Need help enabling Bluetooth / Wifi USB device

  • Hi Guys,

    I have a Intel NUC of the seventh generation (Intel NUC Kit NUC7i5BNK to be precise) and modified it so it rests in an Akasa fanlles case (product.detail.tpl&no=181&type=fanless chassis&type_sub=fanless nuc&model=a-nuc37-a1b).

    Due to this modification my on-board bluetooth doesn't work properly anymore becuase of weak signal. So I bought a cheap Wifi/Bluetooth combination stick from Aliexpress. The following one: Comfast Wireless 600Mbps USB WiFi Receiver Adapter 5DB Antenna Bluetooth 4.2 WiFi for Windows 7 8 10 XP System Computers Laptops-in Network Cards from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

    When booting to Libreelec the system won't start properly, I only see a cursor on my screen. As soon as I unplug the USB device the system continues to boot and all works fine, so I don't even have to reboot. Unfortunatly when I the plug in the device again it doesn't recognise any wifi nor bluetooth device (I have disabled both onboard wifi and bluetooth).

    If I enter lsusb over ssh I see it is a realtek device. Is this particular chipset supported?

    Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

    Bus 001 Device 004: ID 03eb:2ffa Atmel Corp. at90usb162 DFU bootloader

    Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0413:0308 Leadtek Research, Inc.

    Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:1a2b Realtek Semiconductor Corp. <----------------------------- My device

    Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

    Can somebody help me debug more or even knows how to get this device working? Can I compile drivers myself? I found the following instructions on Github: GitHub - yklove/rtl8821cu it should do the trick?

    Any help is much appreciated. If you need more info. Please let me know.

    Kind regards,

    Chris

  • Okay, got a little bit further. I read in an other thread these devices sometimes automagically mount as a storage devices so it can install the windows drivers.

    After installing Libreelec system tools with usb_modeswitch and running: usb_modeswitch -KW -v 0bda -p 1a2b at least my usb device seems recognized in LE. Will test further and report back for success or failure :)

  • Ok, I was a bit to fast yesterday. Not all is good :)

    I now have the following problem: when rebooting or powering up with the bluetooth device already inserted, it is not recognized in LE. So I have to manually pull out the USB bluetooth adapter > re-insert the USB bluetooth adapter > run usb_modeswitch -KW -v 0bda -p 1a2b command.

    If I don't pull out and re-insert the adapter the usb_modeswitch command doesn't work :( When looking at dmesg it looks like the bluetooth adapter is initialized correctly but LE doesn't show any bluetooth adapters. See output of demsg | grep "blue":

    [ 3.495940] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22

    [ 3.495954] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized

    [ 3.495958] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized

    [ 3.495960] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized

    [ 3.495965] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized

    [ 3.500721] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rtl: examining hci_ver=08 hci_rev=826c lmp_ver=08 lmp_subver=a99e

    [ 3.500723] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rtl: unknown IC info, lmp subver a99e, hci rev 826c, hci ver 0008

    [ 3.524389] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3

    [ 3.524390] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast

    [ 3.524393] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized

    So, how to automate this? I think I should have a script that unmounts/ejects my USB bluetooth device, then remounts the device and run usb_modeswitch command. Trying to found out how to unmount. Anybody willing to help and give some advice on how to tackle this?

    Any help is much appreciated :)

  • I think I need to add some script to autostart.sh to unmount the USB bluetooth device but the commnad lsblk isn't working. How to know where my device is mounted?