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ferhuce

Member

Registered: 2025-06-22

Posts: 3

Bluetoothctl does not recognize dongle and cannot set it as default

I recently bought a TP-Link UB500 bluetooth dongle, but it doesn't work in Linux (It works in Windows). It's shown in lsusb, rfkill, and "bluetoothctl list", but "bluetoothctl show" only shows the bluetooth controller built into my motherboard (a gigabyte B650 with wifi and buetooth integrated). When I run "bluetoothctl select MAC_ADDRESS" it seems to work, even going as far as listing the mac address as default, but a consequent run of "bluetoothctl list" shows the built in as default again.

dmesg shows that the correct firmware (rtl8761bu_fw.bin) was loaded, and rfkill says both are unblocked, but if I block the built in controller my computer acts as if bluetooth is disabled altogether, so I assume it doesn't actually recognize the dongle as a bluetooth controller.

I am using the kernel version 6.15.3-arch1-1, and bluez 5.83-1. I'm also dual booting with windows, but I don't think that is the issue as the built in controller has worked without problems.

Output of "sudo dmesg | grep Bluetooth"

[    3.366291] usb 1-2: Product: TP-Link Bluetooth USB Adapter
[    4.983974] usb 1-9: Product: Bluetooth Radio
[    6.621498] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[    6.621516] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[    6.621519] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[    6.621521] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[    6.621525] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[    6.652968] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: examining hci_ver=0c hci_rev=000c lmp_ver=0c lmp_subver=8852
[    6.655960] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=1
[    6.655963] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8852cu_fw_v2.bin
[    6.656472] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8852cu_config.bin
[    6.658985] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: cfg_sz 6, total sz 71983
[    7.563030] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[    7.563033] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[    7.563035] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[    8.379948] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: examining hci_ver=0a hci_rev=000b lmp_ver=0a lmp_subver=8761
[    8.382941] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=1
[    8.382944] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin
[    8.383182] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_config.bin
[    8.383212] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: cfg_sz 6, total sz 30210
[    8.450954] Bluetooth: hci1: RTL: fw version 0x040d7225
[    8.636955] Bluetooth: hci1: AOSP extensions version v1.00
[    8.636960] Bluetooth: hci1: AOSP quality report is supported
[    8.637183] Bluetooth: MGMT ver 1.23
[    9.312291] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[    9.312297] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[    9.312300] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
[    9.406947] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: fw version 0xdfc6d922
[    9.546075] Bluetooth: MGMT ver 1.23

hci0 is the dongle and hci1 is the built in controller.

Last edited by ferhuce (2025-06-22 20:27:17)

ferhuce

Member

Registered: 2025-06-22

Posts: 3

Re: Bluetoothctl does not recognize dongle and cannot set it as default

I realized after digging more into it, that the controller is actually set as default, and I had the mac addresses of the built in controller and the dongle mixed up, though they are hci1 and hci0 respectively as I had suspected. However, if I block the built in controller with rfkill block the bluetooth is disabled altogether still, and blocking the dongle does nothing.