Bluetooth (ar3k) fails due to missing firmware after installation.

[spxak1]

Hello,

This is on Pop 22.04.

Bluetooth device: Bus 003 Device 005: ID 04ca:3006 Lite-On Technology Corp.
Comes as part of the wifi module: 03:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

The issue: Bluetooth does not appear in gnome-settings.

Booting from Pop USB (intel ISO):

[   19.488844] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[   19.488871] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[   19.488874] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[   19.488875] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[   19.488878] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[   19.855536] Bluetooth: Patch file not found ar3k/AthrBT_0x11020000.dfu
[   19.857198] Bluetooth: Loading patch file failed

Installation goes fine, and the issue persists after the reboot into the new installation.

Checking inside /lib/firmware shows:

otheos@pop-os:/lib/firmware$ ls ar*
ar5523.bin

There is no ar3k folder. However checking inside the linux-firmware package here and at the project's github page, the folder (and all the files in it) is present.

In any event, downloading linux-firmware tar.gz package from the project's github, extracting, copying ar3k to /lib/firmware and rebooting, makes the bluetooth work again, and the output now is:

otheos@pop-os:~$ sudo dmesg | grep Bluetooth
[sudo] password for otheos: 
[    8.727176] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[    8.727195] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[    8.727199] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[    8.727200] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[    8.727203] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[    9.486486] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[    9.486489] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[    9.486493] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[   10.134136] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[   10.134143] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[   10.134150] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11

This same issue is reported separately by other users here.

I can provide full logs if required. Sadly I can't attach the .xz file produce from gnome-settings support page here (maybe consider changing compression to gzip).

Now for the weird part: While this issue appears to happen every time (I performed a number of clean installs to check), in one occasion, the computer booted the ISO from USB and (without the ar3k folder being present, of course), the BT worked. I installed, and it still worked without having to copy the ar3k folder from the firmware package. I am still testing to see any patterns that cause this exception to the norm (of failing). So far this only happened once. It is not related to booting Windows, or resetting the bios. I keep testing.

This is on a Packard Bell iMedia S2885 (an Acer really) desktop (i7 4th gen).

[mmstick]

Is this still an issue with the current linux-firmware package?

[spxak1]

I will need to get my hands to that hardware again and test. I will report back later today. Thanks.