Dietpi: Onboard bluetooth not working at NanoPi Neo2

[ZakMcCrack]

With a fresh installation it was not possible to enable (onboard) bluetooth

Required Information

NanoPi Neo2
Linux DietPi 4.14.0 #82 SMP Fri Dec 8 14:33:14 CST 2017 aarch64
SanDisk ultra

Additional Information (if applicable)

fresh installed,

Steps to reproduce

installed,
updated / upgraded,
activated bluetooth via dietpi-config -> advanced options -> enable bluetooth
restart

Expected behaviour

bluetooth should work

Actual behaviour

no bluetooth device can be found
After restart
systemctl status bluetooth shows: loaded, but inactive.

root@DietPiNeo:~# systemctl status bluetooth
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
Condition: start condition failed at Fri 2020-04-24 17:37:38 CEST; 13min ago
     Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)

root@DietPiNeo:~# systemctl status hciuart
Unit hciuart.service could not be found.

root@DietPiNeo:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
bluetooth             331776  0
ir_lirc_codec          16384  0
lirc_dev               16384  1 ir_lirc_codec
sunxi_cir              16384  0
rc_core                32768  4 ir_lirc_codec,lirc_dev,sunxi_cir
snd_soc_simple_card    16384  0
snd_soc_simple_card_utils    16384  1 snd_soc_simple_card
rtc_ds1307             24576  0
g_mass_storage         16384  0
usb_f_mass_storage     36864  1 g_mass_storage
libcomposite           45056  2 g_mass_storage,usb_f_mass_storage

root@DietPiNeo:~# hcitool dev
Devices:

Extra details

I tried v6.0 and v6.14 image -> same behaviour

[MichaIng]

@ZakMcCrack
Many thanks for your report.

Condition: start condition failed at Fri 2020-04-24 17:37:38 CEST; 13min ago

This means /sys/class/bluetooth is not available. I found a case where this is if it's blocked by rfkill.

Could you ckeck:

rfkill list

and if you find some Bluetooth-related entry, e.g.:

rfkill unblock bluetooth

If this doesn't help, probably something in kernel or device tree is missing. You could you test it with the new Buster-based image: https://dietpi.com/downloads/testing/DietPi_NanoPiNEO2-ARMv8-Buster.7z
It is based on Armbian with Linux 5.4. AFAIK, the current "stable" image is based on FriendlyARM image which is not available anymore (they do not provide Debian images anymore, only Ubuntu/FriendlyCore ones) and no kernel/firmware sources that I'm aware of.

[StephanStS]

On the NEO2 there should be no Bluetooth at all.
See

• http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO2#Hardware_Spec or
• https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=180

Typically the NanoPi boards which have WiFi have a WiFi/Bluetooth combo chip.
E.g. NEO4 or NEO Air do have Bluetooth. See

• http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO_Air#Hardware_Spec
• http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO4#Hardware_Spec

So I assume you will be search for Bluetooth on your NEO2 in vain. :-(

[MichaIng]

@StephanStS
That would be of course a simple explaination 😄. I never heard of an SBC with WiFi-only (not BT combo) chip, but since BT is not mentioned in specs, possibly here we have one.

The dietpi-config entry btw shows up in every case (besides virtual machine), which make sense since one can always attach e.g. a USB BT adapter. It installs packages, enables services and kernel modules in a generic way and device tree overlays or special setup where known, so all that can succeed even without any BT adapter attached. We could add a hint about that, although it is probably too obvious that you need an adapter before BT can work?

@ZakMcCrack
Just to be sure: You got the information somewhere that NanoPi NEO2 has (onboard) BT or did you even got it working with another OS?

[StephanStS]

@MichaIng: I did not wanted to mention that the NEO2 has WiFi. It does not have one.

I could not test BT due to a missing BT USB adapter.
At least WiFi via an USB WiFi adpater works.

[Joulinar]

yup there is no WiFi/ Bluetooth on a NanoPi NEO2 http://nanopi.io/nanopi-neo2.html
This is available on the Plus2 version only http://nanopi.io/nanopi-neo-plus2.html

[MichaIng]

That's true, just remember this being one major difference between this two boards. So things are then true the other way round: Without onboard WiFi there is no onboard BT in all cases known to me 😉.

[ZakMcCrack]

Sorry, you're absolutely right. I changed between RPi4, RPi Zero W and NanoPi Neo2 the whole day - all with DietPi on it.
I asked myself: what the hell is different? This might be the reason...

Nevertheless. Great work. Thanks.