Bluetooth Problems

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Ian J.
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Bluetooth Problems

Post by Ian J. »

Hi,

I'm a newbie to Linux Mint, having just started the transition to it from Windows 7.

On my laptop I'm having trouble getting Bluetooth to stay connected. It switches on fine, scans and finds devices fine, and pairs fine. But with all devices, after just a few seconds of being paired and connected, they disconnect. I've tried installing Blueman, but that didn't work, and I've tried re-pairing devices, but still the problem remains.

I'm wondering if my Bluetooth dongle might be at issue. It's a Broadcom BCM2035 based USB dongle, and I gather, from web searches, that there have been issues with Broadcom chips. I've also read that Linux Mint 17 has problems with Bluetooth where previous version didn't.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Ian J.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by JeremyB »

Ian J. wrote:Hi,

I'm a newbie to Linux Mint, having just started the transition to it from Windows 7.

On my laptop I'm having trouble getting Bluetooth to stay connected. It switches on fine, scans and finds devices fine, and pairs fine. But with all devices, after just a few seconds of being paired and connected, they disconnect. I've tried installing Blueman, but that didn't work, and I've tried re-pairing devices, but still the problem remains.

I'm wondering if my Bluetooth dongle might be at issue. It's a Broadcom BCM2035 based USB dongle, and I gather, from web searches, that there have been issues with Broadcom chips. I've also read that Linux Mint 17 has problems with Bluetooth where previous version didn't.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Ian J.
Open a terminal windows and enter the following

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uname -a; lsusb; dmesg | egrep 'blue|firm'
Post the results
Ian J.
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Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 1:36 pm

Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by Ian J. »

This is what I get:

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ianj@Lekara-Linux ~ $ uname -a; lsusb; dmesg | egrep 'blue|firm'
Linux Lekara-Linux 3.16.0-38-generic #52~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 8 09:44:48 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1058:10b8 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0a5c:200a Broadcom Corp. BCM2035 Bluetooth dongle
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
[   36.524501] iwl3945 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 15.32.2.9
[ 3302.112142] Modules linked in: bnep rfcomm bluetooth 6lowpan_iphc dm_crypt acer_wmi sparse_keymap snd_hda_codec_si3054 snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel snd_hda_controller snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_pcm snd_seq_midi dm_multipath scsi_dh snd_seq_midi_event binfmt_misc pcmcia snd_rawmidi snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_timer arc4 coretemp iwl3945 iwlegacy tifm_7xx1 snd tifm_core joydev mac80211 serio_raw cfg80211 lpc_ich yenta_socket pcmcia_rsrc soundcore pcmcia_core shpchp parport_pc tpm_infineon ppdev mac_hid lp parport dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log i915 8139too 8139cp mii psmouse i2c_algo_bit sdhci_pci pata_acpi drm_kms_helper sdhci drm wmi video
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by JeremyB »

That is an older device but it should work. There is something else that might be causing the issue

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dmesg | grep -B10 bluetooth
Ian J.
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by Ian J. »

I ran:

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$ dmesg | grep -B10 bluetooth
$ 
...but didn't get any result. This was after a complete restart of the laptop, then connecting my printer via bluetooth (which again lost it's connection).
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by JeremyB »

I think all of my devices eventually timeout but only my mouse and headset will keep the connection status as on for any period of time. My phone only shows ass being connected when I sent or receive a file from it then it will switch to connection off right away. I can't help you with printing over bluetooth as I don't have access to a bluetooth capable printer
Ian J.
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by Ian J. »

I don't think it's a timeout problem. These connections are made and lost within a couple of seconds. The printer is actually active and waiting for information which the laptop ceases to send because the connection drops. It then complains that the connection isn't open for it to send the document to the printer.
Ian J.
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by Ian J. »

Update: I have been able to get the basic connection to my printer to stay on, up until I actually try to print a page when the connection drops. Then I get an error message:

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"Connection Failed: 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."
At the point of trying to print the dmesg | tail is:

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[ 4382.176442]  [<c1074bcb>] process_one_work+0x11b/0x3b0
[ 4382.176448]  [<c107545d>] worker_thread+0xed/0x500
[ 4382.176453]  [<c1075370>] ? create_and_start_worker+0x70/0x70
[ 4382.176459]  [<c107a961>] kthread+0xa1/0xc0
[ 4382.176469]  [<c1695081>] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x21/0x30
[ 4382.176473]  [<c107a8c0>] ? kthread_create_on_node+0x140/0x140
[ 4382.176477] ---[ end trace ec98d1f41908ceaf ]---
[ 4786.845484] systemd-hostnamed[9397]: Warning: nss-myhostname is not installed. Changing the local hostname might make it unresolveable. Please install nss-myhostname!
[ 4834.745946] Bluetooth: hci0 link tx timeout
[ 4834.745956] Bluetooth: hci0 killing stalled connection 00:1a:0e:17:5d:c8
Ian J.
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by Ian J. »

I've just updated to Mint 17.3 Rosa, that didn't work, Bluetooth still won't stay connected. I've updated to the latest available kernel (4.2.0-19) and still no luck. :(
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by JeremyB »

Ian J. wrote:I've just updated to Mint 17.3 Rosa, that didn't work, Bluetooth still won't stay connected. I've updated to the latest available kernel (4.2.0-19) and still no luck. :(
The issues might be with the version of Bluez which is the bluetooth stack for Linux, see www.bluez.org
Ian J.
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by Ian J. »

OK, I've had a chance to get hold of one of my other, newer bluetooth dongles, and it's working. So it seems that the chipset of the older one simply isn't liked by Mint. For information the 'new' one is a Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd device according to dmesg.
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth Problems

Post by JeremyB »

I have an Iogear GBU521 that has worked well in Linux Mint
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