Is Bluetooth functional in Linux Mint 19?

[VtPoet]

Have been using Linux Mint 18 since its first release. At first, Bluetooth worked beautifully. With each update, bluetooth has gotten worse until it simply doesn't work any more. Can't even find my bluetooth adapter. Utterly broken.

Have been using Linux for the last 12 years and am actually considering switching back to Windows I'm so fed up with one regression after another... But, no ranting. Does anyone know? And if bluetooth is still broken in 19, can anyone recommend a Linux Distro that still works with Bluetooth?

[JeremyB]

Post results from terminal for

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lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net; lsusb; dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm'

It has been a few years since I have had a bluetooth issue that couldn't be fixed on my 2 laptops, one now on Mint 19 cinnamon and the other running Ubuntu 18.04

[VtPoet]

Yeah, maybe I'm getting old but always having to "fix things" is itself getting old. All I want is something that just works. Anyway, poor me.

Here is the output you requested:

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01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [17aa:3026]
	Kernel driver in use: ath9k
	Kernel modules: ath9k
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 03eb:8c1d Atmel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 048d:8386 Integrated Technology Express, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0cf3:3004 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 5986:0535 Acer, Inc 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
[94336.292722] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[94336.757534] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[96996.936773] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[96997.276073] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[100420.113736] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[100420.350763] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[107337.547929] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[107339.013146] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[111543.202412] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[111544.420126] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[111914.056708] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[111915.031718] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[130419.078921] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[130420.700316] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[135885.883851] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[135888.335523] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[137459.240339] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[137459.844394] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[140439.839781] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[140441.252503] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[140923.552929] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[140924.478723] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[142972.156342] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[142973.157193] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[152411.924807] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[152413.690216] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[188499.772862] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[188501.084378] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[196123.843753] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000
[196126.067376] Bluetooth: hci0: don't support firmware rome 0x31010000

[JeremyB]

What kernel are you using?

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uname -r

I have the same bluetooth and it has worked well for quite a while, but there was a kernel commit that messed things up. Atheros caused the issue by using the same USB ID for 2 different BT chipsets that need different firmware. It appears whatever kernel you have has the commit that was reverted in mainline kernel but not yet in Ubuntu kernels. I do have a fix for the 4.15 kernel that is used in Mint 19 or Mint 18

[VtPoet]

Am using:

4.16.0-041600-generic

From here:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=N;O=D

I think, at one time, I may have tried to fix this issue by updating to the latest kernel. Obviously didn't work.

[JeremyB]

It appears that 4.17.11 has the reverted commit, what other kernels do you have installed? If you have a 4.15 from the Kernel menu of the update manager and uninstall any newer, my dkms code will work

[VtPoet]

Here are the Kernels available according to:

dpkg -l | tail -n +6 | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]+' | grep -Fv $(uname -r)

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pi  linux-image-4.10.0-38-generic                               4.10.0-38.42~16.04.1                         amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.10.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc  linux-image-4.10.4-041004-generic                           4.10.4-041004.201703180831                   amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.10.4 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc  linux-image-4.10.6-041006-generic                           4.10.6-041006.201703260832                   amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.10.6 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-4.4.0-53-generic                                4.4.0-53.74                                  amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-4.4.0-64-generic                                4.4.0-64.85                                  amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-4.8.0-040800-generic                            4.8.0-040800.201610022031                    amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.8.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc  linux-image-4.8.0-53-generic                                4.8.0-53.56~16.04.1                          amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.8.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-4.8.0-58-generic                                4.8.0-58.63~16.04.1                          amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.8.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

Are you recommending I download and install 4.17 from the mainline kernel PPA?

[JeremyB]

Installing 4.17 should work but 4.14.59 also has the fix and is a long term kernel from Linus branch, you will need to manually update to a new 4.14 from kernel PPA to keep up with security fixes.
You could also try a shutdown and boot into one of the 4.4 kernels as they should work

[VtPoet]

Installing 4.17 didn't work. A needed dependency wasn't available in the 16.04 repository. Booted into 4.4.0-64-generic
and Bluetooth is working.

It's comforting to hear that the problem originated with Athero rather than Linux devs. I was really beginning to feel down on the whole Linux project.

[JeremyB]

I dont know if the bad commit exists even in the newest 4.4 kernel so you might want to install it to get the latest security updates. I do have working bluetooth on my Ubuntu laptop with 4.15 and the same bluetooth device so I can provide a fix for Linux Mint 19 and the 0cf3:3004 bluetooth

Ubuntu bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1764645

[VtPoet]

I dont know if the bad commit exists even in the newest 4.4 kernel so you might want to install it to get the latest security updates.

Sorry to be uninformed, but where do I obtain the latest 4.4 kernel for Mint?

[JeremyB]

Update Manager, click View/Linux kernels, click on 4.4 on the left side and then find the highest version number on the right side, it is likely to be higher than 4.4.0-124 as I think that is what I had the last time I booted into LM 18.3

[VtPoet]

Thanks. I'm no command line wizard, but I tend to do everything apt related via the command line.

[Torst1957]

Hello,

I spend hours googling my Bluetooth problem: Lenovo T480s wouldnt want to recognise any Bluetooth devices anymore (on Mint 19.2 Cinnamon). Sometimes I get "Failed to send firmware data (-110)", sometimes I get "Device booted in 11706 usecs". However in both cases it still doesnt recognise devices and thus will not connect.

I now set the secure boot option in the bios to "EN-abled", thereafter back to "DIS-abled" and voila, now it works !? Why? No idea. It was such a lot of work trying to figure out the problem.