Problem Description: Bluetooth device scanning, previously working fine for the past several months, stopped working around the time 24.04.2 was applied. I’m not 100% sure 24.04.2 is the problem, but the timing was about right. I didn’t do anything else interesting like adding/removing any hardware or software or switching bluetooth devices.
Problem is, every diagnostic I can think of shows that bluetooth is working - the adapter is up, there are no errors anywhere. Scans just never find any devices.
Relevant System Information:
inxi shows:
Host: qqq Kernel: 6.11.0-17-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: GNOME v: 46.0 Distro: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: qqq
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME B550M-A WIFI II v: Rev X.0x
serial: qqq UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3607
Bluetooth:
Device-1: IMC Networks Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb type: USB
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 state: up address: A8:41:F4:E2:31:F5 bt-v: 5.3
Frustratingly, there are no errors! No errors in dmesg or journalctl that I can find. Services restart fine, the driver is discoverable. Other than the lack of devices being discovered, everything appears to work flawlessly.
What I’ve Tried:
Many reboots
Confirming there are devices around to be discovered (my phone identifies at least 4)
rfkill unblock bluetooth
removing and re-adding [bluez, blueman, bluez-tools, pipewire, pipewire-pulse, pipewire-audio, pulseaudio-module-bluetooth]
rmmod and modprobe on all the bluetooth modules
Disabling and re-enabling bluetooth in the bios
unscrewing and rescrewing the antenna for the wifi/bluetooth connector rm -rf /var/lib/bluetooth
add-apt-repository ppa:bluetooth/bluez (although this doesn’t seem to matter as both launchpad and the official repo have 5.72
apt clear, apt update, apt upgrade, as well as searching for updates in the UI
I’d check and correct typos in your question; as details do matter.
You state multiple times you’re using 22.04.2 (title, and in release details) and a recent update; or an update that occurred February 2023? You likely mean 24.04 or the 2024-April release.
If it’s related to the recent switch (for users of 24.04 using the HWE kernel stack) from 6.8 to 6.11 kernel; I’d test that by booting and selecting an older 6.8 kernel at grub on next boot; and see if the problem still occurs there. If it’s fine there, switching your system from HWE kernel to GA may provide a workaround, at least for now (Ubuntu 24.04.2 using the GA kernel still uses 6.8).
You can also have GA & HWE kernel stacks installed; selecting at boot which you’ll use; so you can always test HWE in the future & see if issue is resolved; or work on it when you have a chance; but use the GA kernel when you just need your machine & bluetooth to work.
Kernel/LTSEnablementStack - Ubuntu Wiki maybe useful if you’re not understanding kernel stack options for Ubuntu LTS releases; the default stack is set by your install media; as Ubuntu 24.04 LTS like prior releases, has ISOs that install & use GA kernel, others than use HWE.
I have little experience with bluetooth, so I can’t help there sorry, but kernel stack changes is easy to test for, and maybe a workaround or fix too, depending on your needs (even if fixing HWE kernel is possible).
Be aware that some closed-source kernel modules (NVidia etc) can prevent an install from having multiple kernel stacks co-existing on a single install
Thanks for the quick response, typos fixed to reflect that this is indeed the new 24.04.2. I have rebooted into the older kernel (didn’t know one could do that), this is what you mean correct?
Sadly that didn’t instantly resolve the problem, but I will try some of the same troubleshooting steps on this kernel regardless since I am out of other ideas. Thanks again.
No it is not solved, in fact it has gotten worse. No progress all week, then today after applying OS updates through the UI (I did not check what they were, just let Software Updater do its thing and now I don’t know how to find out what changed) I can no longer get the hci interface up:
:~$ sudo hciconfig hci0 up
Can’t init device hci0: Connection timed out (110)
:~$ sudo hciconfig -a
hci1: Type: Primary Bus: USB
BD Address: 00:00:00:00:00:00 ACL MTU: 0:0 SCO MTU: 0:0
DOWN
RX bytes:0 acl:0 sco:0 events:0 errors:0
TX bytes:0 acl:0 sco:0 commands:1 errors:1
Features: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Packet type: DM1 DH1 HV1
Link policy:
Link mode: PERIPHERAL ACCEPT
I’ve tried the new and old kernels, removing and reinstalling the apt packages for bluez and bluez-tools, rmmod and modprobe on all the related modules, and many reboots, hci0 will not come up. dmesg has some errors but I couldn’t find anything useful or relevant from searching them:
At this point I guess I just buy a bluetooth dongle and hope for the best. It’s at least possible the problem is hardware (although hardware doesn’t usually fail just at the moment you update software) but I am out of other ideas and essentially just poking at it like a monkey hoping something will randomly work.
$ sudo lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 343f:930a SunplusIT Inc A68-1600W
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c534 Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 13d3:3571 IMC Networks Bluetooth Radio
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0b05:1939 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. AURA LED Controller
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
$ inxi --bluetooth
Bluetooth:
Device-1: IMC Networks Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb type: USB
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down
bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: no
address: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Fast boot is enabled, not sure why that would affect this? I tried disabling it and there’s no obvious change. For the record dmesg has some new errors that I haven’t seen before:
There’s no way to replace the chipset without a new motherboard, right? I was hoping the download failure meant I needed a different firmware or source, as opposed to an inability to download firmware.
Anyway I am just assuming hardware failure and ordered a usb bluetooth dongle today.