Difficulty Recognizing and Using USB Bluetooth Dongle

themanofmanyways · 2025-07-02 17:46:05

I bought an admittedly sketchy/mass-manufactured Chinese bluetooth dongle. I'm pretty sure it works, and the system recognizes it as a device for sure, but for some reason I am unable to use it.

For the record I am using an TUF GAMING B650M-PLUS WIFI Motherboard. The native bluetooth sucks (barely connects, and when it does shifting an inch causes the connection to break) so I thought to get a cheap dongle as a substitute. Anyways I have done some preliminary research on the wiki and forums. I somewhat understand the nature of the problem, but have yet to see a successful resolution with my specific case.

First confirmed that bluetooth.service is running.

[user@user ~]$ sudo systemctl status bluetooth
[sudo] password for user: 
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-07-02 17:48:34 WAT; 44min ago
 Invocation: 723f49c54a954c89a59acb47c1e1afe1
       Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
   Main PID: 729 (bluetoothd)
     Status: "Running"
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 37349)
     Memory: 2.8M (peak: 3.5M)
        CPU: 23ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
             └─729 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/aptx_ll_duplex_1
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/aptx_ll_duplex_0
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/faststream
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/faststream_duplex
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/opus_05
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/opus_05
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink/opus_05_duplex
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.36 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource/opus_05_duplex
Jul 02 17:49:06 user bluetoothd[729]: Failed to set mode: Failed (0x03)
Jul 02 17:49:07 user bluetoothd[729]: Failed to set mode: Failed (0x03)

Then check lsusb

[user@user ~]$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1b3f:2008 Generalplus Technology Inc. Usb Audio Device
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0b05:19af ASUSTek Computer, Inc. AURA LED Controller
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 13d3:3571 IMC Networks Bluetooth Radio
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:5411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5411 Hub
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 2a7a:8a57  CASUE USB KB
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 30fa:1040 INSTANT USB GAMING MOUSE 
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 2dc8:3016 8BitDo IDLE
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 8564:7000 Transcend Information, Inc. StoreJet 25H3
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 10d7:b012  CSR8510 A10
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

Here is the device:

Bus 003 Device 005: ID 10d7:b012  CSR8510 A10

Checking with bluetoothctl yields the following:

[bluetoothctl]> show
Controller 60:FF:9E:0A:07:5D (public)
        Manufacturer: 0x005d (93)
        Version: 0x0b (11)
        Name: user
        Alias: user
        Class: 0x006c0104 (7078148)
        Powered: yes
        PowerState: on
        Discoverable: yes
        DiscoverableTimeout: 0x00000000 (0)
        Pairable: yes
        UUID: A/V Remote Control        (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Handsfree Audio Gateway   (0000111f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: PnP Information           (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Audio Sink                (0000110b-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Audio Source              (0000110a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Generic Access Profile    (00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Generic Attribute Profile (00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Device Information        (0000180a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Vendor specific           (03b80e5a-ede8-4b33-a751-6ce34ec4c700)
        UUID: Handsfree                 (0000111e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        Modalias: usb:v1D6Bp0246d0553
        Discovering: no
        Roles: central
        Roles: peripheral
Advertising Features:
        ActiveInstances: 0x00 (0)
        SupportedInstances: 0x0a (10)
        SupportedIncludes: tx-power
        SupportedIncludes: appearance
        SupportedIncludes: local-name
        SupportedSecondaryChannels: 1M
        SupportedSecondaryChannels: 2M
        SupportedSecondaryChannels: Coded
        SupportedCapabilities.MinTxPower: 0x0001 (1)
        SupportedCapabilities.MaxTxPower: 0x001d (29)
        SupportedCapabilities.MaxAdvLen: 0xfb (251)
        SupportedCapabilities.MaxScnRspLen: 0xfb (251)
        SupportedFeatures: CanSetTxPower
        SupportedFeatures: HardwareOffload
[bluetoothctl]> list
Controller 60:FF:9E:0A:07:5D user [default]
[bluetoothctl]>

As shown above, it does not appear as any device. This is of course after running `power on` in bluetoothctl.

No rfkill list shenanigans either. None of the bluetooth devices (native or USB) is blocked in any way.

[user@user ~]$ rfkill list
1: hci1: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
2: phy1: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
4: phy2: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
5: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
[user@user ~]$

Looking closer into the matter it seems that devices named CSR8510 A10 face difficulties if they are bootleg versions. Supposedly there was a patch for this like 7 years ago tho. Would be grateful for any advice on hwo to proceed.

System Information
Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.4-arch2-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Manufacturer: ASUS

seth · 2025-07-02 18:40:06

All hardware is mass-manufactured in China…

The native bluetooth sucks (barely connects, and when it does shifting an inch causes the connection to break)

2.4GHz wifi interference? Bad antenna selection? Are keyboard and mouse wired (if either of them uses some radio dongle, that's gonna be exactly on the BT frequency)
Also: did you maybe get and forget to attach some stub antenna to the board?

Cause https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=280693&p=2 and the internet kinda agrees on the USB ID being a great source of frustration…

themanofmanyways · 2025-07-02 20:13:50

seth wrote:

Also: did you maybe get and forget to attach some stub antenna to the board?

Wait a second. There was a weird angular antenna thingy when I was putting together the PC. I assumed it was for wifi, and I intended to use ethernet anyways so I didn't bring it out. Could that be it?

seth · 2025-07-02 20:30:47

Chances that the board uses the same antenna "weird angular thingy" for all radio are >> 0, yes.

cantabile · 2025-07-10 21:07:45

The RTL8852BE wifi card also provides bluetooth functionality, all in one chip. They share the antennas too, of course.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-07-02 17:46:05

Difficulty Recognizing and Using USB Bluetooth Dongle

#2 2025-07-02 18:40:06

Re: Difficulty Recognizing and Using USB Bluetooth Dongle

#3 2025-07-02 20:13:50

Re: Difficulty Recognizing and Using USB Bluetooth Dongle

#4 2025-07-02 20:30:47

Re: Difficulty Recognizing and Using USB Bluetooth Dongle

#5 2025-07-10 21:07:45

Re: Difficulty Recognizing and Using USB Bluetooth Dongle

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