Bluetooth fails again. "No default controller available" even though Bluetooth is on. Previous solution stopped working

sudo bluetoothctl

Gets stuck on “Looking for ...”

To fix this I need to run

sudo modprobe btusb && sudo systemctl start bluetooth

Then I check this:

[privileged@arched ~]$ sudo systemctl status bluetooth
[sudo] password for privileged:
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-05-01 03:35:14 UTC; 1h 7min ago Docs: man:bluetoothd(8) Main PID: 971 (bluetoothd) Status: "Running" Tasks: 1 (limit: 3396) Memory: 1.5M CPU: 46ms CGroup: / └─971 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd
May 01 03:35:14 arched systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service...
May 01 03:35:14 arched bluetoothd[971]: Bluetooth daemon 5.58
May 01 03:35:14 arched systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
May 01 03:35:14 arched bluetoothd[971]: Starting SDP server
May 01 03:35:14 arched bluetoothd[971]: Bluetooth management interface 1.19 initialized

After which all the commands I enter under blueoothctl result in the same output, i.e. "No default controller available"

[privileged@arched ~]$ sudo bluetoothctl
Agent registered
[bluetooth]# power on
No default controller available
[bluetooth]# show
No default controller available
[bluetooth]# list
[bluetooth]# GO TO HELL

Last time I had this problem I fixed it by adding this to the GRUB config:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=btusb.enable_autosuspend=n

Then I distro hopped to Debian for a day to try it out and installed arch again. Same boot drive and process and as expected of the Linux operating system, Bluetooth wasn't working this time either. But to my surprise the fix that worked fine previously does not function anymore.

I have wasted around 4 hours trying the following -

• … 1#53738121

Important things to note-

• Bluetooth in BIOS (I user bios legacy) is turned on

• Bluetooth works perfectly fine and right out of the box with windows. Just like everything else.

• I use KDE wiith arch linux and linux kernel 5.11.16-arch1-1

when hardware switch is set to BLOCK/ OFF WIRELESS devices like bluetooth

dmesg -k

I see this:

[ 3190.375986] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: RF_KILL bit toggled to disable radio.
[ 3190.376001] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: reporting RF_KILL (radio disabled)
[ 3190.378301] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Not sending command - RF KILL
[ 3190.387102] audit: type=1130 audit(1619843148.288:186): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-rfkill comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
[ 3190.476403] usb 1-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 14
[ 3190.476413] usb 1-1.1.1: USB disconnect, device number 15
[ 3190.570109] usb 1-1.1.2: USB disconnect, device number 16
[ 3195.394243] audit: type=1131 audit(1619843153.298:187): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-rfkill comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'

When hardware switch is set to UNBLOCK/ ON WIRELESS devices like Bluetooth:

[ 3294.858020] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: RF_KILL bit toggled to enable radio.
[ 3294.858030] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: reporting RF_KILL (radio enabled)
[ 3294.879678] audit: type=1130 audit(1619843252.781:188): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-rfkill comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
[ 3294.885067] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x0-0x3
[ 3294.947251] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x0-0x3
[ 3295.274058] usb 1-1.1: new full-speed USB device number 17 using ehci-pci
[ 3295.373317] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=4500, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 3295.373332] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 3295.373338] usb 1-1.1: Product: BCM2046B1
[ 3295.373344] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Broadcom
[ 3295.373832] hub 1-1.1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3295.374036] hub 1-1.1:1.0: 3 ports detected
[ 3295.654048] usb 1-1.1.1: new full-speed USB device number 18 using ehci-pci
[ 3295.754247] usb 1-1.1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=413c, idProduct=8161, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 3295.754262] usb 1-1.1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 3295.756629] input: HID 413c:8161 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.1/1-1.1.1/1-1.1.1:1.0/0003:413C:8161.000A/input/input27
[ 3295.811186] hid-generic 0003:413C:8161.000A: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [HID 413c:8161] on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.1.1/input0
[ 3295.884074] usb 1-1.1.2: new full-speed USB device number 19 using ehci-pci
[ 3295.991507] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=413c, idProduct=8162, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 3295.991517] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 3295.995215] input: HID 413c:8162 Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.1/1-1.1.2/1-1.1.2:1.0/0003:413C:8162.000B/input/input28
[ 3295.995604] hid-generic 0003:413C:8162.000B: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [HID 413c:8162] on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.1.2/input0
[ 3299.886963] audit: type=1131 audit(1619843257.788:189): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-rfkill comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success
[privileged@arched ~]$ lsmod | grep bluetooth
bluetooth 712704 11 btrtl,btintel,btbcm,bnep,btusb
ecdh_generic 16384 1 bluetooth
rfkill 28672 10 bluetooth,dell_laptop,cfg80211
crc16 16384 2 bluetooth,ext4
[privileged@arched ~]$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 18)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM57 Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak]
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 05)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor Reserved (rev 05)
ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor Reserved (rev 05)
[privileged@arched ~]$ sudo lsusb; dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm'; uname -a; rfkill list all
[sudo] password for privileged:
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 10c4:8108 Silicon Labs USB OPTICAL MOUSE
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0bda:0138 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5138 Card Reader Controller
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0c45:6461 Microdia Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_1.3M
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 413c:8162 Dell Computer Corp. Integrated Touchpad [Synaptics]
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 413c:8161 Dell Computer Corp. Integrated Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth)
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
dmesg: read kernel buffer failed: Operation not permitted
Linux arched 5.11.16-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed, 21 Apr 2021 17:22:13 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
0: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no

1 Answer

This is what worked.

• Install Bluez-hid2hci
• Reboot

Thanks to all the reddit users who responded. Also thankx to the OVERWHELMING amount of users on StackExchange who reached out.