June 5, 20251 yr I've got Orange Pi 2W board and installed Debian 12 Home Assistant image to it (image link). There is a huge problem with it. Very often there is no bluetooth module appeared in system. I need to reboot system for 10-15 timer to make it work. What can be a reason? I attached 2 boot logs (with good BT appears and no BT appears), I hope it will help to find out the issue. boot_log_bt_good_02.zip boot_log_bt_bad_02.zip
June 9, 20251 yr Hi, without owning this board, chatgpt is pointing out to an initialisation issue of the bluetooth system caused by the GPIO pin not being correctly handled at boot. [ 6.024062] WCN: marlin chip en dummy pull up -- need manually set GPIO The correct solution would be to handle the init in the dtb file, but you can try the following systemd initialisation as a workaround to see if it works. Create (as root) the following service file /etc/systemd/system/bt-gpio.service with the contents: [Unit] Description=Enable GPIO for Bluetooth chip Before=bluetooth.service [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'echo 225 > /sys/class/gpio/export || true; echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/direction; echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/value' [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Then enable it (as root): systemctl daemon-reexec systemctl daemon-reload systemctl enable bt-gpio.service Reboot and check if the bluetooth starts correctly. Post the boot log if it does not.
June 10, 20251 yr Author Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it didn't help. Here is a boot log after your fix: bt_boot_fail_after_fix.txt
June 10, 20251 yr I did not see the bt-gpio service starting on boot. Can you post the status ? On 6/9/2025 at 8:28 AM, IBV said: systemctl status bt-gpio.service
June 11, 20251 yr Author user@orangepizero2w:~$ systemctl status bt-gpio.service × bt-gpio.service - Enable GPIO for Bluetooth chip Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/bt-gpio.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2025-06-10 23:18:23 +03; 11h ago Process: 489 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c echo 225 > /sys/class/gpio/export || true; echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/direction; echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/value (code=exited, status=2) Main PID: 489 (code=exited, status=2) CPU: 5ms jun 10 23:18:23 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: Starting bt-gpio.service - Enable GPIO for Bluetooth chip... jun 10 23:18:23 orangepizero2w sh[489]: /bin/sh: 1: echo: echo: I/O error jun 10 23:18:23 orangepizero2w sh[489]: /bin/sh: 1: cannot create /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/direction: Directory nonexistent jun 10 23:18:23 orangepizero2w sh[489]: /bin/sh: 1: cannot create /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/value: Directory nonexistent jun 10 23:18:23 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: bt-gpio.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT jun 10 23:18:23 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: bt-gpio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. jun 10 23:18:23 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: Failed to start bt-gpio.service - Enable GPIO for Bluetooth chip. Also I attached boot log which is connected to that "systemctl status bt-gpio.service" command. bt_fail_boot_log_3.txt When the board was boot correctly (BT is working fine) the output looks the same: user@orangepizero2w:~$ systemctl status bt-gpio.service × bt-gpio.service - Enable GPIO for Bluetooth chip Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/bt-gpio.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2025-06-11 11:04:21 +03; 1min 30s ago Process: 492 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c echo 225 > /sys/class/gpio/export || true; echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/direction; echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/value (code=exited, status=2) Main PID: 492 (code=exited, status=2) CPU: 5ms jun 11 11:04:21 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: Starting bt-gpio.service - Enable GPIO for Bluetooth chip... jun 11 11:04:21 orangepizero2w sh[492]: /bin/sh: 1: echo: echo: I/O error jun 11 11:04:21 orangepizero2w sh[492]: /bin/sh: 1: cannot create /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/direction: Directory nonexistent jun 11 11:04:21 orangepizero2w sh[492]: /bin/sh: 1: cannot create /sys/class/gpio/gpio225/value: Directory nonexistent jun 11 11:04:21 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: bt-gpio.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT jun 11 11:04:21 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: bt-gpio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. jun 11 11:04:21 orangepizero2w systemd[1]: Failed to start bt-gpio.service - Enable GPIO for Bluetooth chip.
June 11, 20251 yr sudo armbian-config Are you able to see the below overlays ? If yes, activate them. System → Hardware/Kernel → Activate UART0, UART1, BT overlays
June 11, 20251 yr Author I don't see such interfaces. Could you point me if one of these are suitable?
June 11, 20251 yr Difficult to see like this, better list the overlay directory: ls /boot/dtb/overlays
June 11, 20251 yr Author ls: unable to get access to '/boot/dtb/overlays': No such file or directory. Despite this, I attached full tree of "boot" directory. boot_dir_content.txt Edited June 11, 20251 yr by sminder
June 12, 20251 yr Ok, if you want we can try one more thing. According to AI, the correct way to always enable the bluetooth is to do it via a custom overlay, which is not done. First, remove the bt-gpio.service, it does not help: sudo sytemctl disable bt-gpio.service sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/bt-gpio.service sudo systemctl daemon-reload Then, create the custom overlay file /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_ph1.dts with the following content: /dts-v1/; /plugin/; &pio { bt_en_pin: bt_en_pin { pins = "PH1"; function = "gpio_out"; bias-pull-up; output-high; }; }; &uart0 { pinctrl-names = "default"; pinctrl-0 = <&uart0_pins>; status = "okay"; }; &wcn_bt { compatible = "wcn,bt"; uart = <&uart0>; enable-gpios = <&pio 7 1 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; // PH1 = GPIO 225 status = "okay"; }; Then we can try to compile and install it: sudo armbian-add-overlay /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_ph1.dts Then activate it in /boot/armbianEnv.txt, add the following line: user_overlays=bt_enable_ph1 If all works well try to reboot and see what happens.
June 12, 20251 yr Author sudo armbian-add-overlay /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_ph1.dts Compiling the overlay Error: /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_ph1.dts:22.30-31 syntax error FATAL ERROR: Unable to parse input tree Error compiling the overlay Unfortunately, I didn't understand what the error is.
June 12, 20251 yr Ok, replace the contents of the dts file with this: /dts-v1/; /plugin/; / { fragment@0 { target = <&pio>; __overlay__ { bt_enable_pin: bt_enable_pin { pins = "PH1"; function = "gpio_out"; bias-pull-up; output-high; }; }; }; }; And try again the steps
June 12, 20251 yr Author That was successful. Unfortunately, the fail rate not too much better than as I added new service: one boot was good, one was bad. Here is a log of the fail boot. bt_boot_fail_after_new_devicetree.txt
June 12, 20251 yr Ok, create a new dts /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_full.dts /dts-v1/; /plugin/; &pio { bt_en_pin: bt_en_pin { pins = "PH1"; function = "gpio_out"; bias-pull-up; output-high; }; bt_wake_pin: bt_wake_pin { pins = "PH0"; function = "gpio_in"; bias-pull-up; }; }; &{/soc} { wcn_bt: wcn_bt@0 { compatible = "wcn,bt"; status = "okay"; enable-gpios = <&pio 7 1 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; // PH1 = GPIO225 wake-gpios = <&pio 7 0 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>; // PH0 = GPIO224 (if connected) }; }; And compile it: sudo armbian-add-overlay /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_full.dts Then enable it in /boot/armbianEnv.txt user_overlays=bt_enable_full See if there's an improvement on boot.
June 12, 20251 yr Author sudo armbian-add-overlay /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_full.dts Compiling the overlay Error: /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_full.dts:23.34-35 syntax error FATAL ERROR: Unable to parse input tree Error compiling the overlay Ok, I guess the problem was in "GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH" macros. So I changed them to "1". File has compiled and I begun to test the board. Two times in row the board booted ok, but next time BT has failed.
June 12, 20251 yr Ok, try with this dts file /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_clean.dts /dts-v1/; /plugin/; &pio { bt_en_pin: bt_en_pin { pins = "PH1"; // GPIO225 function = "gpio_out"; bias-pull-up; drive-strength = <20>; output-high; }; }; Compile it: sudo armbian-add-overlay /boot/overlay-user/bt_enable_clean.dts and enable it in /boot/armbianEnv.txt user_overlays=bt_enable_clean Then see if better on reboot.
June 13, 20251 yr Author 4 of 5 times works well then failed. bt_boot_fail_05.txt Could you explaint it to me what you suggest to do? As I see you tried to set logic level on PH1 pin on CPU. In accordance with schematic this pin is connected to debug UART (RX) signal and doesn't affect on wireless chip. So I don't understand what you try to do. One more thing is BT and WiFi are in one chip, WiFi works well every time. As I understand the issue doesn't affect the chip itself otherwise WiFi wouldn't work either.
June 13, 20251 yr The actions in the dts for setting the GPIO pin are is based on the boot log line. marlin chip en dummy pull up -- need manually set GPIO You can check the whole discussion here and the reasoning https://chatgpt.com/share/68466d15-e5bc-8013-b200-17ae7f7c89fc However, After your last answer, Chatgpt suggests this is not really the issue, but a delayed initialisation would help. When the bt fails to initialise, try the following: sudo hciattach /dev/ttyS0 any 115200 flow sudo hciconfig hci0 up If this works, you can put this in a service to run at every boot. You can try yourself to continue the above conversation with chatgpt and see if you find the final solution. Then you can post it here.
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