Since Debian 12 two audio servers are available (either PulseAudio or PipeWire). PulseAudio is the default audio server in Debian.
For a GTK environment (XFCE) the following packages need to be installed:
sudo apt install bluetooth rfkill bluez bluez-tools pulseaudio-module-bluetooth blueman
Blueman is the XFCE bluetooth front-end app.
# systemctl status bluetooth $ systemctl --user status pulseaudio.service
If you run rfkill as root, you should get something like follows:
~$ sudo rfkill ID TYPE DEVICE SOFT HARD 0 wlan phy0 unblocked unblocked 1 bluetooth hci0 unblocked unblocked
If you see anything blocked, you will have to unblock it. Hard blocked is usually a switch (or a wireless key on the keyboard), soft blocked is usually something with the OS. Run the following to unblock a device:
rfkill unblock [device]
Check if bluetooth radio is present in PulseAudio cards:
pactl list cards short
Switch automatically to bluetooth output on connecting to bluetooth device. Enter:
pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect
To persist autoconnect on reboots, add the following to /etc/pulse/default.pa
# nano /etc/pulse/default.pa Add the following to the bottom: .ifexists module-switch-on-connect.so load-module module-switch-on-connect .endif