Bluetooth adapter configuration issue (ID 0a12:0001)

Question

My Bluetooth adapter does not work in Ubuntu.

$ lsusb | grep tooth
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

$ hciconfig
hci0:   Type: Primary  Bus: USB
    BD Address: 33:03:30:09:74:B4  ACL MTU: 360:4  SCO MTU: 0:0
    DOWN 
    RX bytes:1106 acl:0 sco:0 events:56 errors:0
    TX bytes:736 acl:0 sco:0 commands:60 errors:0

$ sudo hciconfig hci0 up
Can't init device hci0: Operation not supported (95)

$ bluetoothctl
Agent registered
[bluetooth]# power on
No default controller available

$ hcitool dev
Devices:
$

$ rfkill

ID TYPE      DEVICE      SOFT      HARD
 0 bluetooth hci0   unblocked unblocked
 1 wlan      phy0   unblocked unblocked

Tried the last two actions:

Bluetake
Works out-of-the-box in Ubuntu v10.04 ~ 11.04 but stopped working reliably in 11.10, frequent kernel panics and other general not good stuff, [Bug: 901770]

$ lsusb <br>Bus 007 Device 003: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

$ hciconfig -a hci0 <br>Manufacturer: Cambridge Silicon Radio (10)

Might need same fix as Belkin : add blacklist hci_usb to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, and add hci_usb reset=1 to /etc/modules

Also tried

• to install kernel 5.5.2 kernel. But it failed to login, so I've purged it and returned to my 5.3.0-29-generic kernel.
• to do the next, but it failed:

  $ make -C /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build M=$PWD modules
  make: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.3.0-29-generic'
    CC [M]  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.o
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c: In function ‘vhci_create_device’:
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:134:2: warning: dereferencing ‘void *’ pointer
    134 |  *skb_put(skb, 1) = 0xff;
        |  ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:134:19: error: invalid use of void expression
    134 |  *skb_put(skb, 1) = 0xff;
        |                   ^
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:135:2: warning: dereferencing ‘void *’ pointer
    135 |  *skb_put(skb, 1) = dev_type;
        |  ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:135:19: error: invalid use of void expression
    135 |  *skb_put(skb, 1) = dev_type;
        |                   ^
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c: In function ‘vhci_get_user’:
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:203:19: error: ‘HCI_BREDR’ undeclared (first use in this function)
    203 |   if (dev_type != HCI_BREDR && dev_type != HCI_AMP)
        |                   ^~~~~~~~~
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:203:19: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c: In function ‘vhci_open_timeout’:
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:307:43: error: ‘HCI_BREDR’ undeclared (first use in this function)
    307 |  vhci_create_device(data, amp ? HCI_AMP : HCI_BREDR);
        |                                           ^~~~~~~~~
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c: At top level:
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:352:3: error: ‘const struct file_operations’ has no member named ‘aio_write’
    352 |  .aio_write = vhci_write,
        |   ^~~~~~~~~
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:352:15: error: positional initialization of field in ‘struct’ declared with ‘designated_init’ attribute [-Werror=designated-init]
    352 |  .aio_write = vhci_write,
        |               ^~~~~~~~~~
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:352:15: note: (near initialization for ‘vhci_fops’)
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:352:15: error: initialization of ‘ssize_t (*)(struct file *, const char *, size_t,  loff_t *)’ {aka ‘long int (*)(struct file *, const char *, long unsigned int,  long long int *)’} from incompatible pointer type ‘ssize_t (*)(struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *, long unsigned int,  loff_t)’ {aka ‘long int (*)(struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *, long unsigned int,  long long int)’} [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
  /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:352:15: note: (near initialization for ‘vhci_fops.write’)
  cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
  make[1]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:290: /home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth/hci_vhci.o] Error 1
  make: *** [Makefile:1655: _module_/home/spacer/kernel/bluetooth] Error 2
  make: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.3.0-29-generic'
  

Answer 1

There are several versions of this device with the same USB ID. According to some are these fake, but I suspect these are only newer models of the chip.

There are a couple of quirks needed to get the chip to work and one needs to patch the kernel code responsible for enabling these quirks to test for these newer models:

--- drivers/bluetooth/btusb.c.old   2020-03-31 19:14:11.765239911 +0100
+++ drivers/bluetooth/btusb.c   2020-03-31 19:22:17.035003199 +0100
@@ -1643,4 +1643,6 @@
    /* Detect controllers which aren't real CSR ones. */
    if (le16_to_cpu(rp->manufacturer) != 10 ||
+       le16_to_cpu(rp->lmp_subver) == 0x0811 ||
+       le16_to_cpu(rp->lmp_subver) == 0x0812 ||
        le16_to_cpu(rp->lmp_subver) == 0x0c5c) {
        /* Clear the reset quirk since this is not an actual
@@ -3873,5 +3875,5 @@

        /* Fake CSR devices with broken commands */
-       if (bcdDevice <= 0x100 || bcdDevice == 0x134)
+       if (bcdDevice <= 0x100 || bcdDevice == 0x134 || bcdDevice == 0x8891)
            hdev->setup = btusb_setup_csr;

I don't give a guarantee that this fixes the issue for all newer models and it may need additional tests to include more LMP sub versions and bcdDevice numbers. However, the above does work for some users who have been using the newer Bluetooth 4.0 models and for myself, using a Bluetooth 5.0 model.

It brings up the device as shown here:

# hciconfig
hci0:   Type: Primary  Bus: USB
    BD Address: 00:1A:7D:DA:71:11  ACL MTU: 679:9  SCO MTU: 48:16
    UP RUNNING 
    RX bytes:56724 acl:29 sco:0 events:7890 errors:0
    TX bytes:4782028 acl:7788 sco:0 commands:84 errors:0

This was tested with kernel 5.5.13 and a cheap Bluetooth 5.0 dongle from AliExpress, and it now lets me connected to a Bluetooth 5.0 headset.

The dongle works just fine under Windows 10 by the way.

Addition: Turning Off USB Auto-Suspend

The auto-suspension of USB ports can interfere with Bluetooth USB dongles. While auto-suspend helps to save power and the devices should wake up quickly on their own can this fail and so degrade the Bluetooth connectivity. By default does the kernel suspend USB ports after 2 seconds. This can be disabled either for all USB ports or only for individual ones, and the Bluetooth USB driver has got a parameter, which specifically controls this for USB-attached Bluetooth dongles. For example, to see the current status:

# lsusb
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 062a:3633 MosArt Semiconductor Corp. Full-Speed Mouse
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 1b1c:1b39 Corsair Corsair Gaming K65 RGB RAPIDFIRE Keyboard 
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

# grep . /sys/bus/usb/devices/[0-9]*/power/control
/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-1/power/control:on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-2/power/control:on
/sys/bus/usb/devices/5-5/power/control:auto

Here mouse and keyboard are always powered on, but the CSR Bluetooth USB dongle is set to auto-suspend. If auto-suspend is enabled and it is causing trouble then one can test it by temporarily disabling it:

# echo on > /sys/bus/usb/devices/5-5/power/control
# cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/5-5/power/control
on

When this helps then one should disable it permanently and there are several ways to do this:

• When you are already recompiling the kernel then it is likely best to disable it with the Bluetooth USB kernel module by setting the configuration parameter CONFIG_BT_HCIBTUSB_AUTOSUSPEND to N or by commenting it out in the kernel config file. This will cause the Bluetooth USB driver to disable auto-suspend by default for every port it finds a matching device on, and leaves all other USB devices as they were.

• Without recompiling the kernel and where the Bluetooth USB module is compiled into the kernel does one need to do this with a boot parameter. For GRUB edit /etc/default/grub and append the kernel command line with btusb.enable_autosuspend=n. Then update the grub configuration by running update-grub and reboot.

File: /etc/default/grub

...
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="... btusb.enable_autosuspend=n"
...

• Without recompiling the kernel and where the Bluetooth USB module is loadable should one create a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ to pass the parameter. Then either reboot, or, unplug the dongle and remove the kernel module with rmmod btusb and restart the module service with service systemd-modules-load restart before plugging the dongle back in again.

File: /etc/modprobe.d/bluetooth-usb.conf

options btusb enable_autosuspend=n

Addition: Enabling The Fast Connectable Setting

Another method for improving Bluetooth connectivity is to enable the FastConnectable setting of the bluetoothd daemon. The setting can be found in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf.

File: /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

...
# Permanently enables the Fast Connectable setting for adapters that
# support it. When enabled other devices can connect faster to us,
# however the tradeoff is increased power consumptions. This feature
# will fully work only on kernel version 4.1 and newer. Defaults to
# 'false'.
FastConnectable = true
...

Answer 2

I have this dongle - it's several years old so I can't comment on whether it's a fake or whether modern dongles with this USB ID can be fake.

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

I'm using it with a really old Acer TravelMate 2420 laptop using (out of necessity) the i386 release of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. (Current kernel as of the time of writing is 4.15.0-106-generic. (No need to feel sympathy. This is just an old spare computer I keep in the bedroom and use occasionally.)

Bluetooth worked for me, but wasn't very reliable. I would get frequent disconnections of my Bluetooth mouse (Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000).

I solved the problems completely a couple of weeks ago with the following changes in /etc/default/tlp:

# Exclude listed devices...
USB_BLACKLIST="0a12:0001"
# Bluetooth devices are excluded...
USB_BLACKLIST_BTUSB=1

(Find the appropriate lines and add the first and edit the second accordingly.)

It is likely that I don't need the specific ID-based USB_BLACKLIST command (I've not tested this) but thought I'd leave it in for safety. The second (USB_BLACKLIST_BTUSB) defaults to 0 on my system and I suspect this is the key configuration to change.

You may need to install the tlp package specifically, if it's not already installed. Don't forget to restart it after reconfiguring it.

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

I had issues with two different 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio. Both were TRENDnet TBW-106UB. I purchased two new USB Bluetooth Dongles, and haven't had an issue since. I've used the new dongles with Ubuntu 18.04 and 19.10.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J5WFPXX

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Q45EF4

Answer 4

Updating the kernel to the latest version works for me.

https://www.how2shout.com/linux/how-to-change-default-kernel-in-ubuntu-22-04-20-04-lts/

Answer 5

In Ubuntu 22.04 my issue was using Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle was relative to the kernel version.

1. Update the kernel version using https://linuxhint.com/install-upgrade-latest-kernel-ubuntu-22-04/
2. reboot.
3. Check if the ubuntu configuration Bluetooth works.

The version was updated is 6.1.8-060108-generic . Previous was 5.15. Although I installed many bluetooth drivers/apps like blueman before, I dont know if they was necessary. Now the blue man manager is showing on tray as well the bluetooth of ubuntu configuration

Ubuntu configuration and blueman-tray showing