Bluetooth on MacBook Pro 8.3 Doesn't Work without OSX

[Naftuli Kay]

This bug is kind of hard to describe, but can basically be summed up like this:

 * Bluetooth support on a 2011 8.3 MacBook Pro running Ubuntu 11.10 is flaky at best and unusuable at worst.

When I booted up into Ubuntu for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it found my Bluetooth chip and even seemed to be working with it.

Then I actually tried connecting devices.

Essentially, `hcitool scan` and `hidd --search` both cannot find ANY devices. I've yet to actually see it report a detected device consistently. ONCE, I saw it report my Nexus One, but then another scan and it was gone.

Devices can only be connected if one boots into OSX first, pairs the device, then boots into Ubuntu and attempts to pair the device. Even after doing so, commandline tools won't show the device in scanmode, only the `bluetooth-applet` and `blueman-manager` show them. After connection, I've noticed that I've had inconsistent success with my S305 bluetooth headphones, where on another computer with a USB dongle, it "just works." Sometimes, they won't establish the connection right away and go into pairing mode. Sometimes they'll connect fairly immediately, but not be able to be set to A2DP rather than HLS mode. Sometimes they'll work but have choppy audio, sometimes not.

There are a lot of other weird things like this such as touchpad sensitivity, screen brightness, and more which all require to be managed from OSX. This leads me to believe that Apple is doing some weird firmware-level or maybe EFI-level system management. This is super weird; configuration should be per OS, not per machine. Has anyone heard of their doing these strange things?

I'm willing to do anything, even including remote SSH access to my computer, to help the Ubuntu team resolve this bug. I bought my MacBook to run Ubuntu and can't wait to see this stuff work :)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: bluetooth 4.96-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-14.23-generic 3.0.9
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-14-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Dec 28 15:06:07 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
InterestingModules: rfcomm bnep btusb bluetooth
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBookPro8,3
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-14-generic root=UUID=a25736d1-ccdd-401e-ba56-4cf4f01b1053 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: bluez
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-12-28 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/28/11
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MBP81.88Z.0047.B22.1109281426
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag#
dmi.board.name: Mac-942459F5819B171B
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: MacBookPro8,3
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-942459F5819B171B
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMBP81.88Z.0047.B22.1109281426:bd09/28/11:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBookPro8,3:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-942459F5819B171B:rvrMacBookPro8,3:cvnAppleInc.:ct10:cvrMac-942459F5819B171B:
dmi.product.name: MacBookPro8,3
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.
hciconfig:
 hci0: Type: BR/EDR Bus: USB
  BD Address: 60:C5:47:9B:34:09 ACL MTU: 1021:8 SCO MTU: 64:1
  UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
  RX bytes:353334 acl:2127 sco:5322 events:5470 errors:0
  TX bytes:3037466 acl:4780 sco:5285 commands:558 errors:0

[Konrad Zapałowicz (kzapalowicz)]

This is reported against an old version of Ubuntu and many things has changed since then. Because of that we won't fix this issue however if this behavior repeats on a modern version please fill a bug report against it and we will take it from there.