No Bluetooth Found

Ask Fedora
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1

Hello everyone!

I’m a new linux user. I’m also a new fedora user. I’ve just installed fedora 38 on my MacBook Air (2017) and decided to give it a try for at least a month. I absolutely love the experience as I have been contemplating about switching from macOS to Linux (fedora) for a very long time.

However, I’ve encountered my first issue. After installation, I could not find any option for bluetooth on the tab on the upper right corner that has several different options. Then I opened settings and searched for the bluetooth and this (screenshot) is what I found.

Screenshot from 2023-07-23 16-05-30
Screenshot from 2023-07-23 16-05-301102×762 20.5 KB

I have absolutely no idea on how to fix this problem. I searched on the internet (got flustered a bit!) but couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I also do not have a tremendous understanding of the command line except for common unix commands.

Would really appreciate if anyone can help.

Thank you so much!

2

It seems the Mac uses a broadcom chipset for wifi and bluetooth. With that proprietary chipset and drivers an install of fedora cannot include those drivers by default.

Most times that can be fixed by enabling the rpmfusion repo with the instructions here
https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration
then installing the drivers with dnf install broadcom-wl

After waiting about 5 minutes for everything to be configured a reboot should load the drivers and hopefully everything will then work.

1 Like
3

Thank you for the prompt reply.

I did a lot of things. I will list them all here.

First, I enabled access to both the free and the nonfree RPM fusion repositories from https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration and did dnf install broadcom-wl.

Then, I rebooted the laptop and then nothing happened, i.e., there was an error on the screen (white text on a completely black screen) that would not allow me to move beyond that area. I thought that I had (for the lack of a better term) bricked my laptop.

Next, I did some research on online forums and found a comment which stated how installing broadcom-wl without upgrading the system caused problems for the user. I followed that comment made by the user and the instructions in the post by the original poster to get my WIFI working.

I took the following steps:

  1. Booted with previous kernel in the GRUB menu
  2. dnf remove broadcom-wl
  3. sudo dnf upgrade
  4. sudo dnf install broadcom-wl
  5. sudo dnf install kernel-devel-$(uname -r)
  6. sudo akmods --force
  7. sudo depmod -a
  8. sudo modprobe wl

After taking all these steps, I now have WIFI but still do not have bluetooth.

If I go to settings, it shows the same message - No Bluetooth Found.

4

Sorry, I should also have mentioned that the upgrade should be done as well.

One may run lspci -nnk to show the details about the installed wifi device. From that we can get the exact chipset used and then search for problems and/or fixes with fedora.

In some cases only the wifi side works, and in others both wifi & bluetooth work. It depends upon the exact chipset used. The command above gives us a chance to find out the situation with your system.

5

No worries at all.

Here is the output for lspci -nnk.

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Host Bridge -OPI [8086:1604] (rev 09)
	DeviceName: SATA
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:011b]
	Kernel driver in use: bdw_uncore
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 6000 [8086:1626] (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:011b]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Audio Controller [8086:160c] (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:011b]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP USB xHCI Controller [8086:9cb1] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
00:15.0 DMA controller [0801]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP Serial IO DMA Controller [8086:9ce0] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP Serial IO DMA Controller [8086:9ce0]
	Kernel driver in use: dw_dmac_pci
00:15.4 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP Serial IO GSPI Controller #1 [8086:9ce6] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP Serial IO GSPI Controller #1 [8086:9ce6]
	Kernel driver in use: pxa2xx_spi_pci
	Kernel modules: spi_pxa2xx_pci
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP MEI Controller #1 [8086:9cba] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
	Kernel modules: mei_me
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller [8086:9ca0] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 [8086:9c90] (rev e3)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #2 [8086:9c92] (rev e3)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #3 [8086:9c94] (rev e3)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 [8086:9c98] (rev e3)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.5 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 [8086:9c9a] (rev e3)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP LPC Controller [8086:9cc3] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
	Kernel modules: lpc_ich
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SMBus Controller [8086:9ca2] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP Thermal Management Controller [8086:9ca4] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
	Kernel driver in use: intel_pch_thermal
	Kernel modules: intel_pch_thermal
02:00.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries 720p FaceTime HD Camera [14e4:1570]
	Subsystem: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries 720p FaceTime HD Camera [14e4:1570]
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:0117]
	Kernel driver in use: wl
	Kernel modules: bcma, wl
04:00.0 SATA controller [0106]: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Device [144d:a801] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Device [144d:a801]
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
05:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation DSL5320 Thunderbolt 2 Bridge [Falcon Ridge 2C 2013] [8086:156b]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
06:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation DSL5320 Thunderbolt 2 Bridge [Falcon Ridge 2C 2013] [8086:156b]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
06:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation DSL5320 Thunderbolt 2 Bridge [Falcon Ridge 2C 2013] [8086:156b]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
06:04.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation DSL5320 Thunderbolt 2 Bridge [Falcon Ridge 2C 2013] [8086:156b]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
06:05.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation DSL5320 Thunderbolt 2 Bridge [Falcon Ridge 2C 2013] [8086:156b]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
06:06.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation DSL5320 Thunderbolt 2 Bridge [Falcon Ridge 2C 2013] [8086:156b]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
07:00.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation DSL5320 Thunderbolt 2 NHI [Falcon Ridge 2C 2013] [8086:156a]
	Kernel driver in use: thunderbolt
	Kernel modules: thunderbolt
6

I have aided about as far as I can since I have no apple devices. Maybe someone with a similar device can add to what I have done.

I do know that there have been threads here with bluetooth failing on a mac even when wifi is functional, but I did not peruse them as it was not related to my hardware.