Problem connecting bluetooth controllers on pi4
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Hello,
I have searched this forum and the rest of the internet and didt not find a solution to my problems, if there is an answer please refer me to it and delete this thread.
I have recently bought a pi4 and installed Retropie v4.7.1 via Raspberry Pi Imager on a 16gb class 10 SD card. For what its worth, I am using an original Raspberry Pi power supply, and have connected the Pi via WiFi and use SSH to use the command line. I am however having issues connecting bluetooth controllers to the Pi, so much so that I thought the Pi I had was defective and got another one. However this one is giving me problems as well so it must be on my end, I am at a loss though. I am not using a dongle, but the on board Bluetooth. Here are some of the outputs associated with bluetooth
pi@retropie:~ $ systemctl status bluetooth ● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-03-05 20:15:21 CET; 6min ago Docs: man:bluetoothd(8) Main PID: 526 (bluetoothd) Status: "Running" Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915) CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service └─526 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service... Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie bluetoothd[526]: Bluetooth daemon 5.50 Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service. Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie bluetoothd[526]: Starting SDP server Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie bluetoothd[526]: Bluetooth management interface 1.14 initialized Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie bluetoothd[526]: Sap driver initialization failed. Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie bluetoothd[526]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1) Mar 05 20:15:21 retropie bluetoothd[526]: Failed to set privacy: Rejected (0x0b)this says failed to set privacy, could that have to do anything with it?
pi@retropie:~ $ hciconfig -a hci0: Type: Primary Bus: UART BD Address: B8:27:EB:F1:E5:B3 ACL MTU: 1021:8 SCO MTU: 64:1 UP RUNNING RX bytes:2257 acl:0 sco:0 events:133 errors:0 TX bytes:2357 acl:0 sco:0 commands:133 errors:0 Features: 0xbf 0xfe 0xcf 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87 Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 Link policy: RSWITCH SNIFF Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT Name: 'retropie' Class: 0x000000 Service Classes: Unspecified Device Class: Miscellaneous, HCI Version: 5.0 (0x9) Revision: 0x150 LMP Version: 5.0 (0x9) Subversion: 0x6119 Manufacturer: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (305)pi@retropie:~ $ hcitool dev Devices: hci0 B8:27:EB:F1:E5:B3pi@retropie:~ $ bluetoothctl list Controller E4:5F:01:04:B9:75 retropie [default] [bluetooth]# show e4:5f:01:04:b9:75 Controller E4:5F:01:04:B9:75 (public) Name: retropie Alias: retropie Class: 0x00000000 Powered: yes Discoverable: no Pairable: yes UUID: Generic Attribute Profile (00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: A/V Remote Control (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: PnP Information (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: Generic Access Profile (00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) Modalias: usb:v1D6Bp0246d0532 Discovering: noThe MAC addresses of hci0 and the controller in bluetoothctl are different, i'm not sure if this is supposed to be like this but am unsure if or how to change it.
then in bluetoothctl :
[bluetooth]# default-agent Default agent request successful [bluetooth]# scan on [NEW] Device DC:2C:26:FE:89:92 Thrustmaster gamepad [bluetooth]# pair dc:2c:26:fe:89:92 Attempting to pair with DC:2C:26:FE:89:92 [CHG] Device DC:2C:26:FE:89:92 Connected: yes [CHG] Device DC:2C:26:FE:89:92 Connected: noafter this nothing more seems to happen except that the scan keeps finding many other devices and seemingly connects and disconnects with many of them.
when i try to pair again:
[bluetooth]# pair dc:2c:26:fe:89:92 Attempting to pair with DC:2C:26:FE:89:92 Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AlreadyExistshowever when i check paired devices:
[bluetooth]# paired-devices [bluetooth]#it doesn't see any registered devices. So for good measure i remove the MAC address even though it didn't really register and try to directly connect to it.
[bluetooth]# connect dc:2c:26:fe:89:92 Attempting to connect to dc:2c:26:fe:89:92 Failed to connect: org.bluez.Error.FailedTrusting the MAC address prior to pairing and/or connecting to it does nothing to fix the problem.
The same problems occur with any other controllers I try to connect (8bitdo sf30 pro, dualshock 4 v2 (both of them)). All these controllers connected without issue to both my laptop running Windows 10 and to my Raspberry pi 3b+ with Retropie.Running an update does update a lot of things, but does not solve the problem.
Surely I can't be the only one with this problem, I have searched far and wide on the internet but I am still very much a novice regarding linux things so please forgive me if there are any dumb mistakes.
EDIT: I tried using the bluetooth tool in Retropie itself many times, but have resorted to try to manually connect as I gained more knowledge. Also the tool kept freezing up after selecting the "security channel"
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@barbakaas You may be stumbling on this issue. If you just installed your Pi4, can you run
sudo rpi-update, then reboot and try to pair again your controller(s) ? -
I tried this, but now I seem to be encountering a problem that I have encountered a few times before, usually after running the update but did not encounter in this installation yet
pi@retropie:~ $ hcitool dev Devices: pi@retropie:~ $ pi@retropie:~ $ hciconfig -a hci0: Type: Primary Bus: UART BD Address: E4:5F:01:04:B9:75 ACL MTU: 1021:8 SCO MTU: 64:1 DOWN RX bytes:794 acl:0 sco:0 events:46 errors:0 TX bytes:823 acl:0 sco:0 commands:54 errors:0 Features: 0xbf 0xfe 0xcf 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87 Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 Link policy: RSWITCH SNIFF Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT pi@retropie:~ $ sudo hciconfig hci0 up Can't init device hci0: Connection timed out (110) [bluetooth]# list Controller E4:5F:01:04:B9:75 retropie [default] [bluetooth]# show e4:5f:01:04:b9:75 Controller E4:5F:01:04:B9:75 (public) Name: retropie Alias: retropie Class: 0x00000000 Powered: no Discoverable: no Pairable: yes UUID: Generic Attribute Profile (00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: A/V Remote Control (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: PnP Information (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) UUID: Generic Access Profile (00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb) Modalias: usb:v1D6Bp0246d0532 Discovering: no [bluetooth]# power on Failed to set power on: org.bluez.Error.FailedSo, I can not begin to attempt to pair the controllers right now, unfortunately
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@barbakaas In this case, revert to the stable (installed from
apt) kernel withsudo apt-get install --reinstall raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-kernelTry installing the
xpadneodriver and see if the Thrustmaster or the 8bitdo controller pair. -
I did the rollback to the stable version. however when trying to install xpadneo I get this error
pi@retropie:~/xpadneo $ git clone https://github.com/atar-axis/xpadneo.git cd xpadneo sudo ./installCloning into 'xpadneo'... remote: Enumerating objects: 173, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (173/173), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (90/90), done. remote: Total 3413 (delta 111), reused 128 (delta 76), pack-reused 3240 Receiving objects: 100% (3413/3413), 20.51 MiB | 5.71 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (2131/2131), done. pi@retropie:~/xpadneo $ cd xpadneo pi@retropie:~/xpadneo/xpadneo $ sudo ./install sudo: ./install: command not foundwhich i find very weird. I looked at the github page and tried to do the setup for "generic distributions" but that didn't work either. Both DKMS and raspberrypi-kernel-headers seem to be up to date as stated in the prerequisites.
Again I apologize if I'm missing some basic knowledge, but I never expected to have to dive this deep into linux to get things working!
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@barbakaas You can install it from RetroPie-Setup, it's under the
driverssection of the packages. -
I recently fixed the Bluetooth stability issues by rolling back to the last stable 5.4 kernel. Bear in mind that you'll no longer be able to do 'apt-get upgrade' without the kernel auto-updating to the buggy 5.10 version.
sudo rpi-update 453e49b -
Ok, so I still encountered the problems from my last post where hci0 seems to be powered down, I reinstalled a fresh image onto the sd card, configured wifi and ssh, and installed xpadneo via the setup menu.
However even with the fresh install it now doesnt want to power on the bluetooth connector. I will leave it for today and try again tomorrow, could there be some configs or something that could carry over between installs? how can this bluetooth connector be so random.
Thank you for your help up until now though!
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Update: I gave up and got a bluetooth dongle. I disabled on board bluetooth and was able to connect everything in a matter of minutes. I find it hard to believe that both Pi's had faulty bluetooth chips. Is there some way to test this? With a multi-meter or something?
Anyway I learned a lot about linux, raspberry Pi's and how bluetooth works so its not been for nothing.
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@barbakaas I'm encountering the same issue as you, but what I've found is if I install a new dongle, re-image the pi, or otherwise start with fresh bluetooth settings, I am able to pair my devices once. However, I inevitably encounter weird bluetooth issues on subsequent reboots that end up causing me to have to re-pair. Then, I'm back to square one and cannot get around the
org.bluez.Error.AlreadyExistsexception.This has been driving me bananas for the last few days.
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@barbakaas said in Problem connecting bluetooth controllers on pi4:
Update: I gave up and got a bluetooth dongle. I disabled on board bluetooth and was able to connect everything in a matter of minutes. I find it hard to believe that both Pi's had faulty bluetooth chips. Is there some way to test this? With a multi-meter or something?
Anyway I learned a lot about linux, raspberry Pi's and how bluetooth works so its not been for nothing.
i tried this but had issues
do you have more details? -
@philcsf said in Problem connecting bluetooth controllers on pi4:
sudo rpi-update 453e49b
do you still need to do this with the latest pi images?
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@luzer I think they fixed in in a newer kernel (it's up to 5.10.24 or so now), but the stable version (5.10.17) is still broken. Try running rpi-kernel after your standard apt update/upgrade to get the latest dev kernel.
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i just restarted everything and get this error
@aluin13 said in Problem connecting bluetooth controllers on pi4:
@barbakaas I'm encountering the same issue as you, but what I've found is if I install a new dongle, re-image the pi, or otherwise start with fresh bluetooth settings, I am able to pair my devices once. However, I inevitably encounter weird bluetooth issues on subsequent reboots that end up causing me to have to re-pair. Then, I'm back to square one and cannot get around the
org.bluez.Error.AlreadyExistsexception.This has been driving me bananas for the last few days.
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@philcsf I did it but I still receiving failed to connect org.bluez.error.failed
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In boot/config.txt I added
dtoverlay=disable-btto disable the onboard bluetooth. The bluetooth dongle is a cheap one (€10 ish) but it works fine. I did connect my controllers through thebluetoothctlcommand line options just so I could check how things worked behind the menu in retropie.Can't help you any further though, sorry.
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