Disable internal RTL8723BE bluetooth completely for USB adapter

[afriendcalledben]

Hi,

I have a Lenevo Flex 2 15 Pro running Ubuntu 14.04. It has an internal Realtek RTL8723BE Wifi / Bluetooth module that doesn't work too great with Ubuntu it seems.

I want the bluetooth to work well and at a long disance so I bought a IOGEAR GBU321 Long Range Bluetooth USB adaptor. However, I can't seem to be able to disable the internal module so that the USB adapter can become the default. When I try to connect devices, they connect automatically to the Realtek (hci0) and not the IOGear (hci1) and then lose the connection or don't function correctly.

Here's what I've tried:

• Gone into the BIOS to attempt to disable the module. BIOS is too basic and option is not in Power Management.
• Used "sudo hciconfig hci0 down" to attempt to diable the module within Ubuntu. This disables the USB adaptor as well.
• Attempted to revive only the USB adaptor with "sudo rfkill unblock all" and then "sudo hciconfig hci1 up"

That last method worked once for about 20 seconds because the internal took a moment to come back up. The devices worked perfectly but as soon as it came back it booted the devices off hci1 and took over

Sorry for the long explanation. Any help or advice on this matter would really genuinely be appreciated.

N.B. I'm trying to pair PS Move controllers in order to play JS Joust from Sportsfriends

[jeremy31]

Can you post the results from

lsmod | grep bluetooth

[afriendcalledben]

Ah, this is embarrassing. I've just realised I didn't bring the adaptor in with me. Pretty stupid of me.
But thank you for your quick reply. I'll post the results as soon as I can go grab it.

[jeremy31]

Ah, this is embarrassing. I've just realised I didn't bring the adaptor in with me. Pretty stupid of me.
But thank you for your quick reply. I'll post the results as soon as I can go grab it.

I just need to see what modules load for the realtek

[afriendcalledben]

Ah I see, here you go:

bluetooth             391136  22 bnep,btusb,rfcomm

Thanks.

[jeremy31]

Ah I see, here you go:

bluetooth             391136  22 bnep,btusb,rfcomm

Thanks.

Post the full list

lsmod

Usually the bluetooth doesn't work at all with the 8723

[afriendcalledben]

Yeah, that seems to be the case. I'd wrench it out of my laptop if I could. Here's the full response:

Module                  Size  Used by
ctr                    13049  3 
ccm                    17773  3 
bnep                   19624  2 
rfcomm                 69160  12 
nls_iso8859_1          12713  1 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     46368  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    65580  1 
intel_rapl             18773  0 
x86_pkg_temp_thermal    14205  0 
intel_powerclamp       14705  0 
coretemp               13435  0 
uvcvideo               80885  0 
snd_hda_intel          56451  5 
snd_hda_codec         192906  3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
kvm                   455835  0 
arc4                   12608  2 
videobuf2_vmalloc      13216  1 uvcvideo
snd_hwdep              13602  1 snd_hda_codec
rtl8723be             139164  0 
videobuf2_memops       13362  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core         40664  1 uvcvideo
snd_pcm               102099  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
nouveau              1097199  1 
videodev              134688  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
crct10dif_pclmul       14289  0 
snd_page_alloc         18710  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
btcoexist             183378  1 rtl8723be
crc32_pclmul           13113  0 
ghash_clmulni_intel    13216  0 
aesni_intel            55624  6 
snd_seq_midi           13324  0 
aes_x86_64             17131  1 aesni_intel
snd_seq_midi_event     14899  1 snd_seq_midi
lrw                    13286  1 aesni_intel
snd_rawmidi            30144  1 snd_seq_midi
gf128mul               14951  1 lrw
rtl_pci                39740  1 rtl8723be
glue_helper            13990  1 aesni_intel
rtlwifi               121320  3 btcoexist,rtl_pci,rtl8723be
mac80211              630669  3 rtl_pci,rtlwifi,rtl8723be
ablk_helper            13597  1 aesni_intel
cfg80211              484040  2 mac80211,rtlwifi
mxm_wmi                13021  1 nouveau
cryptd                 20359  3 ghash_clmulni_intel,aesni_intel,ablk_helper
snd_seq                61560  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
i915                  784207  5 
ttm                    85150  1 nouveau
snd_seq_device         14497  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
snd_timer              29482  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
drm_kms_helper         55071  2 i915,nouveau
btusb                  32412  0 
parport_pc             32701  0 
drm                   303102  7 ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper,nouveau
bluetooth             391136  22 bnep,btusb,rfcomm
joydev                 17381  0 
serio_raw              13462  0 
mei_me                 18627  0 
video                  19476  2 i915,nouveau
ppdev                  17671  0 
snd                    69322  21 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device,snd_seq_midi
ideapad_laptop         18216  0 
wmi                    19177  2 mxm_wmi,nouveau
mei                    82276  1 mei_me
i2c_algo_bit           13413  2 i915,nouveau
lpc_ich                21080  0 
soundcore              12680  1 snd
lp                     17759  0 
sparse_keymap          13948  1 ideapad_laptop
parport                42348  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
hid_multitouch         17407  0 
mac_hid                13205  0 
hid_generic            12548  0 
usbhid                 52659  0 
hid                   106148  3 hid_multitouch,hid_generic,usbhid
psmouse               106714  0 
ahci                   25819  3 
libahci                32716  1 ahci
r8169                  67581  0 
mii                    13934  1 r8169

[afriendcalledben]

Sorry to be clear, it appears to work in that it appears as a device and you can block it, up and down it etc.

It just can't actually make and hold a connection.

[jeremy31]

Post the results from

lsusb

there might be a couple different ways to do this
have you tried

rfkill list all

and used the number for hci0 to block it with

rfkill block

followed by the number?
and

uname -a

[afriendcalledben]

Hi Jeremy,

lsusb returns:

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 03eb:8a1b Atmel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:b728 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 5986:0652 Acer, Inc 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 045e:07b1 Microsoft Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

uname -a returns:

Linux afcb-ubuntu 3.13.0-44-generic #73-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 16 00:22:43 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Just so you know, I haven't got hold of the adaptor yet, in case it's needed at this point.

I have tried the rfkill block method. Unfortunately, where 0 is the itnernal module and 1 is the external adapter, if I do:

rfkill block 0

... it soft blocks them both and if I then do:

rfkill unblock 1

... they both come back up. They seem linked somehow which makes no sense to me.