Is Bluetooth getting worse on Linux?

Hi, I can answer about the PS3 controller issue. I thought about making a public announcement about this, but I forgot. I'll work on that now and then link to it here, but to sum up the situation: Support for insecure legacy devices is now disabled due to CVE-2023-45866, and that includes the PS3 controller. You can re-enable support, but that will make your PC vulnerable when Bluetooth is in discoverable mode — that's when you're pairing a device; in GNOME that's when you just have the Bluetooth settings open; easy to have on by accident.

I'll explain how to re-enable support in the PSA post. It's a one-liner, but I won't put it here because I think people should be well-informed of the risks before considering it.

Edit: PSA posted at https://lemmy.world/post/11498269

for me it's been a lot better, I currently run arch without any issues (other then wine but thats because I never bothered to config it right when I setup bottles)

I have had random issues for the last 2 years where the active bluetooth adapter just vanishes suddenly and cannot be revived without a reboot (or oddly sometimes sleeping and re-awakening works). Some kernels are better than others, but it has never completely gone away. Often it is fine for days or even weeks of uptime, then it will occasionally crash within minutes or hours of booting. I use it for a mouse, which simply stops working mid-use.

In my case it's a built-in adapter that's tied to an internal USB hub, and it is the entire USB hub that is crashing and vanishing. When it happens dmesg says the hub is no longer accepting the address assigned. Error 62 and or 110.

This is on a Lenovo Thinkpad currently running anywhere from kernel 5.15 to 6.5 with the same random issue.

Lol!! Perfect timing

https://lemmy.world/post/11498269

This is a patch for a security vulnerability probably

I would have to say that it is not getting worse, its just never been very good.

What exactly has updated? Kernel? Have you tried booting the old kernel?

What kind of bluetooth adapter do you have? There are some knock off USB adapters around that sorta work, but then crash and die sporadically. I havent had much luck with them in linux.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1205962/bluetooth-dongle-problem - some more info here

If you are dual booting, windows messes up yoyr bluetooth chip

...no ? years ago I couln't even dream of using bluetooth in linux; few weeks ago I found an old bluetooth dongle and now my usb speakers work just fine - even better than connecting via smartphone because plasma has sbc-xq codec easily selectable. It auto connects everytime I boot the pc, I just had to add btusb.enable_autosuspend=0 to kernel cmdline parameters

make sure you follow these guides, whicever distro you use

if it crashes, try sudo systemctl stop bluetooth.service and sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service

remember, bluetooth is a very cursed embrace-it-all protocol and may randomly crash/refuse to pair/connect unless you reset the devices manually, and this may happen with any hardware/software

I’ve had issues since kernel 6.4. Since early December, one pair of Bluetooth headphones works again (mostly, with occasional connection issues), but the AirPods still fail to pair at all.

I was trying to use a Bluetooth USB dongle on my home server with Home Assistant to integrate Bluetooth devices like Switchbot Locks into it. It worked sometimes, but it was so unreliable that I ended up getting an ESP32-based device and making it into an ESPHome Bluetooth proxy. Not an option for everything (it's only really designed for use with Home Assistant) but works well for my use case.

Have you seen the recently posted PSA on the linux page here? Seems a security hole was patched in bluez and it has affected some devices.

Been having similar issues here, on Zorin OS. DS4 controller(s) sometimes disconnect, sometimes one of them gets noticeable input delay. Then, after some time or some update, the controllers stopped connecting automatically to the dongle I am using, even though they were already paired to it. Actually, I think they stop connecting automatically only after I reboot the computer, so that means it's an OS / software issue. It's a cheap bluetooth dongle, so at first I thought that chinesium was to blame, but seeing as others have these problems...

Did you install powertop recently? I had issues with Bluetooth with it.

I ended up using 3rd party controllers with 2,4Ghz dongles like 8bitdo. I even blacklisted the Bluetooth kernel module because it is so borked.

I've had some new type of BT issues in recent years and when I search for solutions there's a wave of users complaining about Linux BT support have regressed "lately" so there's that.