Bluetooth devices slow down

Ask Fedora
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1

Hi!

I’m having some trouble with bluetooth devices.
I run Fedora 36 Gnome on a Thinkpad P14s Gen2 and have 3 bluetooth devices connected to it: a keyboard, a mouse and my headset.
When I’m only using my keyboard and mouse, everything runs smoothly, connection is instant, etc.
As soon as I pair my headset (Sony 1000XM4), I notice a lag on my mouse cursor and the keyboard responsiveness; the issue doesn’t stop there as it gets worse if I’m actually listening to anything, mouse cursor lag becomes awful, typing is reminiscent of an old typewriter, etc.

I’m not super familiar with Bluetooth as a technology, and don’t really know its limitations. Is there any sort of bandwidth that I would be hitting, thus reducing available space for mouse and keyboard? Is there any setting I can tweak to find a sweet spot and reduce the lag?

Thanks for your help and have a good day.

2

Welcome to ask.:fedora:edora @kornifex

Could you please give us more info’s as :

inxi -Fzx in terminal and post the output as </> Preformatted text here.

It looks like you are using the bluetooth/wifi at it’s limit. Do you use a cable connection or are you conected with WiFi? WiFi & Bluetooth share hardware. this could cause the problems.

If you have the possibility, connect via cable and test if you have same trouble.

3

Hello, and thanks!

Here are the results:

System:
  Kernel: 5.19.8-200.fc36.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 2.37-35.fc36 Desktop: GNOME v: 42.4
    Distro: Fedora release 36 (Thirty Six)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 21A0004FFR v: ThinkPad P14s Gen 2a
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 21A0004FFR serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
    v: R1MET49W (1.19 ) date: 06/27/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 51.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 51.6/50.5 Wh (102.3%)
    volts: 13.0 min: 11.5 model: SMP 5B10W51827 status: full
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64
    type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3 rev: 0 cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 4 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2144 high: 4441 min/max: 400/4507 boost: enabled cores:
    1: 1918 2: 400 3: 2248 4: 1916 5: 1668 6: 3549 7: 1705 8: 1851 9: 2395
    10: 2407 11: 4441 12: 400 13: 1914 14: 3552 15: 3548 16: 400
    bogomips: 60680
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Cezanne vendor: Lenovo driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN 5.1
    bus-ID: 07:00.0
  Device-2: Chicony Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-2:2
  Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 1.22.1.3 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 2560x1440~60Hz
  OpenGL:
    renderer: AMD RENOIR (LLVM 14.0.0 DRM 3.47 5.19.8-200.fc36.x86_64)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.7 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 07:00.1
  Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_rn_pci_acp3x v: kernel bus-ID: 07:00.5
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 07:00.6
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.19.8-200.fc36.x86_64 running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.57 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
  IF: enp2s0f0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Lenovo driver: mt7921e v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-3: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: br-39b178e426d4 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-3: veth4131d81 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-4: veth837a58c state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-5: veth8cacb98 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-6: vetha7ec30d state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-7: vethe61b826 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Foxconn / Hon Hai Wireless_Device type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 5-4:3
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 41.83 GiB (8.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: SK Hynix model: HFS512GDE9X081N
    size: 476.94 GiB temp: 47.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 475.35 GiB used: 41.49 GiB (8.7%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 306.4 MiB (31.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 598.8 MiB used: 46.6 MiB (7.8%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 475.35 GiB used: 41.49 GiB (8.7%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 46.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 2600 fan-2: 2600
Info:
  Processes: 609 Uptime: 20h 46m Memory: 27.23 GiB used: 12.77 GiB (46.9%)
  Init: systemd target: graphical (5) Compilers: gcc: 12.2.1 Packages: 27
  note: see --pkg Shell: Zsh v: 5.8.1 inxi: 3.3.19

I can’t currently try with an ethernet connection but will try to do so as soon as possible and post the results!
Thank you

4

I use a logitek mouse and keyboard with the usb unifying receiver to offload the keyboard and mouse from bluetooth. I never see the lag you describe with bluetooth devices.

1 Like
5

Hello,

Some more info: if I turn off the wifi I get way less lags, so it would seem that they indeed share hardware and it’s a part of the issue.
I don’t really have the opportunity to work wired. Do I have other solutions improve the experience?

Thank you!

6

Do I need to install something to use the unifying receiver? I might be able the use my keyboard and mouse with the receiver while my headset would be using the bluetooth, might help a bit!

7

No, no drivers or config needed once the receiver is paired with the mouse and keyboard.
The unifying receiver is configured by the system as soon as it is plugged in and handles both mouse and keyboard very nicely.

It can even be set to handle more than one of each if you use the windows app to configure it.

8

Thank you Jeff!
How do I know my devices are handled by the unifying receiver and not the bluetooth hardware?
I am going to try different configurations and see what works best. The good thing is that the receiver can be stored inside the mouse when not in use!

9

Simply unpair the devices that you do not want to use bluetooth and they will never connect with bluetooth.

The unifying receiver is always paired with the device on its own frequency/channel.

10

I installed Solaar to pair the mouse. Scroll speed was completely off but a quick setting repaired that. Mouse speed is unhindered now, thank you. Might pair the keyboard through Solaar / Unifying receiver too.
I am a bit saddened by the fact that Bluetooth / hardware can’t simply handle that, but the limiting factor being imposed by technology is just… something we have to deal with.
Thanks for the help / answers / availability.

Have a good day!

1 Like
11

Now you taught me something new. I was previously unaware of solaar and relied on my laptop with windows to configure my unifying receiver when I connected new devices.

Thank you for the update and for fedora solaar seems to work well.

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