this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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26
Help with Bluetooth on Pop!_OS (self.linux)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by WereCat to c/[email protected]
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I'm unable to pair my Wacom tablet to my notebook via BT. I think I know the root cause of the issue which is the version of Bluez being 5.64 and the behavior of the issue is the same as I had on Fedora on my main PC few months back when I've tried to pair PS5 Dual Sense controller.

I was able to fix the issue on Fedora by downgrading the Bluez version with "sudo dnf downgrade bluez" but on Pop!_OS this does not work and neither I was able to upgrade to one of the newer versions 5.65 or 5.66 (it says I need to compile these?).

I'm new with Linux so I'm not sure how I would go about compiling something to make it work. The 5.65 version seems to have bugfixes for my issue but I'm perfectly fine with downgrading to anything older as long as it works if it's simpler to do.

To describe the issue:

When I put tablet into a pairing mode it will appear in the Pop!_OS system and I can select it to pair. It will attempt to pair but then fails.

I've tried to force it to pair with "bluetoothctl trust/pair/connect MacID" commands and it managed to say "connected" but the tablet was still not responding and the LED was blinking as if it was still in pairing mode. I've also tried the Blueman GTK BT manager with no luck.

Note: It works perfectly well via USB connection. It also connects instantly to my main Windows PC via BT so the tablet is not at fault.

EDIT;

FIGURED IT OUT

by default laptop was non-discoverable and there is no system setting on either Pop!_OS or Fedora to make it discoverable. Had to use Blueman to make it so. I've only noticed that when doing "sudo systemctl bluetooth" for XYth time and there was "Disoverable: No" next to one of the MacIDs. After figuring out the ID belongs to my laptop I just had to figure out how to make it discoverable and turns out Blueman can do it.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Maybe try :

rfkill unblock all 
systemctl enable bluetooth.service
systemctl start bluetooth.service

Then redo the pairing,
thats just a guess,
i already got an issue like this and rfkill was in cause for me at this moment.

[–] WereCat 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

no luck

The funny thing is it works flawlessly on live USB for both Fedora and PopOS but the moment I install them it stops working

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

roffl,
Sorry, thats a "long" time i didnt use bluetooth, ive tried this shot,

[–] WereCat 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I just figured it out.

sudo systemctl bluetooth

I've figured out which MacID is my device and noticed it says "Discoverable: no"

Then after some searching I found that I can use Blueman to make device visible which is not an option in the default system settings. After making my device discoverable I was able to pair the tablet to my laptop.

HOWEVER, Fedora does not work well with it so I am going to distro hop back to Pop!_OS on which everything worked fine via USB :D Luckily this is a new device and everything was freshly installed so it's not a big deal but this is like 4th reinstall I'm doing at this point and it's getting annoying :/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

😁 ,
Nice shot 🙂 ,

[–] WereCat 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I've tried connecting 3 different BT headphones and no luck either.

I just popped in a live USB of Fedora and was able to instantly pair the devices and they work so I guess I'm gonna distro hop

EDIT:

and after I installed and updated Fedora the same issue now... :/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But it worked before the fedora update.... This is strange.

Have you gone through the system 76 Bluetooth t/s? Here's a link

https://support.system76.com/articles/bluetooth/

[–] WereCat 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

figured it out, solution in one of the comments I replied to... basically my laptop was non-discoverable by default and there is no setting in the system to make it discoverable

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Oh sweet! That's pretty stupid to be non-discoverable by default! Glad you got it figured out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Ok you switched back to fedora, were you able to downgrade bluez? Also, is this a new popos install? Have you updated your system using "sudo apt update" and "sudo apt upgrade"? If the bluez fixed the issue on fedora I bet it will fix it on popos

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Im using anker soundcore bluetooth speaker on desktop PC. It was acting weird on windows, then I switched to PopOS and it became super smooth for more than a year. Turning on PC then speaker or the other way around it would always pair flawlesly. But since some update around a month ago its not always pairing automatically and sometimes I have to connect manually to get it working. Its not a big deal, but throwing it here in case someone knows a fix and even better if the same fix can help with OPs issue

[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Where are all the people who claim to never ever have had an issue with audio or Bluetooth on Linux and how it's worse on windows?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Right here, how's that going to help someone who is having issues? Or am I just meant to gloat a bit?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I think the point is the number of times someone is having such an issue, and those people show up to proclaim they’ve never had such problems as if it’s helpful. So, at least you can recognize it’s not.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I personally haven't but just from reading the Pop OS help page on BT I expect issues at some point