How to set up bluetooth in ubuntu 18.04?

wireless 18.04 bluetooth headphones firmware

56,525

Solution 1

I've struggled for years with bluetooth. The bluetooth stack is very complex and has issues but it gets better year by year.

Here's what I have done and it works great

get yourself a Plugable usb bluetooth adapter (Amazon)
hot plug it, no need to reboot
find and install blueman from the repos (bluez never has worked well for me)
power up your headphones, ready to pair
open blueman, select devices, find your headphones in the list
select setup, choose how you want to connect and click next
after a couple seconds, it should pair
open sound, scroll to find and select your headphones from the list

Note: You'll have to pair again and select in sound after every boot.

Solution 2

I have found that a Soundbot dongle works. It reqired a reboot after insertion and was slow to pick up my headphones, but it did finally.

Solution 3

What is headset ?

For to speak with microphone ? Or for to listen to music ? (I am deaf Ubuntu Linuxer.)

;-)

In Ubuntu often new hardware is recognized, when hardware is at least 4 months to 6 months old (better 1 year old). Concerning music - it can be that there are additional drivers in packages rhythmbox and in amarok and after installation then hardware is recognized - like it was before with some speakers. You might try to install packages with additionally drivers:

sudo apt-get install rhythmbox amarok

And here is a different solution for additionally drivers - specially for Bluetooth and else firmware:

Additional Drivers for Ubuntu 17.10

You might configure this.

After this all perform re-boot.

Solution 4

RTL8188EE doesn't have bluetooth

I guess the best answer comes from Linux Mint:

Re: HP Laptop's bluetooth not working

Post by JeremyB » Fri Jun 29, 2018 5:31 am You do not have a bluetooth chipset connected, the Rtl8188ee wifi card doesn't have bluetooth

Additional reference:

The parts list for your notebook indicates that it comes with a Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11bg/n 1x1 WiFi adapter.

That is a single band, non bluetooth wifi adapter.

Here is a review of four Bluetooth USB adapters compatible with Linux for as low as 8 bucks:

View more solutions

56,525

Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin

I Like To Build Unicorn Features I don't know how much you know about UI, but may my open-source project refresh your knowledge : You Don't Know UI. Design Systems enthusiast, obsessive User Interface Engineer, and Reactish Developer with a vision to bridge the gap between traditional boundaries of development and design. I'm an addictive reader with more than 150 books in my pocket about Business, Startups, Design, and Programming. #YDJS, #ATOMICDESIGN, #LEANUX, #LEANSTARTUP are my favorites. My definite aim to work for millennial founders and help them add value to societies and beat their competitors by designing and developing cutting-edge digital experiences for their innovative visions and ideas. Follow me on : Behance • Linkedin • Github

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 1 year
I've installed Ubuntu 18.04.I have a headset and I'm trying to connect it to my laptop(hp),when I try switching bluetooth to "On" it displays:"No bluetooth found,plugin a dongle to use bluetooth",I tried to install Blue Managerand blueZ but it displays me :No adapters !,Any one knows the steps of bluetooth configuration ?

1-

I've tried lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net;lsusb;dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm commands and the results are :
```
:~$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net
07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8179] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8188EE mini-PCIe card [103c:197d]
    Kernel driver in use: rtl8188ee
    Kernel modules: rtl8188ee
08:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 07)
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [103c:1970]
    Kernel driver in use: r8169
    Kernel modules: r8169
:~$ lsusb
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 005: ID 19d2:1405 ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM 
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
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04f2:b3a6 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


:~$ dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm
> 
```
Edit 1: After some googling ,I found that I need to buy a Bluetooth adapter to connect my PC to headphone,I bought one (Bluetooth Dongle (Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd)) and it plugged to my pc and my bluetooth is "On" but my laptop can not detect my device. After I plugged the bluetooth adpater and run lspci -knn | grep Net -A2; lsusb the result is :
```
07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8179] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8188EE mini-PCIe card [103c:197d]
    Kernel driver in use: rtl8188ee
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 014: ID 19d2:1405 ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM 
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
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04f2:b3a6 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
```
When I run hcitool ,it does not detect the adapter (Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode),and the result is :
```
 hcitool dev
Devices:
```
- ThunderBird over 5 years
  
  Check this out askubuntu.com/questions/490346/…. It could be of help!
- Jeremy31 over 5 years
  
  Please edit the question to include results from terminal for lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net; lsusb; dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm'
- Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years
  
  @Jeremy31 ,I edited my questions by including the results of commands.
- Soren A over 5 years
  
  You apparently don't have a bluetooth adapter in you computer.
- Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years
  
  @SorenA ,I bought one but it still the same problem.
- Jeremy31 over 5 years
  
  Was it plugged into the computer when you ran the commands?
- Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years
  
  @Jeremy31,of course it plugged into my laptop.
- Jeremy31 over 5 years
  
  Those devices either work in Linux or they don't
- Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years
  
  I have Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) as my adapter and my headphone is JBL.My headphone work correctly with phone ,but my laptop can not detect any device(headphone,phone,...).
- Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years
  
  @Jeremy31,My problem is similaire to /ubuntu-18-04-lts-bluetooth-0cf33004-discovery-not-working,b‌ut I did not find a firmeware for my adapter
- Jeremy31 over 5 years
  
  Cambridge Silicon Radio bluetooth devices don't need firmware
- Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years
  
  I forgot to tell you that my adapter is : ES-388 Bluetooth USB dongle
- guntbert over 5 years
  
  Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! The best way to add additional information to your question is by editing it, with the edit button. It is better visible that way, and comments are mainly for secondary, temporary purposes. Comments are removed under a variety of circumstances. Anything important to your question should be in the question itself.
- doug over 5 years
  
  your last screen shows bluetooth turned off & on in orange. Try toggling that switch..
- Rival Consoles over 5 years
  
  Hi @Menai Ala Eddine, try running dmesg on terminal and see if you find a line where it says "Bluetooth: file_name.hcd on path /lib/... failed to load error -2". If you do, take note of the file name and try searching for it through a search engine. That is a firmware file that needs to be installed for your dongle otherwise. Maybe @Jeremy31 is right about your dongle not been in need of a firmware but dissecting the problem is always helpful and maybe there is a firmware for it.
Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years

It means that my adapter does not compatible with my laptop !
WinEunuuchs2Unix over 5 years

The link says that RTL Chipset doesn't have Bluetooth built-in. But I will Google more links when I get home.
Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years

The blueman can not find the devices !!
Admin over 5 years

Then your issues are definately deeper than a simple bluetooth manager problem. Prepare to dig deeper into the system but I'm out, bluetooth stack is too complex for me
WinEunuuchs2Unix over 5 years

@MenaiAlaEddine I've put in another link confirming your adapter does not have bluetooth capability.
Menai Ala Eddine - Aladdin over 5 years

I purchasethis adapter but it still the same problem.
WinEunuuchs2Unix over 5 years

For example to get the adapter pictured in my answer to work you would follow these instructions: askubuntu.com/questions/406841/asus-bt400-bluetooth-adapter
hb0 about 5 years

@MenaiAlaEddine: In my case I had to to restart both, the device and the scan, multiple times. This worked with a china bluetooth receiver with a cheap USB dongle on an old PC. I didn't manage to get them to work for years now!
Sina almost 5 years

Before executing commands it's better to understand it! This is the repo link github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new
Quidam almost 4 years

This is not a good solution, first you cannot buy any Bluetooth dongle on Amazon for Ubuntu, it won't work, and second, your solution works only if there are minor problems, if the adapter, like in this question, is not set or recognized, I doubt it works in much cases.
Quidam almost 4 years

"often new hardare is recognized, when hardware is at least 4 months to 6 months old", err... no. Not so simple.
Quidam almost 4 years

It's important that they say "Linux compatible" on the adapter page, before buying. In your Amazon page, but the link you posted above my comment seems to prove it's compatible. People should be very careful about the compatibility, as it brings a lot of problems (from my own experience).
WinEunuuchs2Unix almost 4 years

@Quidam I replaced the single reference with a review of four Linux compatible Bluetooth USB adapters for more choice.
Quidam almost 4 years

Thank you! I have made the foolish thing to buy a noname stick thinking I would be able to make it work. Poor me.