Bluetooth in 16.04.1 vs. 16.04

Support & Help Requests Hardware
1

Hi all,
finally I got round to looking at the first update to 16.04 LTS, which is supposed to be a better version than 16.04 on all accounts. However, I seem to have come across a scenario where the opposite is the case: Bluetooth.
My system is a Thinkpad T510, it comes with an integrated Broadcom Bluetooth device. My main OS is still Ubuntu MATE 14.04, but I have a second partition with plain Ubuntu (15.10 currently), because I needed a more recent kernel at one point in the past. My intent is to pair the Bluetooth device with a Logitech BT Audio adapter attached to my Stereo equipment for better sound quality.
The pairing worked on 14.04, but I was unable to redirect the audio output to BT, the BT device just did not show up as a target. I blamed that on the early days status of UM 14.04 and tried 15.10. Sure enough it worked and thus seemed to back my theory.
Now I tried UM 16.04.1, booted from a DVD in "try out" mode. It did not work in the sense that it did not detect the Logitech for pairing. I tried the original 16.04, and to my surprise it worked. So I went back to 16.04.1 and tried to analyze the cause of the problem. I gathered all the entries from syslog that have "bluetooth" in them. Here they are:

Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service...
...
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Bluetooth daemon 5.37
...
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate systemd[1]: Reached target Bluetooth.
...
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Starting SDP server
...
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.854391] sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 >
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.854960] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.862484] usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.878498] usb 2-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
...
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.958962] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=217f
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.958967] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.958970] usb 1-1.4: Product: Broadcom Bluetooth Device
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.958978] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Broadcom Corp
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 5.958979] usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
...
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 80.377992] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.21
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 80.378014] NET: Registered protocol family 31
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 80.378016] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 80.378021] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 80.378024] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 80.378031] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
...
Dec 13 10:28:10 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 83.710817] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: radio is unblocked
...
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Bluetooth management interface 1.10 initialized
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Failed to obtain handles for "Service Changed" characteristic
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 105.016105] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 105.016108] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 105.016113] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Not enough free handles to register service
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Error adding Link Loss service
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Not enough free handles to register service
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: message repeated 2 times: [ Not enough free handles to register service]
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Current Time Service could not be registered
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: gatt-time-server: Input/output error (5)
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Not enough free handles to register service
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Not enough free handles to register service
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Sap driver initialization failed.
Dec 13 10:28:14 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
...
Dec 13 10:28:32 ubuntu-mate NetworkManager[3908]: [1481624912.6405] Loaded device plugin: NMBluezManager (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-bluetooth.so)
...
Dec 13 10:29:12 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.26 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Dec 13 10:29:12 ubuntu-mate bluetoothd[3946]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.26 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
...
Dec 13 10:29:13 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 163.823210] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Dec 13 10:29:13 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 163.823219] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Dec 13 10:29:13 ubuntu-mate kernel: [ 163.823225] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/modules/4.4.0-31-generic/kernel/net/bluetooth/bluetooth.ko: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/modules/4.4.0-31-generic/kernel/drivers/bluetooth/btbcm.ko: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/modules/4.4.0-31-generic/kernel/drivers/bluetooth/btrtl.ko: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/modules/4.4.0-31-generic/kernel/drivers/bluetooth/btusb.ko: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.target: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/etc/bluetooth/main.conf: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/etc/bluetooth/proximity.conf: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/etc/bluetooth/input.conf: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/etc/bluetooth/network.conf: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/modules/4.4.0-31-generic/kernel/net/bluetooth/bnep/bnep.ko: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-bluetooth.so: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-bluetooth.so: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/udev/rules.d/50-bluetooth-hci-auto-poweron.rules: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/usr/lib/pulse-8.0/modules/module-bluetooth-policy.so: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/usr/lib/pulse-8.0/modules/module-bluetooth-discover.so: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/modules/4.4.0-31-generic/kernel/net/bluetooth/rfcomm/rfcomm.ko: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:K01bluetooth: Ignored relative path
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:K01bluetooth: Ignored relative path
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:S03bluetooth: Ignored relative path
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:S03bluetooth: Ignored relative path
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:bluetooth: Ignored relative path
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...
Dec 13 10:31:17 ubuntu-mate ureadahead[2350]: ureadahead:/usr/lib/bluetooth/obexd: Error retrieving chunk extents: Operation not supported
...

No doubt there is something wrong. I cannot make out the root cause, however, but it seems to have been introduced by 16.04.1. Can someone in the know take a look at this, please?
Cheers
GUJ

2

Right...
Nobody felt like responding, so I do it myself. I found a solution for my old 14.04, so there goes my main reason to move to 16.04, with all the uncertainty regarding migration from the unofficial version to an official flavour. Some say it works, others say it won't. I can't be bothered to risk to break my system, maybe 18.04 then.
Here is my solution after lots of trial and error based on various ideas I had googled. The Blueman version was a bit early days. Just had to add a ppa for Blueman like this

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:blueman/ppa

and update the blueman package. This (probably plus installing some additional pulseaudio packages) made my Logitech device appear as an audio device. From there onwards it was easy. but one more thing: :wink:
Once I had it working I found out that my BT radio connection was shaky, it broke down when I got between the laptop and the Logitech, thus degrading the radio signal. This gave a whole new meaning to the old saying "the problem sits in front of the keyboard". :joy:
And this phenomenon, I now believe, has erratically caused the inexplicable differences between 16.04 and 16.04.1, maybe the fact that 16.04.1 was ran off a DVD in live mode added to it. I guess it was false alarm.

Cheers
GUJ