missing status icon

Affected by the same issue here.

Even more, if bluetooth was on, and one turns it off using the blueman-applet status icon, the icon gets updated, but after little while, it disappear all together from the notification area, making accessing bluetooth functionnality hard.

What will be ideal is an option that says 'Always shows the blueman status icon in the notification area' [ ] ', even when bluetooth is turned off, so one can turn it back on easily at wish. Let me know if this already exist. Thanks !

I also have the same issue. I have posted this problem at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/blueman-cannot-start-properly-791678/.

My system:
- Slackware 13 with xfce/KDE
- blueman 1.21

blueman-manager have problem with dbus
blueman-applet have problem with gobject

On above link, I have posted logs of two commands.

I am having the exact same problem. The error I receive from console is:

Loading configuration plugins
Using gconf config backend
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/blueman-applet", line 364, in <module>
    BluemanApplet()
  File "/usr/bin/blueman-applet", line 297, in __init__
    check_single_instance("blueman-applet")
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/Functions.py", line 270, in check_single_instance
    pid = int(f.readline())
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''

I also run slackware 13 with kde 4.3. I have tried google-fu and came up with one site that did not solve the error.

I had a similar problem until I adjusted the transparency of the top panel to be a little more opaque. Could this be what you are experiencing?

I have the same problem Shawn mentioned in #3 on a xubuntu 9.04 x86_64 system when I invoke 'sudo blueman-manager' for some time now (after I have worked with blueman without any problem for a year). Strange enough, I have add the blueman stuff to /etc/sudoers (and this also has worked for a long time). But now when I'm doing 'blueman-manager' (as normal user but using the sudoers trick):

$ blueman-manager
Loading configuration plugins
Using gconf config backend
_________
on_bluez_name_owner_changed (/usr/bin/blueman-manager:104)
org.bluez owner changed to :1.90
Using gconf config backend
ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on org.blueman.Applet:/: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/connection.py", line 576, in msg_reply_handler
    reply_handler(*message.get_args_list(**get_args_opts))
  File "/usr/bin/blueman-manager", line 132, in on_bluez_name_owner_changed
    if not self.Applet.GetBluetoothStatus():
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/proxies.py", line 68, in __call__
    return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/proxies.py", line 140, in __call__
    **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/connection.py", line 620, in call_blocking
    message, timeout)
dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1

I'm running Slackware 13.1 with XFCE 4.6.1 as the desk top environment on a Samsung N140 netbook. My issue was that the Blueman icon had disappeared from the panel in XFCE and I had no idea when or how this happened. It should be noted that blueman was running fine for several weeks prior to failing and that includes multiple on/off cycles.

My initial investigation revealed that running blueman-manager from a terminal gave the following error:

bash-4.1$ blueman-manager

Loading configuration plugins

_________

<module> (/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/main/Config.py:20)

Skipping plugin Gconf

No module named gconf

Using file config backend

_________

on_bluez_name_owner_changed (/usr/bin/blueman-manager:104)

org.bluez owner changed to :1.2

Using file config backend

ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on org.blueman.Applet:/: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process /usr/bin/blueman-applet exited with status 1

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 586, in msg_reply_handler

    reply_handler(*message.get_args_list(**get_args_opts))

  File "/usr/bin/blueman-manager", line 132, in on_bluez_name_owner_changed

    if not self.Applet.GetBluetoothStatus():

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 68, in __call__

    return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 140, in __call__

    **keywords)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 630, in call_blocking

    message, timeout)

dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process /usr/bin/blueman-applet exited with status 1

and running the blueman-applet gave this:

bash-4.1$ blueman-applet

Loading configuration plugins

_________

<module> (/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/main/Config.py:20)

Skipping plugin Gconf

No module named gconf

Using file config backend

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/bin/blueman-applet", line 364, in <module>

    BluemanApplet()

  File "/usr/bin/blueman-applet", line 297, in __init__

    check_single_instance("blueman-applet")

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/Functions.py", line 270, in check_single_instance

    pid = int(f.readline())

ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''

Blueman ran fine on other users accounts so it seemed to be something peculiar to my account.

Anyhow to cut a long story short I eventually discovered that blueman creates a file in /tmp called “blueman-applet-uid” so in my case the file named “blueman-applet-1000”, this file was zero size whereas for other users “blueman-applet-0 and blueman-applet-1001” were 6 or 7 bytes in length. Could this be the issue?.....well as it happens yes. Simply deleting this zero length file and logging in again the blueman springs into life for user 1000. This issue is repeatable by simply deleting the files contents prior to starting blueman-applet. I'm not sure if the “blueman-applet-uid” file is in /tmp in all distributions so you may need to perform a file search to...

Same situation on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat. The icon is shown after starting X server but it will disappear in 15 seconds.

Same here on my Thinkpad T400 running Ubuntu Maverick. After startup it shows up but then it disappears after little time. If Bluetooth is turned on over the Fn key combination it comes back but as the key also switches the wlan module it always produces a wlan disconnect.
Any Suggestions? Is there a Option to control this behaviour?

Changing the icon theme worked for me. I was using a theme which for some reason had broken icon. Also there is a Blueman plugin for customizing the icon that is displayed.

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