[SOLVED] Debian sid cannot find laptop bluetooth - other distros can

No stranger here to Debian in a variety of branches and derivatives but this one has me stumped.

I have 4 linux distros installed and only sid is having a problem finding the laptop's adapter. This installation is a few months old and otherwise fine. I net installed from a nightly trixie mini and changed over to unstable immediately to update and have had no other issues at all with it - KDE desktop.

I decided to finally try and pair my cell phone with it (moto g) and no adapter found (not using a dongle and don't have one to try). I brought in another package of drivers for the intel cards and that did not help. Checked it out in Mint cinnamon, PCLOS (debian flavor) and Manjaro stable. No issues finding the adapter and pairing my phone.

Before I spend hours downloading a live bookworm image (nursing home wifi at the speed of dialup) any suggestions on what else I might try? I can give you output from sid here or any of the working installs.

I realize you need specific info but please advise what I need to possibly remove from the output to avoid posting sensitive info from a security standpoint.

$ inxi -Eaz
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) driver: btusb
    v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-1.2:3
    chip-ID: 0a12:0001 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.0
    lmp-v: 6 sub-v: 22bb hci-v: 6 rev: 22bb class-ID: 6c010c
  Info: acl-mtu: 310:10 sco-mtu: 64:8 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, audio,
    telephony

I am on stable repos though with this kernel

$ uname -a
Linux antiX-23.1 6.1.60-antix.1-amd64-smp #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Oct 31 01:27:40 EET 2023 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Here you go

~$ inxi -Eaz
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros driver: N/A type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-8:7 chip-ID: 0cf3:e005 class-ID: e001

~$ uname -a
Linux debian-Sid 6.7.12-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.7.12-1 (2024-04-24) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Network is not my strong suit in linux or windows but I can tell you that my other installs output are like yours with HCI, but sid here doesn't.

Since this started with a minimalist net install I keep thinking I must have forgot to add some vital package. This is the leanest/cleanest install I have ever had due to the lack of decent wifi. Presently downloading live bookworm and I will see if that recognizes the bluetooth

update - booted 12.5 stable/KDE and it recognized adapter immediately and can pair with phone. I don't think this is an issue with sid's newer pkgs though. (live KDE neon finds the adapter also). I must have missed something when installing this. I have been using it more than my daily driver* lately and I have it just the way I want it - it is rock solid through all its updates so far. I will never have a leaner install and KDE even. I had a miserable time trying to upgrade a full testing install to sid. So I went with the nightly mini route

*I know, I know. Sid isn't for daily but...

Originally Posted by Nishtya No stranger here to Debian in a variety of branches and derivatives but this one has me stumped. I have 4 linux distros installed and only sid is having a problem finding the laptop's adapter. This installation is a few months old and otherwise fine. I net installed from a nightly trixie mini and changed over to unstable immediately to update and have had no other issues at all with it - KDE desktop. I decided to finally try and pair my cell phone with it (moto g) and no adapter found (not using a dongle and don't have one to try). I brought in another package of drivers for the intel cards and that did not help. Checked it out in Mint cinnamon, PCLOS (debian flavor) and Manjaro stable. No issues finding the adapter and pairing my phone. Before I spend hours downloading a live bookworm image (nursing home wifi at the speed of dialup) any suggestions on what else I might try? I can give you output from sid here or any of the working installs. I realize you need specific info but please advise what I need to possibly remove from the output to avoid posting sensitive info from a security standpoint.

SID is where you go in Debian to test things that might, or are even KNOWN, to break things. That is what SID is for. For regular testing where things SHOULD work, at least somewhat/kinda, you use the testing branch. If I load up SID and something does not work, well that is exactly what I expected.

Please scroll up

Originally Posted by Nishtya update - booted 12.5 stable/KDE and it recognized adapter immediately and can pair with phone. I don't think this is an issue with sid's newer pkgs though. (live KDE neon finds the adapter also). I must have missed something when installing this. I have been using it more than my daily driver* lately and I have it just the way I want it - it is rock solid through all its updates so far. I will never have a leaner install and KDE even. I had a miserable time trying to upgrade a full testing install to sid. So I went with the nightly mini route *I know, I know. Sid isn't for daily but...

It is just one of 4 installs (not including windows) and the only "unstable" pony in my stable of LTS and/or rolling distros. Data backed up in three different places and I have a live USB with persistence kept updated for emergency access from another machine. I do want to create a persistent live with legacy BIOS too for extra insurance.

This is the calmest leanest cleanest install I have had of any in a decade at least. Never had a KDE that just sips resources even with the eye candy flowing. Just trying to hang onto it and since other users with this adapter don't seem to be posting a problem I am sure it was my oversight when doing a mini net-install, picking and choosing what I might need.

I must have missed something. I will find it eventually. I always do. Why do you think I have so many at a time? I like solving puzzles but don't have the experience with an issue in this area.

Solved - FWIW I don't know if this might ever help someone else but here goes: I took a screenshot of the installed packages on the live bookworm and compared to what I have installed on sid here. Removed bluetooth pkgs that were not in live bookworm and added 3 packages that were missing from my sid install. Viola. Bluetooth adapter right there. I knew something was missing, I purposely chose not to install unneeded drivers because of the awful wifi where I am currently housed.