How to disable bluetooth without keyboard/mouse present

Question

How to disable bluetooth without keyboard/mouse present

I have my new mini set up for remote control and have disconnected everything but power and ethernet. When I reboot, bluetooth starts up again and I cannot seem to find a way to keep it turned off.

When I try to turn it off in the system preferences it warns me that I will not be able to control the computer without it. Although that would be a nice touch if it were true (I am not using it for anything) - I see no reason why bluetooth being on has any effect on my control of things.

I have ssh to log in as well as Apple Remote Desktop enabled.

Am I missing something here? Any ideas how to force this off other than buying and connecting something to the back?

Mini Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 3, 2006 7:55 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 6, 2006 6:07 AM in response to Michael Bradshaw

OK. I am one step closer - I have found a configuration that prevents that pop up window reminding me that no input device was found.

I went throught the Bluetooth System Preference Pane and disabled everything (except showing the status in the menu bar)

Bluetooth Off
* Not Discoverable
* No to "Open Bluetooth..."
* No to "Allow Bluetooth..."
* Yes to "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar"

Devices:
* There are no devices.

Sharing:
* Nothing is on (File Transfer, File Exchange, PDA-Sync)
* File transfer is off (Button says start)

I had originally forgotton to turn off the "Open Bluetooth Assistant at startup..."

But even now, when I make sure bluetooth is turned off, and reboot my Mini, bluetooth is turned on again when I log in...

It's minor, but I guess I'd like to have bluetooth off and stay off for my mini.

Any ideas on how to disable whatever is starting bluetooth at boot (or tell it that yes - it's really OK that you don't see a keyboard and mouse - leave the bluetooth settings as they are...)

Reply

Answer 2

GrahamVH

Level 1

20 points

Mar 9, 2006 7:25 AM in response to Michael Bradshaw

Hello,
I believe I know a way to solve your problem. This will disable bluetooth completely. The only way to re-enable bluetooth will be by reinstalling Mac OS X or using the terminal.

Open the folder /System/Library/Extensions and delete or move the files IOBluetoothFamily.kext and IOBluetoothHIDDriver.kext.

This will delete the drivers for Bluetooth, therefore your computer will think that Bluetooth is not installed on your system.

H

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 9, 2006 1:20 PM in response to GrahamVH

Now we are talking. I'll give this a shot pending a software fix and report back.

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 22, 2007 4:37 PM in response to Michael Bradshaw

Graham - Thanks for the solution on disabling BT.

Reply