Skip to content

Update bluetooth.md #1051

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Closed
wants to merge 1 commit into from
Closed

Update bluetooth.md #1051

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions content/bluetooth.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -70,9 +70,9 @@ This process lowers the sound quality of the stream when in HSP/HFP mode, so aud

## Bluetooth Troubleshooting

Bluetooth issues can be troubleshooted in several ways. The first thing to check is toggling airplane mode which will sometimes get Bluetooth functioning again. Next, make sure Bluetooth is enabled in the top bar, or in the <u>Bluetooth</u> system settings.
Bluetooth issues can be troubleshooted in several ways. The first thing to check is toggling airplane mode which will sometimes get Bluetooth functioning again. Next, make sure Bluetooth is enabled in the top bar, or in the <u>Bluetooth</u> system settings. In addition, sometimes your motherboard may not recognize your Bluetooth controller after resuming from suspend or a reboot. Eliminate this possibility before making any of the software changes described below by shutting down, disconnecting the power, and holding the power button for 30 seconds to discharge your motherboard's capacitors. Then, reconnect the power, boot the machine, and see if Bluetooth is working again.
Copy link
Member

@leviport leviport Aug 31, 2022

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

This would only apply to desktops, and not many laptops have (easily) removable batteries these days. It also sounds like overkill. What if we just told users to fully power off the machine, wait a bit, then power it back on with the power button? The motherboard will have to re-initialize PCIe and USB, which would re-initialize any bluetooth adapters that may be present.

Copy link
Author

@ghost ghost Aug 31, 2022

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I'm not certain if a shutdown and wait approach would actually discharge the capacitors quickly enough. Eventually it would work, but we'd need to provide a reasonable time frame. In my case though, I did try to shutdown (also unplugged my machine), then waited 5 minutes before rebooting. That didn't have any impact. I ended up having to do the same, but also hold the power button to clear out any remaining voltage before rebooting.

That said, I believe holding the power button is sufficient whether the machine is plugged in to the wall or connected via battery to discharge the capacitors quickly. So a more universal approach could be to simply shut down, press and hold the power button, then reboot to see if bluetooth is working again.

Copy link
Member

@leviport leviport Aug 31, 2022

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I'm still not certain discharging the capacitors is something that has to be done to fix bluetooth for the vast majority of machines. Is this something you have to do on your machine regularly?

Copy link
Author

@ghost ghost Aug 31, 2022

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

It's a new machine that I built last week and have experienced the same issue twice so far. Both times after waking from suspend after putting it to sleep for the night.

I completely agree that it may not affect a majority of users, but I think it's an important and simple step to try 1st before doing any of the software changes described in the rest of article. The reason I submitted is because I tried those changes myself (along with several other solutions from various sources) to no avail, but this simple trick worked. Hoping I can help save another person from hours of research and testing different solutions, only to end up getting frustrated that all their work did nothing and they end up dropping pop_os or gnu/linux altogether because they couldn't figure out Bluetooth - when all they needed to do was hold the power button for 30 seconds. :-)

To be clear though, this is specific to anyone who had a previously working Bluetooth that has suddenly stopped. If Bluetooth had never worked, then this solution won't solve that. In either case though, it is still a non-destructive step to take to ensure there aren't any hardware issues before users start messing around with config files, deleting files/folders, installing other software, etc.

Copy link
Author

@ghost ghost Oct 2, 2022

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

FYI - Another user impacted for which this fix worked:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pop_os/comments/xsh8w3/comment/iqri222/?context=3


Then, try reinstalling Bluetooth related software with this command, depending on the verison of Pop!\_OS you're using.
If the above does not resolve the issue, then try reinstalling Bluetooth related software with this command, depending on the verison of Pop!\_OS you're using.

*For Pop!\_OS 22.04 or higher:*

Expand Down