Follow these steps to get started diagnosing your car using Linux.

1. Locate the OBD-II port and prepare the car

This step is explained in a separate article: How to locate the OBD connector and prepare the car for diagnostics?

The next step depends on your adapter type.

2. A — Bluetooth adapter

No pairing

No pairing is required outside the software to use Bluetooth dongles. However, if a PIN code is needed, it’s requested during the first connection attempt.

If a pairing code for the adapter is requested, refer to the adapter user guide for the code. The most common codes are 0000 and 1234.

Dialout access for Bluetooth

Notice that some Linux distros require that you need to be part of the dialout group to able to use Bluetooth. To add an user to the group, issue:

sudo adduser username dialout

You might need to log out and log in for the group change to be effective.

BLE permissions

If you are using Bluetooth Low Energy adapter, you need to give the software the needed permission to access it. If you install the software using the .deb package, the permissions are added automatically for you.

Otherwise, you need to give the permissions manually because scanning BLE devices needs special rights.

To avoid running the software with root permissions, it’s recommended that you can give the application the needed permissions by running the following command just once:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip /usr/bin/obdautodoctor

After running the previous command, you can run obdautodoctor as normal user with the needed rights.

Select your OBD Bluetooth adapter

In OBD Auto Doctor, navigate to File -> Open connection, and select Bluetooth as the Connection method. Then click Search Bluetooth devices and pick your adapter from the list.

2. B — USB adapter

Verify driver and operating system support

All supported USB adapters should work out of the box on Linux. However, in some cases, the adapter might need separate drivers to be installed. In this case, please refer to the adapter user manual for the correct drivers.

All supported USB adapters use a USB-to-serial converter. As a result, the operating system will detect them as COM ports or Serial ports.

OBD Auto Doctor can detect and communicate with the adapter only after the OS has appropriately identified the hardware.

Dialout access for USB

Notice that some Linux distros require that you need to be part of the dialout group to able to use the USB adapters. To add an user to the group, issue:

sudo adduser username dialout

You might need to log out and log in for the group change to be effective.

Select your OBD USB adapter

In OBD Auto Doctor, navigate to File -> Open connection, and select Serial port as the Connection method. Then select the correct port from the COM port dropdown.

2. C — WiFi adapter

OBD WiFi adapters are a bit tricky because they require that you connect your computer to the WiFi hotspot they provide. So while connected to the adapter hotspot, you can’t use the Internet in a usual way.

Using the OS network tools, connect to the adapter hotspot. Please refer to the adapter user manual for the proper network (SSID) name.

Select your OBD WiFi adapter

In OBD Auto Doctor, navigate to File -> Open connection, and select WiFi as the Connection method. The default IP address and Port should be fine for most, if not all, adapters. Change these only if you know what you are doing.

3. Connect to the adapter and car

When all proper connection settings are adjusted, click Connect to start connecting to the car.

While opening the communication channel and detecting components, the software shows you the progress.

After a while, the software should notify that it is connected. If you have problems connecting, continue to troubleshooting.