Ubuntu 16.04 x64 unable to power on bluetooth

My bluetooth device fails (powers off) randomly and I can't turn it back on again unless I reboot (somethimes power off/on my laptop). I have Lenovo Y50-70 laptop running Ubuntu 16.04 x64

Trying to power off/on bluetooth from unity indicator panel icon or from System Settings -> Bluetooth logs the following:

bluetoothd[18093]: Failed to set mode: Failed (0x03)

Device is not blocked:

$ sudo rfkill list
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no
1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no
4: hci0: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no

hciconfig lists the device as down:

$ sudo hciconfig -a hci0
hci0: Type: BR/EDR Bus: USB BD Address: E8:B1:FC:DC:DC:95 ACL MTU: 1021:5 SCO MTU: 96:5 DOWN RX bytes:281058 acl:11356 sco:0 events:297 errors:0 TX bytes:28099 acl:52 sco:0 commands:210 errors:0 Features: 0xff 0xfe 0x0f 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87 Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 

And can't be brought up or reset:

$ sudo hciconfig hci0 up
Can't init device hci0: Connection timed out (110)
$ sudo hciconfig hci0 reset
Can't init device hci0: Connection timed out (110)

Retarting the servies gives the following log errors, even though it seems running

~$ sudo service bluetooth status
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Du 2017-09-03 13:05:40 EEST; 3s ago Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Main PID: 18093 (bluetoothd)
Status: "Running" Tasks: 1
Memory: 1016.0K CPU: 5ms
CGroup: / └─18093 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Error adding Link Loss service
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Not enough free handles to register service
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Not enough free handles to register service
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Not enough free handles to register service
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Current Time Service could not be registered
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: gatt-time-server: Input/output error (5)
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Not enough free handles to register service
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Not enough free handles to register service
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: Sap driver initialization failed.
sep 03 13:05:40 burfee bluetoothd[18093]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)

Trying to power it on from bluetoothctl:

$ bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller E8:B1:FC:DC:DC:95 burfee-0 [default]
[NEW] Device A4:77:33:77:AB:B3 A4-77-33-77-AB-B3
[NEW] Device 88:C6:26:72:12:7E Logitech BT Adapter
[NEW] Device 84:38:35:3B:BB:94 Apple Wireless Trackpad
[bluetooth]# power on
Failed to set power on: org.bluez.Error.Failed

I even tried a kernel upgrade from 4.4 to 4.6

$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 4.6.0-040600-generic #201606100558 SMP Fri Jun 10 10:01:15 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Edit: upgraded now:

$ uname -a
Linux burfee 4.10.0-33-generic #37~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 11 14:07:24 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Device:

$ lspci -knn | grep Net -A3; lsusb
08:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 [8086:08b2] (rev 83) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 [8086:c270] Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi Kernel modules: iwlwifi
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 045e:00db Microsoft Corp. Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 V1.0
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 145f:01ae Trust
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp.
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 5986:055e Acer, Inc
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

It seems to crash mostly when the laptop is doing more processing, but also had it crash when I was just moving the cursor on the screen or opening Krusader. I notice when it crashes instantly, because I am using an Apple Magic Trackpad.

I don't have a Fn hotkey on my laptop to hard power bluetooth off/on, or I couldn't find it, so the only option is to power off/on the laptop, which is quite a pain, since this problem occurs often.

1 Answer

I'm posting this, not as a solution, but as a work-around, as it may help others. I am encountering bluetooth issues on 2 different laptops, both with Ubuntu 16.04 and the work-arounds are different:

• for the first laptop, the one in the question, If I instantly notice that bluetooth crashed, I go to the Unity bluetooth indicator panel icon, then switch the toggle to off, wait a few moments for it to turn off, then turn it back on. Sometimes, if it takes too long after the crash and I don't do the toggle switching, for some weird reason, it doesn't work anymore. Other times, it doesn't work even if I react immediately after the crash. When this happens, I suspend my laptop for a few moments, then wake it back.
• For the second laptop, the toggle trick does not work. What works is opening the bluetooth settings, either by searching for the Unity lens, or by going to System Settings > Bluetooth, and turn it off and back on from the toggle here. As a side note, this work-around always works for this laptop, but does not work for the first laptop.

Why the laptops react in different ways to those toggle switches, I don't know, but, after weeks of trying different ways to fix the bluetooth issue, these are the solution I found to not have to restart my laptops when I can no longer use my Magic Trackpad.