How to stop Bluetooth from starting automatically on system startup in Ubuntu 18.04

Ubuntu 18.04 is bugged with many problems related to wifi drivers and bluetooth, one of issue many people are facing is that the bluetooth is turned on when the system is powered ON. And in this article we discuss how you can change that, there are two methods of achieving this ;

Method #1 : 


You will need to edit/make the rc.local file. Most Linux distros dont have it. That's ok you just need to make that executable. Here's the commnand you need to paste to make that executable work.

sudo install -b -m 755 /dev/stdin /etc/rc.local << EOF
#!/bin/sh
rfkill block bluetooth
exit 0
EOF

Run sudoedit /etc/rc.local and this before line with exit 0:

rfkill block bluetooth

After running this command you'll see a new window and you will be able to enable Bluetooth through the Top bar applet.

Now it is known from others that this solution is working for most systems except for the Lenovo Thinkpads, there are few errors/ bugs in the kernels' ACPI. So if you're on Thinkpad, you need to add the following to the /etc/rc/local : 

echo disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth

Or maybe you can visit here, There are reports suggesting that the ibm-acpi includes bluetooth controls (and that's what that link is for! )


Method #2 : 

This method is a more cleaner method. Follow the steps below :

#1 First you should backup your configuration files!

~$ sudo cp /etc/bluetooth/main.conf /etc/bluetooth/main.conf/OLD 

#2 Then you can use nano or vim to edit the bluetooth configuration file :

~$ sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

Now you simply need to search for the entry:
InitiallyPowered = true

and change the value to:
InitiallyPowered = false

Press Ctrl+X to save and exit out of nano command line.

Now you will want to look for :

#1 List of all the plugins that should not be loaded on bluetoothhd startup

and also ;

#2 DisablePlugins = network,input

and also uncomment the DisablePlugins line

Now, you need to modify a file called bluetooth :

~$ sudo nano /etc/default/bluetooth

Search for the start bluetooth section and edit the enable value to 0 (zero) which is 'off'.

# start bluetooth on boot?
# compatibility note : if this variable is _not_ found bluetooth will start 

BLUETOOTH_ENABLED = 0 

Press Ctrl+X to save and exit out of nano command line.

Now Reboot the machine and the Bluetooth should stay off.