Can't turn on bluetooth on my system, Alienware 17 R3 with Ubuntu18.04, clicking the button turn on/off slider in the settings menu does nothing.
lspci -knn | grep Net -A3; lsusb
3c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [168c:003e] (rev 32)
Subsystem: Bigfoot Networks, Inc. QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [1a56:1535]
Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
Kernel modules: ath10k_pci
3d:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5227 PCI Express Card Reader [10ec:5227] (rev 01)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1532:005c Razer USA, Ltd
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1bcf:2b8c Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0cf3:e300 Atheros Communications, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 187c:0528 Alienware Corporation
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
also
dmesg | grep -i blue
[ 5.013711] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[ 5.013723] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 5.013726] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 5.013727] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 5.013733] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
and
usb-devices | awk '/0cf3/' RS=; rfkill
T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=04 Cnt=03 Dev#= 3 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.01 Cls=e0(wlcon) Sub=01 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0cf3 ProdID=e300 Rev=00.01
C: #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=e0(wlcon) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=btusb
I: If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=e0(wlcon) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=btusb
ID TYPE DEVICE SOFT HARD
0 wlan dell-rbtn unblocked unblocked
1 wlan phy0 unblocked unblocked
2 bluetooth hci0 unblocked unblocked
and kernel version
uname -r
4.20.15-042015-generic
I tried the solution here, but nothing happened, so I undid it using the steps provided in the answer.
I continued searching for other solutions as this appears to be a common problem, but it seems to depend heavily on adapter/machine, so I didn't want to attempt anything that I don't understand that is not specifically for my setup.
UPDATE: bluetoothctl doesn't give anything, but it seems like it gets stuck at trying to execute whatever it is meant to do after I press Enter, as the terminal curso moves to a new line (where I can't type) and just keeps on blinking forever, until I cancel it.
ALMOST SOLUTION: Doing sudo systemctl restart bluetooth gets the bluetooth running for me, but it has a side effect. The WiFi starts randomly disconnecting every 30-40 minutes, requiring a manual restart of network-manager via sudo su and service network-manager restart. I haven't found another way of restarting the network-manager or WiFi that brings it back.
