Thinkpad T43p Bluetooth won't toggle on

Question

Have Ubuntu 12.04 running fine, everything works apart from the bluetooth. this seems to be a common problem to Linux, it has worked previously with a windows install but has never functioned with either Ubuntu 11.10, Mint Maya, or 12.04, but does work with xp.

On the top right it appears to recognize the wireless chip currently the option to 'turn bluetooth off' is there, however when I go into bluetooth settings the toggle is set to off and will not switch.

No additional drivers are suggested,

Can you advise on how best to get it running?

Answer 1

Try to see whether a radio killswitch is active using rfkill (example output on HP machine):

rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
2: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
3: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

If it's just 'Soft blocked', then unblock it:

sudo rfkill unblock bluetooth

If it's 'Hard blocked' try to find the hardware switch on your laptop or an option in your BIOS may be preventing Bluetooth from being enabled.