♪ [SOLVED] ♫ Bluetooth USB (RTL8761) adapter

[cbrace]

Hi all,

I have a new Sennheiser headphone which supports Bluetooth v5. With my Android phone, which supports v5, the audio quality is fantastic. I would if possible like to connect this headphone to my Thinkpad, which only supports an older Bluetooth version. I'm running Mint 21 MATE.

I bought a MPOW Bluetooth USB Dongle that supports Linux according to the manufacturer. demsg returns an error message though. Any ideas for getting this device working? TIA

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uname -r
5.4.0-72-generic

dmesg:

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[  141.008121] usb 4-1: new full-speed USB device number 3 using uhci_hcd
[  141.191231] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=2550, bcdDevice= 2.00
[  141.191240] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  141.191245] usb 4-1: Product: Bluetooth Radio
[  141.191250] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: Realtek
[  141.191255] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: A09F10C146C8
[  141.199255] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: examining hci_ver=0a hci_rev=000b lmp_ver=0a lmp_subver=8761
[  141.201205] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=1
[  141.201208] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761a_fw.bin
[  141.206867] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761a_config.bin
[  141.206906] bluetooth hci1: Direct firmware load for rtl_bt/rtl8761a_config.bin failed with error -2
[  141.206921] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: cfg_sz -2, total sz 20204
[  143.300140] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0xfc20 tx timeout

The existing BT interface followed by the new one:

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$ hciconfig -a
hci0:	Type: Primary  Bus: USB
	BD Address: 00:1F:E1:EB:A0:49  ACL MTU: 1017:8  SCO MTU: 64:8
	UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN 
	RX bytes:1581 acl:0 sco:0 events:83 errors:0
	TX bytes:674 acl:0 sco:0 commands:39 errors:0
	Features: 0xff 0xff 0x8f 0xfe 0x9b 0xf9 0x00 0x80
	Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 
	Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK 
	Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 
	Name: 'hera'
	Class: 0x1c010c
	Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing, Object Transfer
	Device Class: Computer, Laptop
	HCI Version: 2.0 (0x3)  Revision: 0x212b
	LMP Version: 2.0 (0x3)  Subversion: 0x41d3
	Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)

hci1:	Type: Primary  Bus: USB
	BD Address: 00:00:00:00:00:00  ACL MTU: 0:0  SCO MTU: 0:0
	DOWN 
	RX bytes:581 acl:0 sco:0 events:82 errors:0
	TX bytes:20534 acl:0 sco:0 commands:83 errors:0
	Features: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
	Packet type: DM1 DH1 HV1 
	Link policy: 
	Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 

[sydbat]

When you plug in the dongle, does it show up in Bluetooth manager? If so, is it turned on? If so, does it show up in Sound Preferences? If so, is it unmuted?

Dumb questions I know, but these are steps to help determine what you may have done already.

[cbrace]

I don't see a second device in Bluetooth Manager. Don't know exactly what I should be seeing, but I would assume if there are more than two BT devices active some kind of selector would be visible.

[hglee]

Hi all,

I have a new Sennheiser headphone which supports Bluetooth v5. With my Android phone, which supports v5, the audio quality is fantastic. I would if possible like to connect this headphone to my Thinkpad, which only supports an older Bluetooth version. I'm running Mint 21 MATE.

I bought a MPOW Bluetooth USB Dongle that supports Linux according to the manufacturer. demsg returns an error message though. Any ideas for getting this device working? TIA

To download and install MPOW-supplied firmware files for Realtek RTL8761A and RTL8761B (ID 0bda:8771) Bluetooth chipsets:


Open a Terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-T), then copy-and-paste the following 5 command-lines, one by one...

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cd ~/Downloads/ && wget https://mpow.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mpow_BH519A_driver+for+Linux.7z
sudo apt-get install -y p7zip-full && D=/lib/firmware;N=rtl8761;G=config;E=.bin
7z x ./mpow_BH519A_driver+for+Linux.7z;cd 202*/rtkbt-firmware/$D/rtlbt;S=sudo;D=$D/rtl_bt/$N
for C in a_ b_;do for L in fw $G;do F=$D$C$L$E;[ -f $F ]&&$S cp $F{,-`date +%s`};$S cp -f $N$C$L $F;done;done
cd ~/Downloads/ && rm -r 20201202_LINUX_BT_DRIVER/

Reboot.


Some MPOW owners report a need for kernel 5.8, so 5.4 users might want to upgrade:

Launch Update Manager, there click View > Linux Kernels > [Continue]. Then select 5.8 and install the top version listed. Reboot.

Firmware changes take effect after reboot.

[cbrace]

Thanks hglee, that worked. Bluetooth Manager appears to automatically select the second BT interface, hci1. I've paired the Sennheiser headset and it seems to work fine. The Sennheiser can be paired with two devices, and now I just need to figure out how to swap back and forth between laptop and Android phone.

Thanks again.

For the record:

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$ hciconfig -a
hci1:	Type: Primary  Bus: USB
	BD Address: A0:9F:10:C1:46:C8  ACL MTU: 1021:6  SCO MTU: 255:12
	UP RUNNING 
	RX bytes:1179 acl:0 sco:0 events:117 errors:0
	TX bytes:17806 acl:0 sco:0 commands:117 errors:0
	Features: 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xfe 0xdb 0xfd 0x7b 0x87
	Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 
	Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK 
	Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 
	Name: 'hera'
	Class: 0x1c010c
	Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing, Object Transfer
	Device Class: Computer, Laptop
	HCI Version: 5.1 (0xa)  Revision: 0x97b
	LMP Version: 5.1 (0xa)  Subversion: 0xec43
	Manufacturer: Realtek Semiconductor Corporation (93)

[hglee]

Thanks hglee, that worked. Bluetooth Manager appears to automatically select the second BT interface, hci1. I've paired the Sennheiser headset and it seems to work fine. The Sennheiser can be paired with two devices, and now I just need to figure out how to swap back and forth between laptop and Android phone.

Thanks again.

That's music to the ears. Literally.


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