Debian 12 and bluetooth

Installation
#1

Hi all,

I upgraded my base-os from Debian bullseye to Debian bookworm. Afterwards, all my bluetooth units stopped working for no apparent good reason. I run home assistant in docker, and bluetooth used to work fine.

I have a few airthings waved, and a switchbot curtain. Is this a known issue? Would be happy to dump logs if I get guidance on what to dump? Does anyone have a debian 12 working with docker and bluetooth?

#2

Debian 12 is not yet supported… :wink: What I’ve read, it should be with the next release.

#3

I had this issue and it was because realtek firmware moved to the “non-free-firmware” component. See Firmware - Debian Wiki

#4

Hi @sarthurdev

I did update the repos to include the non-free-firmware component. That updated the intel firmware. Strange thing is that it works for about a minute after reboot, but then it fails.

#5

Also seeing the same behavior after upgrading from Debian 11 to 12. Bluetooth will operate briefly after HA is restarted and then drop out. No obvious errors in HA logs or kernel dmesg.

Saw you created an issue here (Bluetooth unstable on debian 12 · Issue #97129 · home-assistant/core · GitHub), but looks like that’s a dead end too.

#6

Hey! I ended up downgrading to debian 11, this was a deal-breaker for me.

Let me know if you find a way to fix it. Did not try to install vanilla debian 12 directly…

#7

I was hoping to try downgrading the firmware package and see where that gets me. I’ll let you know if there’s any good news.

#8

So far I’ve attempted downgrading firmware-iwlwifi to 20210315-3 and bluez to 5.55-3.1, the versions that shipped with bullseye. No luck so far.

#9

Bluetooth is broken on newer Linux kernels with many adapters

There is a patch linked in this issue or alternative options if you don’t want to compile your own kernel:

TLDR: use HAOS, a Bluetooth proxy, or recompile your kernel from source with the patch

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#10

Thanks for the information.

I’m brave/dumb enough to try patching my kernel so I’ll give that a shot.

#11

Success!

I followed these instructions to build the kernel.
https://kernel-team.pages.debian.net/kernel-handbook/ch-common-tasks.html#s-common-official

Specifically the “4.5.2. Simple patching and building” with the patch from here: Bluetooth: hci_sync: Fix handling of HCI_QUIRK_STRICT_DUPLICATE_FILTER - Patchwork

The only hiccup I encountered was disabling secure boot in my BIOS to allow the unsigned kernel to boot. The docs above also cover self-signing which I may try later.

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