unfortunately, it seems that every distribution has a different default configuration for Bluetooth - it's a pretty awful mess IMHO.

Here's what worked for me on a Debian derivative Raspberry Pi OS (née Raspbian):

As a preliminary check, on many distros you can check /etc/group to see if a group name bluetooth exists:

$ cat /etc/group | grep blue

If it exists, you obviously don't need to add the group, only add users to the group:

$ sudo usermod -G bluetooth -a <username>

In the distro I'm using, this was all that was required to make the Controller responsive in bluetoothctl.

Answer 3

Had the same problem. Use: $ sudo bluetoothctl

Then the controller was found automatically. I also tried https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=207025 before. Maybe this effected the solution.

Answer 4

Here are the steps that worked for me by modifying the bluez config and the run without sudo:

• Create a "bluetooth" group which will be granted with <allow send_destination="org.bluez"/> on bluez's d-bus config

$ sudo groupadd bluetooth

• Open the config in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf with your favorite text editor
  
  e.g.

$ sudo vi /etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf

• Add/append the following lines below in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf

  
  <policy group="bluetooth">
<allow send_destination="org.bluez"/>
</policy>

• Save your changes.

• Add your login user to "bluetooth" group

$ sudo usermod -a -G bluetooth <loginuser>

• Reboot the system.

• Then try to use "bluetoothctl" without sudo

  $ bluetoothctl
  [bluetooth]# show

Answer 5

I had the same issue. After a long research found out that the driver was not installed. Check that answer https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/545019/bluetooth-doesnt-work-in-debian-10 and see if your drivers are installed correctly =)

Answer 6

Its an old thread, but might help someone looking for answers.

I have faced this problem most of the times, and the things I verify are:

1. systemctl status bluetooth == this checks if the bluetooth service daemon is already running or not. Check for output:
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) If not, start it using the command: sudo systemctl start bluetooth

2. using sudo bluetoothctl

one of these two was the culprit usually.