Not working Bluetooth 5.0 USB Dongle with CSR chipset.

English Hardware
#1

Hi all.

I have bought a cheap Bluetooth 5.0 USB Dongle with CSR chipset:

lsusb: Bus 0Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)


 usb 1-1.3: new full-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
 3176.909150] usb 1-1.3: Duplicate descriptor for config 1 interface 1 altsetting 5, skipping
 3176.909769] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a12, idProduct=0001, bcdDevice=88.91
 3176.909776] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
 3176.909780] usb 1-1.3: Product: USB2.0-BT
 3176.920031] Bluetooth: hci1: CSR: Unbranded CSR clone detected; adding workarounds...
 3179.483573] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x0c01 tx timeout
 3181.499529] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x080f tx timeout
 3183.515456] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x0c1b tx timeout
 3185.531475] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x0c46 tx timeout
 3187.547427] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x0c63 tx timeout
 3189.563371] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x100b tx timeout
 3191.579179] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x0c77 tx timeout
 3193.595208] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x2024 tx timeout
 3195.611156] Bluetooth: hci1: command 0x2031 tx timeout
 3197.627147] Bluetooth: hci1: command tx timeout

It works perfectly under Windows 10, but no luck in Linux.

Can it be working without Kernel compilation?

Thanks,
Vadim.

#2

It is good you did buy it cheap because as the message show, you got a Chinese forgery of the original

3176.909769] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a12, idProduct=0001, bcdDevice=88.91

That bcdDevice matches “bcdDevice == 0x8891” as you can find on Bluetooth adapter configuration issue (ID 0a12:0001).

I think you best bet is to try Tumbleweed to see if the patch proposed there has been implemented in the kernel, if not I see no other option than compiling the driver yourself.

#3

Checked the current BT-USB kernel source and there I see:

  • Known fake bcdDevices: 0x0100, 0x0134, 0x1915, 0x2520, 0x7558, 0x8891

There is code to handle the 0x8891 and Tumbleweed will have that code, not sure about Leap 15.3

#4

Thank you.

I will definitely try Tumbleweed in the near future.

Vadim.

#5

No luck also with Tumbleweed. The same dmesg --follow.

Thanks,
Vadim.

#6

Too bad Tumbleweed is also not working.

The fact that the dongle is working under Windows meas that it is possible to operate it without problems but vendors will make sure things work with Windows and that is often not the case for Linux, so especailly for newer hardware this can be a problem. It would not surprise me, provided enough of these “fake” dongles are sold, Linux will support it in coming years.

You can also use this as an advantage, just buy a bit older second hand hardware and almost sure it will work.