Dell Laptop's Bluetooth isn't detected by Ubuntu

Question

I have Dell vostro 3500 Laptop. I Installed Ubuntu 12.04. It doesn't detect my bluetooth. below is my information.

lsusb | grep Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth)


lsmod | grep bluetooth
bluetooth             158438  10 bnep,rfcomm


rfkill list
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
1: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

(wifi working fine. I disabled it using network menu. So, it's fine)

dmesg | grep Bluetooth
[   21.981835] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.16
[   21.981872] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[   21.981877] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[   21.981881] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[   21.981891] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[   21.986047] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[   21.986059] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[   21.986065] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
[   22.361783] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[   22.361791] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast

So How can I fix this?

I saw other place (I don't remember which site) They said, some times, when in windows, if bluetooth disabled by windows driver, It can't be enabled by linux. So, I should install windows and enable blueethooth from windows and then re install linux. That is impossible for me, because I don't have Windows installation media.

But I tried this, which is I installed windows xp on virtual box. Vbox showed me thow unknow USB devices. I connected them and installed windows bluethooth drivers to xp. But it didn't ditected Bluethooth either. Also, when I set off mode in hardware switch, those unknown devices disappear from Vbox usb device seletcion menu. So, they are definitely something to do with wifi or bluethooth.

Please help me..

Solution 1

First, make sure it is not blocked as shown in the answer of rmaultz, i.e. make sure you turn on the bluetooth from the radio switch and bluetooth applet. Then run this

modprobe btusb

then run

lsmod | grep btusb

to confirm btusb module is loaded. Then run

lsusb

You should get something like

Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth) 

Then run this

sudo sh -c "echo 0xY 0xZ > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/btusb/new_id"

replace Y and Z from lsusb result for example

sudo sh -c "echo 0x0a5c 0x4500 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/btusb/new_id"

Let me know, if that worked.

Solution 2

rfkill list 
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN  
Soft blocked: yes < --- Software  is Blocking the  blue tooth from being  Enabled  
Hard blocked: no  
1: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN  
Soft blocked: yes  < --- Software  is Blocking the  blue tooth from being  Enabled   
Hard blocked: no  

To keep unblock after rebooting add the option to the following file from terminal type sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

add rfkill unblock all

Proofread, save and close Gedit. Enjoy!

Comments

[warsong]

askubuntu.com/questions/845531/… I have got it working on a similar laptop model to yours, check this answer. Basically involves installing Windows, then the Bluetooth drivers, then reinstalling Ubuntu.

[Yousif G]

I did that. But no luck. all same as before.

[Yousif G]

I hear, I must install windows and boot it and then enable it using windows driver. and then I will have bluetooth for linux. Is that true?

[Osh Mansor]

Thanks! This works for me on my Dell Vostro 3500 running Ubuntu 13.04.