Hi Alok,

You only need to run the pair command once, so it's normal that it's telling you "already exists", given that you have already successfully paired the laptop with the speaker.

Its refusal to connect reminds me of a situation I had when for some reason, pulseaudio was not running before trying to connect the speaker. Check that and once you're sure its running, try again. Otherwise, make sure all the required peripheral software is installed. From the Arch Linux Wiki entry on Bluetooth audio support :

Headset/Speaker via Bluez5/PulseAudio : PulseAudio 5.x supports A2DP per default. Make sure the following packages are installed: pulseaudio-alsa, pulseaudio-bluetooth, bluez, bluez-libs, bluez-utils. Without pulseaudio-bluetooth you will not be able to connect after the next pairing and you will not get any usable error messages.

.... you will have to identify the equivalent package names for Mint, since that is the version of linux you are running, but they should at least be recognizable.

Check it out and let us know how you do ...

Cheers !

Hi Rickkkk,

Stalled at an earlier stage this time - so, "power on" brought the response "No default controller available"

What is going on?!

Alok

Still fiddling away, I got to the connect stage this time - but there it was the same old story - Failed to connect: org.bluez.Error.Failed

A

No go. I think all the packages are there - except pulseaudio-alsa. But, but...

'Tis a long learning curve that knows no ending...

I have Logitech speakers and sometimes have the same problem. I found the solution somewhere, can't remember where, but I think it is not specific to Logitech. You might give it a try. The key seems to be it will pair but not connect. I am running xubuntu (ubuntu) so use apt-get. Modify the first command to fit your distro.

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth
pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover

Then, delete the device from bluetooth and pair it again. If it works you can add the second command to your startup settings so you don't have to do this every time you reboot.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, agilator.

Tried the commands you suggested. After the second one - pactl... - I got a failure message: Failure: Module initialization failed

Alas.

Hi Alok,

The rather random responses you're getting makes it seem like your bluetooth and/or pulseaudio installation is somewhat unstable. If at times it is not finding the bluetooth controller (power on failing ...), it points towards either the bluetooth module not being loaded (driver) or the systemd service not running ... Are you sure you are starting bluetooth (systemctl start bluetooth) before trying to use bluetoothctl ?

Hi Rickkkk,

I am following the drill you sent with complete fidelity - so, yes, I start with systemctl start bluetooth.

So it has to be something else.