Ubuntu – Can’t pair Bluetooth devices with RTL8723be on Zesty 17.04

I have an Asus Vivobook with the following bluetooth hardware:

Realtek bluetooth usb-2.10<br>
configuration: driver=btusb maxpower=500mA speed=12Mbit/s

I have installed the following:

ii  blueman 2.0.4-1ubuntu2 Graphical bluetooth manager<br>
ii  bluez 5.43-0ubuntu1 Bluetooth tools and daemons<br>
ii  bluez-obexd 5.43-0ubuntu1 bluez obex daemon<br>
ii  bluez-tools 0.2.0~20140808-5build1 Set of tools to manage Bluetooth devices for linux

When I use bluetoothctl to try to pair a headset, I get

[NEW] Controller 58:00:E3:2C:61:5B roland-asus-vivo [default]<br>
[NEW] Device 00:11:22:33:98:DD BTH-068

Trying to pair the BTH-068, I get:

[bluetooth]# pair 00:11:22:33:98:DD<br>
Attempting to pair with 00:11:22:33:98:DD<br>
Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.ConnectionAttemptFailed

In /var/log/syslog I then see no bluetooth related events.

I have commented out this line in /usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf

[keyfile]<br>
#unmanaged-devices=*,except:type:wifi,except:type:wwan

of course, restarted services, purged and reinstalled bluetooth, bluez and some more, but nothing makes a difference.

Additionally, when I allow my Ulefone Metal Android 6 phone to be paired with, the device is not even detected… so it's not just the headset that not being paired with.

~$ sudo lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net; lsusb; rfkill list all; uname -a; dmesg | egrep -i 'blue|firm'

02:00.2 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 06)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [1043:200f]
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:b723]
Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [11ad:1723]
Kernel driver in use: rtl8723be
Kernel modules: rtl8723be
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:b721 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 13d3:5a01 IMC Networks
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. M90/M100 Optical Mouse
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
Linux roland-asus-vivo 4.10.0-22-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP Mon May 22 17:43:20 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[ 0.188318] ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[ 1.309471] [drm] GuC firmware load skipped
[ 2.288855] usb 1-8: Product: Bluetooth Radio
[ 13.691653] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[ 13.691670] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 13.691672] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 13.691675] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 13.691680] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 14.084129] rtl8723be: Using firmware rtlwifi/rtl8723befw.bin
[ 14.381969] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: examining hci_ver=06 hci_rev=000b lmp_ver=06 lmp_subver=8723
[ 14.381970] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: loading rtl_bt/rtl8723b_config.bin
[ 14.382614] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for rtl_bt/rtl8723b_config.bin failed with error -2
[ 14.382616] Bluetooth: hci0: Failed to load rtl_bt/rtl8723b_config.bin
[ 14.382619] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: loading rtl_bt/rtl8723b_fw.bin
[ 14.420969] Bluetooth: hci0: rom_version status=0 version=1
[ 14.420975] Bluetooth: cfg_sz 0, total size 22496
[ 14.530629] Bluetooth: HCI UART driver ver 2.3
[ 14.530631] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol H4 registered
[ 14.530631] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol BCSP registered
[ 14.530632] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol LL registered
[ 14.530633] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol ATH3K registered
[ 14.530633] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Three-wire (H5) registered
[ 14.530667] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Intel registered
[ 14.530684] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Broadcom registered
[ 14.530685] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol QCA registered
[ 14.530686] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol AG6XX registered
[ 14.530687] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Marvell registered
[ 22.674094] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[ 22.674095] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[ 22.674098] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[ 44.488376] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 44.488389] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[ 44.488399] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11


Modules loaded:
~$ lsmod | grep 8723

rtl8723be 90112 0
btcoexist 53248 1 rtl8723be
rtl8723_common 24576 1 rtl8723be
rtl_pci 28672 1 rtl8723be
rtlwifi 73728 2 rtl_pci,rtl8723be
mac80211 782336 3 rtl_pci,rtlwifi,rtl8723be


~$ dmesg | grep -i blue

[ 2.288855] usb 1-8: Product: Bluetooth Radio
[ 13.691653] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[ 13.691670] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 13.691672] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 13.691675] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 13.691680] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 14.381969] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: examining hci_ver=06 hci_rev=000b lmp_ver=06 lmp_subver=8723
[ 14.381970] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: loading rtl_bt/rtl8723b_config.bin
[ 14.382614] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for rtl_bt/rtl8723b_config.bin failed with error -2
[ 14.382616] Bluetooth: hci0: Failed to load rtl_bt/rtl8723b_config.bin
[ 14.382619] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: loading rtl_bt/rtl8723b_fw.bin
[ 14.420969] Bluetooth: hci0: rom_version status=0 version=1
[ 14.420975] Bluetooth: cfg_sz 0, total size 22496
[ 14.530629] Bluetooth: HCI UART driver ver 2.3
[ 14.530631] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol H4 registered
[ 14.530631] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol BCSP registered
[ 14.530632] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol LL registered
[ 14.530633] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol ATH3K registered
[ 14.530633] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Three-wire (H5) registered
[ 14.530667] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Intel registered
[ 14.530684] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Broadcom registered
[ 14.530685] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol QCA registered
[ 14.530686] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol AG6XX registered
[ 14.530687] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Marvell registered
[ 22.674094] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[ 22.674095] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[ 22.674098] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[ 44.488376] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 44.488389] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[ 44.488399] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11


UPDATE: When I plug in an external bluetooth adaptor, the devices are all easily paired, so this seems to be a driver problem.