[SOLVED] Bluetooth support not working.

fernan82 · n00b Joined: 24 Jul 2014 Posts: 70

Hello,

I have a netbook with a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01). As I understand this is a WiFi + Bluetooth adapter. The bluetooth part is attached to the USB bus and is seen by lsusb as:

Logicien · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:59 pm Post subject:

Hello,

do you start the Bluetooth service before doing anything? Without that, no bluetooth device will be seen at least by bluetoothctl. Even when the Bluetooth service is up and running, you may have to put the power on for the Bluetooth device being usable.

In the Bluetooth subshell, you have to excute several commands before the scan can work:

fernan82 · n00b Joined: 24 Jul 2014 Posts: 70

Hello,

Thanks for the reply. Everything you mentioned about bluetoothctl I've tried, still no devices are discovered, and yes my devices are discoverable and I'm starting the bluetooth deamon at boot. Here's the output of [bluetooth]#show:

Logicien · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 11:03 pm Post subject:

There is

fernan82 · n00b Joined: 24 Jul 2014 Posts: 70

Thanks, I didn't try that, right now I'm on 3.16.1 with no hci0 device but I will reboot in a minute and try it on the 3.12.21 kernel.

I compiled all the bluetooth drivers as modules and upon return the error was back: bluetooth: could not find patch file: ar3k/AthrBT_0x31010000.dfu. I found the file here: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/linux-firmware/+/refs/heads/stabilize-4701.B/ar3k/AthrBT_0x31010000.dfu and added it to the list of firmware blobs. Upon rebooting the error was gone and I see that the modules are loaded but I still cannot see the device.

I think I'm missing a virtual fs option on my kernel so it can create the hci device. One thing I disabled on the 3.14.14 and that is missing on the vanilla kernel is Gentoo's persistent device naming option, I disabled it on the 3.14.14 kernel because it breaks a USB CDC device I use but this option is supposed to enable some virtual filesystems.

I will try to compile the 3.12.21 kernel with the firmware blob now, hopefully that'll get it bluetooth to work then I just have to figure out how to get the device to show on 3.16.1.

fernan82 · n00b Joined: 24 Jul 2014 Posts: 70

hcitool -i hci0 scanning didn't discover anything but I causes the following to be logged in dmesg:

Logicien · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 2:10 am Post subject:

The file AthrBT_0x31010000.dfu is part of the linux-firmware package. You should install that package.

I have an hypothesis about integrated devices like Bluetooh in netbooks. You probably ever install Windows drivers. The installer often say "Dont plug the device until the driver installation is finish.". That's mean the driver must be ready to probe the device. If the device is detected before the driver is ready including firmware files access, the initialisation will fail.

The problem with integrated devices is that you cannot unplug them. They are there before Linux start and are detected when probed. At this moment, if you do not have everything needed in the kernel and/or in the initramfs, the initialisation fail.

After the boot is finish, the only choice you have, is to stop the Bluetooth service, unload the related modules, load them again and start the service again. So, you can try that if nothing work.

And other thing you can do, is to put everything needed for the Usb and Bluetooth support in the kernel image or at least in an initramfs, including the firmwares to permit Linux to be able to initialise the Bluetooth device as early as possible.

Remember, restart the Bluetooth service need to restart Pulseaudio too for Bluetooth audio.

Note that the Bluetooth service may need to be reconfigure otherwise than the default in /etc/bluetooth.

Note too that Systemd, Bluez (5), Dbus and Pulseaudio work all together. Systemd manage users permissions with Logind. If you use Openrc, you need Consolekit to manage user permissions.

If you look at the file /etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf, users must be in the lp and/or plugdev groups to comminicate with Bluetooth devices. Have you try Bluetooth scans as the root user to be sure permissions are not in causes?

Is the Bluetooth Usb device good enough in the netbook?
_________________
Paul

fernan82 · n00b Joined: 24 Jul 2014 Posts: 70

feniksa · n00b Joined: 03 May 2015 Posts: 7 Location: Ukraine

Just will add my fifty-cents.

If you see your bluetooth device with bluetoothctl and everything looks fine, but your bluetooth are NOT turning on (in dmesg you see "command timeout" errors).
Sometimes to get rid of this error, it may help fully turn off computer and remove AC cable[/b].

This bug can be found with some laptops, like ASUS with Qualcomm Atheros chip. This error also can happen on other devices with dual windows machines. If you hibernate your laptop, and then switch to windows - you will be unable to use your bluetooth device (because wifi-bluetooth chip in state, that can't be recognized by Linux module).