this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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Linux Questions

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Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon.

I am using powertop to view what is using my laptop battery the most and it seems the bluetooth adaptop is using around 5W. I turned BT off in settings and also in /etc/bluetooth i changed the config file main.conf to not autostart bluetooth.
Even after doing this and a couple restarts, powertop still shows BT using 3-5W power.

pasocon@pasocon:~$ sudo systemctl status bluetooth
[sudo] password for pasocon:
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2023-07-28 13:09:10 IST; 1h 0min ago
Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Main PID: 792 (bluetoothd)
Status: "Running"
Tasks: 1 (limit: 18691)
Memory: 1.9M
CPU: 26ms
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
└─792 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/ap>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/sbc
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/sb>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/sb>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/sb>
Jul 28 13:09:13 pasocon bluetoothd[792]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.33 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/>

pasocon@pasocon:~~$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
pasocon@pasocon:~~$ bluetoothctl <<< show | grep Powered
Powered: no
pasocon@pasocon:~$

I searched the bios but didnt find any option to disable the bluetooth device. The only advanced options are wrt frequencies and transmit power settings. Does this mean I cant switch off BT completely?

edit: using quotes instead of code because code doesn't work well. i havent striked out anything. the kbin editor is striking out text by itself. o.0

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Laptops usually have a WiFi network adapter that also supplies Bluetooth capabilities. Check your laptop specs to see if that's the case, because if it is, turning off the adapter would mean you would lose WiFi connectivity too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Now that you mention it,i think i saw in bios advanced settingss, the settings were more about wifi than bluetooth. So you're right about both wifi and bt being on same adaptor. Guess there's no real use of disabling bt in the os if it is always on. Thanks for the reply.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

maybe bluetoothctl power off might help?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's the same as turning it off from the task bar. Bluetooth icon says its disabled and powertop shows it's using 2.5W power.