Connect Bluetooth on a Headless Raspberry Pi via CLI

Originally published at recca0120.github.io

When the Raspberry Pi has no desktop environment, pairing Bluetooth devices requires the command line. bluetoothctl handles it.

Steps

Enter the bluetoothctl interactive mode:

sudo bluetoothctl

Enable the agent (used for handling pairing requests):

agent on
default-agent

Start scanning for nearby Bluetooth devices:

scan on

Once the target device appears, note its MAC address, then run pair, trust, and connect in order:

pair xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
trust xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
connect xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

The trust step is important -- once added, the device will automatically reconnect on the next boot without manual pairing.