Bluetooth not working in fresh Mint Maya install

Question

I have a fresh Mint Maya install (MATE WM). Out of the box, the bluetooth applet appeared on the taskbar, but it wouldn't launch. After an upgrade from apt, it doesn't even appear on the taskbar anymore. Trying to run the appropriate programs directly fails like this:

$ mate-bluetooth-
mate-bluetooth-applet      mate-bluetooth-sendto
mate-bluetooth-properties  mate-bluetooth-wizard
$ mate-bluetooth-applet 

** (mate-bluetooth-applet:12517): WARNING **: Applet
is already running, exiting
$ mate-bluetooth-properties 

(mate-bluetooth-properties:12521): Unique-DBus-WARNING
**: Error while     sending message: Did not receive a
reply. Possible causes include: the rem ote application
did not send a reply, the message bus security policy
blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the
network connection was broken.
$ mate-bluetooth-wizard 

(mate-bluetooth-wizard:12602): Unique-DBus-WARNING
**: Error while sending message: Did not receive a
reply. Possible causes include: the remote application
did not send a reply, the message bus security policy
blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the
network connection was broken.

Answer 1

The problem is not actually with Mint talking to bluetooth. It's just the mate-bluetooth-* programs provided by mint don't work anymore. Running any alternative bluetooth setup programs will work. e.g. sudo apt-get install blueman and run blueman-manager.