Atheros Bluetooth Adapter (AR9462) not Recognized by fresh 11 (Aramo) Update
Machine: Acer Aspire Laptop V5-473P-5602
In Trisquel 10, I admittedly never followed up on why my Atheros Wi-fi/Bluetooth Module (AR9462 / AR5B22) stopped functioning (the unlit panel icon still showed as present, but then disappeared when clicked on), but now with the newly updated Trisquel 11 (via Terminal, to avoid turning off the lock screen thing), it doesn't show up at all in the panel.
It did use to be recognized, displayed, and functioned properly in 10 (Android phone and separate Windows 10 machine), but stopped functioning (grayed out panel display), after an interim update.
Also now, from Control Center, clicking Bluetooth Adapters does nothing at all. Clicking Bluetooth Manager causes a very brief box to flash, and then disappear, without any shown contents. On 10, those attempts were similarly unhelpful, but then also caused the grayed out panel display to disappear.
Any ideas please? I obviously don't use Bluetooth often, but I'd really appreciate the option, and if it's not working for me, there are probably very likely other confused users as well, yes? I thought it likely that Aramo would likely correct this, so it was no 'emergency', but seemingly at least, not so far.
Thanks very kindly...
Just search the forum for "AR5B22", there's a few discussions of it. This thread seems to be the most relevant in terms of getting bluetooth working: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/foxconn-t77h34802-atheros-ar9462-ar5b22-chipset-and-bluetooth-support-ath9k
You should check to see if you have the firmware-ath9k-htc package installed on your system.
apt policy firmware-ath9k-htc
If it's not installed, then install it:
sudo apt install firmware-ath9k-htc
Reboot and check again and see if bluetooth is working. I don't have that chip, so I can't check for working bluetooth. You may have to enable and start the bluetooth service with systemd. I'm not familiar with those commands but they are probably 'sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service' and 'sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service' or something like that.
Bump: I'm already 'far' out of my depth, so if anyone can assist further please?
@andyprough: Apologies for my late reply regarding all below; didn't receive notification of your reply! I think/hope that I tried all your suggestions...
Clarification/addition of my first post; I replaced the original Intel Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card with this Atheros (AR9462 / AR5B22) dual band 2.5/5 Ghz / Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo half-size card (not USB), to avoid proprietary firmware (for use specifically with Trisquel.)
In Trisquel 10 (Nabia), this exact Atheros card 'did' function properly, for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. But at some point, after a Nabia OS update (I don't allow anything from non-official repositories), the Bluetooth side stopped functioning. The Bluetooth icon appeared (grayed out) in the panel, and clicking to turn on resulted in it becoming active, *briefly*, before disappearing entirely.
The same thing happens now, with the Terminal upgrade method from 10 to 11 (Aramos), as the icon is gone completely. Likewise, a 'live-usb' of 11 shows a 'greyed out' Bluetooth icon, but when clicked, appears to enable but then disappears altogether. With 'live' Trisquel 11 USB, the icon reappears (in grey) after each restart, but then quits/disappears completely, upon trying to activate.
Once 'gone', the icon does not reappear, and Control Center's 'Bluetooth Adapter' or 'Bluetooth Manager' have no effect at all, except Manager causes an empty dialog box to flash (VERY briefly.)
So seemingly something has changed, along the way, with Trisquel 10 (and now 11) or debian/atheros etc., that prevents the Bluetooth service, while the Wi-Fi still functions normally.
Re your suggestion(s):
>You should check to see if you have the firmware-ath9k-htc package installed on your system.
(apt policy firmware-ath9k-htc)
Command:
apt policy firmware-ath9k-htc
Response:
firmware-ath9k-htc:
Installed: 1.4.0-106-gc583009+dfsg1-1ubuntu1
Candidate: 1.4.0-106-gc583009+dfsg1-1ubuntu1
Version table:
*** 1.4.0-106-gc583009+dfsg1-1ubuntu1 500
500 https://archive.trisquel.org/trisquel aramo/main amd64 Packages
500 https://archive.trisquel.org/trisquel aramo/main i386 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
---------------------------------
>If it's not installed, then install it.
(sudo apt install firmware-ath9k-htc):
Command:
sudo apt install firmware-ath9k-htc (Though the firmware showed installed, per above, I tried this as well.)
Response:
[sudo] password for user:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
firmware-ath9k-htc is already the newest version (1.4.0-106-gc583009+dfsg1-1ubuntu1).
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
gir1.2-poppler-0.18 libpython2-stdlib libpython2.7-minimal
libpython2.7-stdlib pdfarranger python2 python2-minimal python2.7
python2.7-minimal python3-img2pdf python3-lxml python3-packaging
python3-pikepdf
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
-----------------------------------
>start the bluetooth service with systemd "probably"
(sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service)
Command:
sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service
Response:
[sudo] password for user:
Synchronizing state of bluetooth.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable bluetooth
---------------------
Also, I checked the link you suggested; https://trisquel.info/en/forum/foxconn-t77h34802-atheros-ar9462-ar5b22-chipset-and-bluetooth-support-ath9k
Apparently (in 2016 anyway), some machines may have supported Trisquel with the AR9462 / AR5B22 chipset.
And, searching either AR9462 or AR5B22; it appeared to me that these cards are largely 'Trisquel approved' in the results threads/comments. At least anything from recent years?
Last, in checking the firmware tree at https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/ath9k_htc, it shows 1.4.0 as the latest firmware (as is already installed on my machine.) But I don't see, exactly, which Atheros model(s), for which this firmware applies.
I suppose there may be more that's possible for one to do about this, but I'm already way out of my depth.
Thanks kindly, for all the above, and for any further assistance...