Need help setting up Bluetooth - old Dell Studio 1537 laptop

Support Network
1

Hi everyone!
New Linux user here. I’m trying out Manjaro for the first time on my old Dell Studio laptop (originally was running under Win Vista) and so far liking it a lot. It got second life and is actually usable now :slight_smile:
All essential stuff is working out of the box however I can’t figure out how to setup bluetooth so I could use my headphones with it.
When I open “Bluetooth Manager” it just shows empty window or error. Clicking on “Bluetooth Adapters” doesn’t seem to do anything either. I also wasn’t able to find anything bluetooth-related in user guide pdf.

As mentioned I’ve just started learning Linux so whilst googling did show some results - it’s all terminal-based solutions and I don’t want to blindly copy-paste various commands without clear understanding what it’ll actually do & potentially reinstall whole system.

Would appreciate any suggestions/help
Thanks!

My inxi command output 
  Kernel: 5.10.56-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64 
  root=UUID=dca2d871-d8a3-4ae4-8d42-84415237cf26 rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor resume=UUID=1336917e-4355-4c52-8419-74e48e61e9ab 
  udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.29 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 vt: 7 
  dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Portable System: Dell product: Studio 1537 v: A11 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0P132H v: A11 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A11 
  date: 04/14/2011 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 1.93 GiB used: 1.33 GiB (68.9%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo P8400 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn 
  family: 6 model-id: 17 (23) stepping: 6 microcode: 60F cache: L2: 3 MiB 
  bogomips: 9047 
  Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 800/2267 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 798 2: 798 
  Flags: acpi aperfmperf apic arch_perfmon bts clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid 
  cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts est fpu fxsr ht lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx 
  monitor msr mtrr nopl nx pae pat pbe pdcm pebs pge pni pse pse36 pti 
  rep_good sep smx sse sse2 sse4_1 ssse3 syscall tm tm2 tsc vme xtpr 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported 
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
  Type: mds 
  status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 
  mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds status: Not affected 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD RV620/M82 [Mobility Radeon HD 3450/3470] vendor: Dell 
  driver: radeon v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:95c4 class-ID: 0300 
  Device-2: Ricoh Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-6:3 
  chip-ID: 05ca:18a0 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter> 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: 
  loaded: ati,radeon unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa 
  display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1280x800 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 338x211mm (13.3x8.3") 
  s-diag: 398mm (15.7") 
  Monitor-1: LVDS res: 1280x800 hz: 60 dpi: 98 size: 331x207mm (13.0x8.1") 
  diag: 390mm (15.4") 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD RV620 (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.10.56-1-MANJARO LLVM 12.0.1) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 21.1.6 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:293e class-ID: 0403 
  Device-2: AMD RV620 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 3450/3470/3550/3570] vendor: Dell 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa28 
  class-ID: 0403 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.56-1-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.33 running: no 
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY 
  vendor: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card driver: wl v: kernel modules: ssb 
  port: 2000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:4315 class-ID: 0280 
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  Device-2: Broadcom NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe vendor: Dell 
  driver: tg3 v: kernel port: 2000 bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1698 
  class-ID: 0200 
  IF: enp8s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found. 
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found. 
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found. 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 8.22 GiB (3.5%) 
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Hitachi model: HTS543225L9A300 
  size: 232.89 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
  type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: C40C scheme: MBR 
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: TSSTcorp model: DVD+-RW TS-T633A rev: D300 
  dev-links: cdrom 
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes 
  rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 228.63 GiB size: 223.98 GiB (97.97%) used: 8.21 GiB (3.7%) 
  fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A 
  uuid: dca2d871-d8a3-4ae4-8d42-84415237cf26 
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 4.25 GiB used: 12.3 MiB (0.3%) 
  priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A 
  uuid: 1336917e-4355-4c52-8419-74e48e61e9ab 
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found. 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 1-6:3 info: Ricoh Integrated Webcam type: Video driver: uvcvideo 
  interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 05ca:18a0 
  class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter> 
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-4: 3-1:2 
  info: Broadcom BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth) ports: 3 
  rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 94mA chip-ID: 0a5c:4500 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 3-1.1:3 info: Dell Integrated Keyboard type: Keyboard 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 2mA 
  chip-ID: 413c:8157 class-ID: 0301 
  Device-2: 3-1.2:4 info: Dell Integrated Touchpad / Trackstick type: Mouse 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 2mA 
  chip-ID: 413c:8158 class-ID: 0301 
  Hub-5: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-6: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-7: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-8: 7-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-9: 8-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: 46.0 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3242 fan-2: 3247 fan-3: 3247 
Info:
  Processes: 174 Uptime: 2h 38m wakeups: 5 Init: systemd v: 248 
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: N/A Packages: pacman: 1012 lib: 281 
  flatpak: 0 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.06
2

I have one of these. It didn’t come with a Bluetooth card IIRC. I’ll boot mine and check. I have to update it anyway. Mine does not have Bluetooth. It appears to have been an optional feature.

You can check with these commands in terminal:

sudo dmesg | grep -i blue
or
sudo lsusb | grep Bluetooth
3

Thanks for the reply.
My Studio has it. I even removed back cover to double-check it - it’s there, rebranded by Dell Broadcom card.

Here is first command output:

[  105.335977] audit: type=1130 audit(1629114099.294:102): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj==unconfined msg='unit=blueman-mechanism comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
[  135.284674] audit: type=1131 audit(1629114129.241:105): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj==unconfined msg='unit=blueman-mechanism comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'

and here is second:

Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth)
4

good. Can you post output of

rfkill list all
5

Sure. Here it is:

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
6

Is the bluetooth service started?
systemctl status bluetooth.service

7

it shows loaded but not active

[tony@Serenity ~]$ sudo systemctl status bluetooth.service
[sudo] password for tony: 
○ bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)

Aug 16 13:41:04 Serenity systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Bluetooth service being skipped.
Aug 16 13:41:39 Serenity systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Bluetooth service being skipped.
8

are you dual booting windows by any chance?

9

no, as mentioned originally it was running under Vista but after MS dropped support I wiped hard drive. Right now it has only Manjaro

10 
systemctl start bluetooth.service

Have you checked for a setting in BIOS?
maybe check here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Bluetooth
11

Thanks for the wiki link. In BIOS all network cards are enabled.

looks like typing

systemctl start bluetooth.service

doesn’t do anything. Only difference - when right after that I check status it shows 3 skipped messages instead of two:

[tony@Serenity ~]$ sudo systemctl status bluetooth.service
○ bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)

Aug 16 13:41:04 Serenity systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Bluetooth service being skipped.
Aug 16 13:41:39 Serenity systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Bluetooth service being skipped.
Aug 16 15:20:37 Serenity systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Bluetooth service being skipped.

From what I was able to google (if I understand it correctly), Broadcom BT cards are, politely speaking, not the best solution for Linux and in many cases firmware should be updated. Might as well forget I have BT :slight_smile:

12

Ok, I give up. Looks like this BT card is a lost cause.

I tried to manually load bluetooth kernel module to get rid of Condition check resulted in Bluetooth service being skipped error messages
(according to this wiki article: Bluetooth - ArchWiki)

Was able to successfully start bluetooth.service but didn’t know how to load correct corresponding bt driver. Wiki doesn’t mention it… After laptop restart this module was gone.

Also found this answer https://askubuntu.com/a/583167 but that didn’t worked either

Guess the only remote chance to make this card work is to install virtuallbox, find somewhere vista iso and try to detect that card from there

13