How to Disable Bluetooth at Startup – 5 Practical Methods

Hello Linux Geeksters.

In this article I will show you a few methods for disabling the bluetooth adaptor, at startup. It is enabled by default and eats up a lot of batery. It should not be activated on boot, unless you use bluetooth keyboard or mouse or other gadgets that need it, every day.

Method 1:

Open the /etc/rc.local file with your favourite text editor:

$ gksudo vim /etc/rc.local

And type the following text, before “exit 0”:

rfkill block bluetooth

Explanation:

The /etc/rc.local file stores scripts or commands that run at the end of each runlevel. rfkill block bluetooth terminates the bluetooth process at startup.

Method 2:

There are some issues with this command on Lenovo Thinkpads, so, for Lenovo Thinkpads only do this:

Open the /etc/rc.local file with your favourite text editor:

$ gksudo vim /etc/rc.local

Paste this to /etc/rc.local, before “exit 0”:

echo disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth

Explanation:

This method types in the /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth file disable, so the bluetooth does not start at boot.

Method 3:

Open the /etc/rc.local file with your favourite text editor:

$ gksudo vim /etc/rc.local

Paste this to /etc/rc.local, before “exit 0”:

/etc/init.d/bluetooth stop

Explanation:

This method stops the bluetooth service at boot time.

Method 4:

Open the /etc/rc.local file with your favourite text editor:

$ gksudo vim /etc/rc.local

Paste this to /etc/rc.local, before “exit 0”:

$ sudo update-rc.d bluetooth remove

Explanation:

This is a debian trick. It tells the system not to load bluetooth at startup.

Method 5: Brute force.

Rename the bluetooth executable so that it would not be found at boot start. Do not do this, unless the first 4 methods not work.