Bluetooth will not turn on on my laptop

[ZennMystic]

I could not get the slider to work. So I bought a Bluetooth thing and plugged it in to the USB.
The slider now moves on or off, but nothing happens. Bluetooth is still off.

What information can I post for help? What commands should I run?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Condobloke]

You will need to furnish more info......which OS and which version of that os....is it updated completely etc

 

[ZennMystic]

I am running Debian 12 and yes all up to date

 

[GatorsFan]

Try this

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

reboot your system.

sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service

now open the GUI utility for the Bluetooth and make sure Bluetooth is set on "on"
in the terminal type

bluetoothctl

make sure that the command

show

actually shows something similar to

bluetooth]# show
Controller 20:168:95:E5:03 (public)
Name: debian
Alias: debian
Class: 0x007c010c
Powered: yes
Discoverable: no
DiscoverableTimeout: 0x000000b4
Pairable: yes

Does it work?

 

[ZennMystic]

I still could not get this ti work after...
sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service

So I did more reading and tried pipewire instead and that didn't work either....
So I did more searching and found multiple references to install ibluez* and blueman so I did that.
Then I tried sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service again and it worked.

I did blueroothctl and it said agent registered. I did show and it said No default controller available
Yet still no Bluetooth it still off even though slider is on

 

[Condobloke]

ibluez*

Is that the correct app ?....typo maybe ?

 

[ZennMystic]

it was a typo bluez*

I really don't want to do a complete re-install to see if it will fix the issue. But I do not know what else to do. As I have tried what seems to be the most popular fix above.

Anyone?

Thank you for you time.

 

[GatorsFan]

try

inxi -Eaz

This should show your Bluetooth - post back the results

 

[Condobloke]

Screenshot of my software manager

That is taken with a dongle inserted in a usb port

and using the command from above....
brian@brian-desktop:~$ inxi -Eaz
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: USB
driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-2:7 chip-ID: 0a12:0001 class-ID: e001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter>
bt-v: 1.2 lmp-v: 2.0 sub-v: c5c hci-v: 2.0 rev: c5c
Info: acl-mtu: 310:10 sco-mtu: 64:8 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
link-mode: peripheral accept
service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
brian@brian-desktop:~$

Not sure if this helpful or not.

Also in software manager, there is: Bluez-obexd & Bluez-cups (probably printer related)... which are also installed

 

[ZennMystic]

inxi -Eaz

Bluetooth:
Device-1: TP-Link UB500 Adapter type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus-ID: 2-1.1:3 chip-ID: 2357:0604 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down
bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes
address: <filter>
Info: acl-mtu: 0:0 sco-mtu: 0:0 link-mode: peripheral accept

 

[GatorsFan]

Need to check for missing firmware now

lsusb; dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm'

or you can run

sudo dmesg | grep -i bluetooth

and post back the results - if it is missing firmware it should show something like
RTL: firmware file rtl_bt/rtl8761b_fw.bin not found

 

[ZennMystic]

OK so I ran both of those commands here are the results:

lsusb; dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm'
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04f2:b230 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Integrated HP HD Webcam
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 2357:0604 TP-Link TP-Link UB500 Adapter
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 138a:003c Validity Sensors, Inc. VFS471 Fingerprint Reader
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
dmesg: read kernel buffer failed: Operation not permitted


sudo dmesg | grep -i bluetooth
[ 19.818841] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[ 19.818869] NET: Registered PF_BLUETOOTH protocol family
[ 19.818872] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 19.818878] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 19.818881] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 19.818892] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 19.983517] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: examining hci_ver=0a hci_rev=000b lmp_ver=0a lmp_subver=8761
[ 19.984486] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=1
[ 19.984492] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin
[ 19.984520] bluetooth hci0: firmware: failed to load rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin (-2)
[ 19.984571] bluetooth hci0: firmware: failed to load rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin (-2)
[ 19.984587] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin failed with error -2
[ 19.984591] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: firmware file rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin not found
[ 27.468082] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[ 27.468093] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[ 27.468102] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized

 

[GatorsFan]

[ 19.984591] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: firmware file rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin not found

You have a couple of options to get your missing firmware -
1) Go here

rtl8761bu_fw.bin « rtl_bt - kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git - Repository of firmware blobs for use with the Linux kernel

git.kernel.org

you will see

Click on the (plain) button - where the red arrow is pointing - to download the missing firmware - then put the firmware file into /lib/firmware/rtl_bt folder - you will have to be in root to do this - reboot - does it work


2) you can open synaptic package manager and search for firmware-realtek and install that - this also has your missing firmware

 

[ZennMystic]

1. How safe website option?
2. synaptic is apt? = apt/nala like I put nala search firmware-realtek?

 

[GatorsFan]

1. How safe website option?
2. synaptic is apt? = apt/nala like I put nala search firmware-realtek?

1) it is kernel.org = safe
2) Synaptic is not apt just a different way to install packages

sudo apt install firmware-realtek

 

[ZennMystic]

ok that worked.. Problem solved...

Thanks GatorsFan and all Here...