# HELP -bluetooth: No default controller available - SOLVED

## Moriah

I am building a 4.14.83-gentoo kernel for my Lenovo ThinkPad W530 laptop, and I'm having trouble getting bluetooth to work.  I really only need it for my Microsoft bluetooth mouse.  It worked under a 3.x kernel, but I was long overdue for an upgrade.  Now my bluetooth doesn't work anymore.

After a clean boot, I run bluetoothctl and get the following:

```

onesimus ~ # bluetoothctl 

Agent registered

[bluetooth]# power on

No default controller available

[bluetooth]# quit

onesimus ~ # 

```

Here are the relevent lines from dmesg:

```

onesimus ~ # dmesg | grep -i blue

[   12.492915] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22

[   12.492923] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized

[   12.492925] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized

[   12.492927] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized

[   12.492928] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized

[   12.609567] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: chip id 63

[   12.610553] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: features 0x07

[   12.626471] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A

[   12.627370] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 0000

[   14.687018] Bluetooth: hci0 command 0x0a0a tx timeout

[   23.007031] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: Patch command 0a0a failed (-110)

[   25.119027] Bluetooth: hci0 command 0x1001 tx timeout

[   33.247056] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: Reading local version info failed (-110)

onesimus ~ # 

```

Does anybody have any ideas what can be wrong?

Just found at:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=4375

where is seems a similar (but not identical) bluetooth device needs a firmware image. Look at the end of the post...

I installed the legacy bluetooth hci* tools. hciconfig -a shows nothing. Isn't there supposed to be a /dev/hci* device out there? What driver am I missing?

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## pappy_mcfae

Not too sure, but if it requires firmware, it should have required it of your old kernel that worked. If it exists, it should be in the /lib/firmware directory. It may need to be updated due to different kernel drivers. I have a wireless adapter for this machine. It requires firmware. I have never had to do anything apart from updating the kernel. 

That makes me think something changed in the kernel that doesn't play well with the firmware, and it may need to be updated.

It is guesswork on my part. I don't have bluetooth, and haven't ever worked with it. Check your old kernel to see what drivers you used, and whether it was turned on or set as a module. It probably prefers being a module, but again, that is a guess based on how the kernel works with other net devices.

Wish I had better information to offer. Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Pappy

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## Moriah

Problem solved (but I cheated).  

I had indicatioons that my bluetooth chip in my laptop has suffered bitrot of the driver since version 4 kernels came to be.  Apparently it is a bit tricky to deal with becaise the same chip does bluetooth and wifi.  The only "solution" I found was a manual patch of the kernel sources, and althoough the bluetooth was then usable, it could not be used at the sae time as the wifi.  Well that was about as useful as a car repair that allowed you to use the engine and the steering, but not both at the same time.  DUH!  My need for bluetooth wa to support my mouse when I am travelling.  Under those circumstances, I also need wifi.  When I am at the home office, I have a wired network connection and a wired mouse.

So after fiddling with this thin for over a week, I decided to break down and buy $12.98 ASUS bluetooth usb dongle.  Its tiny, but it does burn a usb jack on the laptop.  Oh well, better than no mouse.  I plugged the thing in and got a "no firmware"message, so I fetched the firmware, and Viola!  It just works!    :Mr. Green: 

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