Troubleshooting a USB Bluetooth Adapter

Looking to utilize your USB bluetooth adapter in CentOS 6.x, Redhat Enterprise Linux 6.x, Scientific Linux 6.x, Ubuntu 16.04+, Trisquel 8, or a similar distribution? Having trouble getting your bluetooth adapter working? Try our directions below. These directions may be largely applicable to other distributions as well so give them a try- or email support for more distribution and version specific direction. Directions have been vetted against Ubuntu 20.04 and will still be applicable to similar more recent distributions.

Note for Trisquel 9 users: Bluetooth support is not included, but can be added by installing blueman. Open a terminal via the Trisquel Menu and going to Accessories > Mate Terminal. Then enter these two lines at the terminal (hit enter after each line):

sudo apt-get install blueman
sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

Then use nano text editor to add the following line under [General] section:


To save hold down the ctrl key on your keyboard and while doing so tap the x key. It'll ask you to save the modified buffer and you just need to hit the y key and then the enter key to confirm. Reboot and you should have both Bluetooth support and at least audio working.

Everybody else:


Note: The use of some USB 2.0 devices and/or lesser shielded USB cables on USB 3.0 ports can generate significant amounts of electromagnetic interference and in some instances will interfere with other devices on the 2.4Ghz spectrum. This includes Bluetooth devices that a user has connected to the same computer. Various strategies can be applied to resolve the problem, ranging from simple solutions such as increasing the distance of USB 3.0 devices from any Bluetooth devices to purchasing better shielded USB cables.

If you experienced dropped signals or similar problems we recommend disconnecting as many of your USB devices as possible and slowly re-connecting them until the device causing the interference has been found. You may be able to then move the USB device to a USB 2.0 port to resolve the problem.

On desktop system some users have reported problems with cases blocking the signal enough to cause problems. The same can be true of users with computers inside thick wooden desks or similar. This will most commonly reduce the signal strength to a point where a streaming audio device for example will have parts of the audio getting dropped. Adding a USB cable or otherwise moving the adapter to another front facing USB port are some solutions that may work to solve this issue.



2. Verify bluetooth is enabled in software:





rfkill list


An example of the output is as follows:

0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: Yes
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: Yes


btmgmt le off
rfkill unblock all






ls /sys/class/bluetooth/


To do that run the following commands:










# Internal Bluetooth based HCI card should be disabled

