Bluetooth indicator disappears every time bluetooth is being turned off

[generalnie]

In Ubuntu 16.04, every time I turn off bluetooth, the indicator icon disappears from the top panel.
Each time I have to re-enable it by system setting or via dash.

I expect it to behave in a same way as network indicator instead of disappearing.

Here is the link with some info which could be helpful
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-bluetooth/+bug/1126108

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Marcho Markov (marcho)]

This affects 16.10 as well

[SereSte (goldhage)]

the problem started in my lenovo g400 with ubuntu 14.04 after i don't remember which update and now with ubuntu 16.04 after fresh install did not stop
i try the indicator-bluetooth-0.0.6.tar.xz package with some improvement but no complete solution
any way thousend of thanks and respect to any body gives his time to find a solution

[Øyvind Stegard (oyvindstegard)]

Likely same or very similar bug on Ubuntu 17.04 with Intel 7260 bluetooth hardware [8087:07dc]. Disabling Bluetooth causes indicator icon to disappear. I can make it reappear again, albeit usually in a disabled state, by enabling Bluetooth in control centre. Then to actually enable, I must enable via indicator as the last step. (Alternatively switch on->off->on in Control centre, which also finally enables Bluetooth again.)

RF-kill and device states:
0. Bluetooth enabled and indicator icon visiable (normal):
- "hcitool dev" shows 1 device
- 3: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

1. After disabling Bluetooth via indicator icon (causing icon to disappear)
- "hcitool dev" shows no devices
- 3: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no

2. Enable Bluetooth in control centre
Most often goes to state where a device is present, but still soft blocked, and indicator icon reappears in a disabled state. Sometimes it works as expected the first time and fully enables Bluetooth radio.

This is what my system logs tell me when I disable Bluetooth:

april 30 09:52:55 lhs systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status...
april 30 09:52:55 lhs systemd[1]: Started Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
april 30 09:52:55 lhs kernel: usb 1-1.3: USB disconnect, device number 10
april 30 09:52:55 lhs bluetoothd[883]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.3932 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
april 30 09:52:55 lhs kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: turning off Intel device LED failed (-19)
april 30 09:52:55 lhs systemd-rfkill[17256]: Failed to open device: No such device
april 30 09:52:55 lhs bluetoothd[883]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.3932 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
april 30 09:52:55 lhs dbus[865]: [system] Rejected send message, 3 matched rules; type="error", sender=":1.3932" (uid=1000 pid=12977 comm="/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="org.bluez.MediaEndpoint1.Error.NotImplemented" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.17" (uid=0 pid=883 comm="/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd ")
april 30 09:52:55 lhs dbus[865]: [system] Rejected send message, 3 matched rules; type="error", sender=":1.3932" (uid=1000 pid=12977 comm="/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="org.bluez.MediaEndpoint1.Error.NotImplemented" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.17" (uid=0 pid=883 comm="/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd ")
april 30 09:52:55 lhs dbus[865]: [system] Rejected send message, 3 matched rules; type="error", sender=":1.3932" (uid=1000 pid=12977 comm="/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="org.bluez.MediaEndpoint1.Error.NotImplemented" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.17" (uid=0 pid=883 comm="/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd ")
april 30 09:52:55 lhs systemd[1]: bluetooth.target: Unit not needed anymore. Stopping.
april 30 09:52:55 lhs dbus[865]: [system] Rejected send message, 3 matched rules; type="error", sender=":1.3932" (uid=1000 pid=12977 comm="/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="org.bluez.MediaEn...

[leo (leoetchaas)]

Please solve this this is very anoying !

[leo (leoetchaas)]

This clearly shows what the problem is. I hope so.

[Paweł (paff)]

The same affects my setup - Ubuntu 16.04 on Thinkpad T460.

[André Xuereb (andre.xuereb)]

Also affects 17.04 on Thinkpad Carbon X1 (2014 model).

[Jesse (yavyash)]

Same problem on a fresh install of 17.04 on a new Thinkpad T470.

[Paweł (paff)]

I am on 16.04 LTS, and have the same issue. I merely use bluetooth, but from some time I have wireless headphones and need it more often. Please fix this.

[DrathVader (drathvader)]

Same problem on my Thinkpad T430 with Ubuntu 17.04.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Tested with Bionic Daily build image, gnome-shell 3.26.2
this issue still exist.

[dronus (paul-geisler)]

On Thinkpad T420s, switching off Bluetooth make the device disapper by rfkill soft blocked state and hence the icon. Reenabeling is possible via rfkill only, all UI applications state "no device" until then. If reenabled by 'rfkill unblock <device>', icon reappears immediately and all is fine until we switch of bluetooth by UI again.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

There is an upstream fix gnome-shell!1174 but it doesn't seem to work. So this bug can stay open.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Note the new design in 3.37 may still hide the Bluetooth menu if you never paired anything. If you have paired anything then turning off Bluetooth will *not* hide the menu.