Bluetooth – Shouldn’t Blueman Manager List Paired Devices?

18.04bluetoothpanelsystem-trayxfce

Using Bluetooth Manager to administer bluetooth devices (run as blueman-manager, from blueman package), all works fine, only I want a panel applet/plugin in order to connect/disconnect more easily paired/associated devices.

The paired devices are listed when running Bluetooth Manager:

enter image description here

When they are not connected automatically I find that interface rather heavy, especially when using multiple devices and having to do that multiple times.

I would like to have a "connect" option in the tray icon for the paired devices.

In my case I only see this (no devices listed, I have to press "Devices" in order to open the above window):

enter image description here

I think they should be listed there, because here I have found an image showing exactly what I want:

enter image description here

That post is old, so I'm not sure it is the same tool. Is it?

(My blueman version is 2.0.5.)

Best Answer

This is not really the answer required, relating to using blueman, but gives an alternative to blueman, as a solution to the more general problem that blueman didn't solve: "I would like to have a "connect" option in the tray icon for the paired devices."

That is provided by the 1.2.9 version of blueberry, the Linux Mint configuration tool for bluetooth, available in Linux Mint 19.2. I have tested it in the Xfce version (New features in Linux Mint 19.2 Xfce, under XApps improvements: "The Blueberry systray menu now lets you connect or disconnect paired devices with a click of the mouse". The same is said for the Mate and Cinnamon versions).

Right-clicking the tray icon shows the menu:

enter image description here

I am not sure if/when blueberry 1.2.9 is/will be available in the very Ubuntu repos, and for the moment I can only find as deb to download the version 1.2.5, but this PPA provides the 1.2.9 version.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:trebelnik-stefina/cinnamon
sudo apt update
sudo apt install blueberry

Another solution would be a panel launcher to connect, for example by running this script, which will connect the first unconnected bluetooth headset that it finds.

After saving the script and making it executable, create a .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications to run that script:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Bluetooth-connect
Comment=
Exec=sh -c '/path/to/script'
Icon=preferences-system-bluetooth-inactive
Path=
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=false

Then, add 'Bluetooth-connect' as a launcher to the Xfce panel. (That .desktop file can be used differently in other desktops of course. It can also be found by search & launch tools like Synapse, WhiskerMenu, etc.)

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