How can I get my Bluetooth adapter working on a Toshiba Satellite m645?

Question

I just recently installed Ubuntu Desktop 11.10 on my laptop.

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite m645. It does not have a Bluetooth radio in it so I plugged in an IO gear USB Bluetooth adapter. The model is GBU421 and upon further inquiry I found out that the radio is a Broadcomm BCM2046b1.

I have discovered that lsusb shows the radio as being found in the computer - but the Gnome Bluetooth manager says that there is nothing there. So I am guessing it is a problem with Gnome Bluetooth manager not with Linux in general.

Is there anything I can try in order to make this work?

Solution

I would strongly suggest installing blueman - which is a Bluetooth manager with a lot of options and, in my experience, much better support for devices.

You can install the tool by clicking the little package icon in the above paragraph or opening a terminal and typing:

sudo apt-get install blueman

Comments

[ianc1215]

I tried that, but that does not solve my problem. My problem seems to be related to the bluetooth radio. Not the management of it.

[ianc1215]

I stand corrected!, blueman did the trick. Turns out the problem was something to do with the Windows driver disabling the device. Plugged it in, re enabled the device then plugged it back in. Now it works great. Where blueman helped me was when it came to A2DP, the Ubuntu tool did not allow me to run in A2DP mode, blueman did. Thanks a lot.