mesh-catalog/modules/blueman

blueman

The Bluetooth tray applet on the workstations, as a module (novox/hq ADR 0208). It requires x11-display, so it is assigned only where a display server is held on the same machine.

Owns

what	where
the applet, the manager window, send-to	package blueman, from the official repositories

Nothing else. It holds no seat, makes no contribution and writes no file.

• No AUR. Both workstations run the official package (extra), installed explicitly.
• The Bluetooth stack is not this module's. bluez, bluez-utils and bluetooth.service belong to the bluetooth module. This module declares none of them (ADR 0210 §4: one package, one module). The devices, pairing and power are that module's tools (bluetooth_*). This module's tools are about the applet.
• The operator's applet settings are found. blueman keeps them in dconf (org.blueman.*): the plugin switches, the recent connections, auto-connect and auto-power-on. The module neither sets nor resets them. blueman_status shows the plugin switches.

How it starts: the package's autostart entry, and nothing else

One process has one starter (the rule picom states for the desktop modules). The package ships /etc/xdg/autostart/blueman.desktop (blueman-applet). The session runs it once at login through the i3 module's dex --autostart --environment i3. That entry is the applet's one start. The module adds no xinitrc slot and no node-display-session exec, because either would start it a second time.

• Excluded: the window manager's exec … blueman-applet, which the i3 module's configuration dropped.
• Not a start: the package's user unit blueman-applet.service is static. It exists for D-Bus activation of org.blueman.Applet. A program that calls the applet's bus name while no applet runs starts one through it. The applet is single-instance on that name, so this never makes a second one. The tools always ask the bus with --auto-start=no, so asking never starts it.
• The applet starts its tray icon, blueman-tray, itself.

Tools

They are served by the node's runtime as the operator account (ADR 0175).

tool	does
blueman_status (r)	whether the applet and its tray icon run: pid, since, and the scope or unit they run in the installed version, and what starts it at login the plugins the running applet has loaded and those it has not (asked of the applet on the session bus) the plugin switches in org.blueman.general plugin-list whether the applet sees Bluetooth on
blueman_restart (a)	asks the applet and the tray icon to end (SIGTERM), forces them after 5 s, and starts blueman-applet in the operator's session. The start is a transient user unit mesh-blueman-applet, so it outlives the tools runtime. Answers the pids. Refused plainly when nobody is logged in to the desktop
blueman_check (r)	the package is installed exactly one start: the package's entry is present and not hidden by an entry of the account, and dex is installed no window-manager exec one applet runs in a desktop session bluetooth.service is active Each finding says what to do

The tools find the session's DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY from the window manager's own environment, as clipmenu and screen-lock do. Every command has a timeout and capped output. Everything runs through an injected runner and a fake root in the tests.

What changes when it is assigned

	g14	shanks
package	none: blueman 2.4.6 is installed, explicitly, from extra	the same
start	none: dex starts the applet from the package's entry, in the login session's scope; the tray icon with it	none on disk. The applet running now came from the predecessor's window-manager line (a child of i3, since the session of 2026-10-04 16:00). That session began before the i3 module dropped the line and installed dex, so the next login is the first that starts it from the entry
settings (dconf)	defaults, no plugin switched; recent connections only	no plugin switched; auto-connect for one headset, auto-power-on set

The workstations are already in the state this module describes.

Migration (ADR 0182)

Nothing is required on either machine. On shanks, log out and in once, or run blueman_restart, and the applet runs from its one start. blueman_check then answers ok.

Leaves as found

• The applet's dconf settings (/org/blueman/).
• /etc/xdg/autostart/blueman.desktop, the package's own file.

Relies on

• The bluetooth module, for bluez and its daemon. Without them the applet has nothing to manage. There is no dependency mechanism between two modules that hold no seat. So nothing refuses blueman on a node without bluetooth. blueman_check reports it instead, from bluetooth.service. Assign both. When the stack becomes a seat (node-bluetooth), this module depends on the seat.
• i3's dex line for the start, which is equally undeclared: XDG autostart has no seat. Assigned without i3, the applet is installed and does not start. blueman_check says so.
• A display server on the same machine (x11-display, ADR 0208 §3).