Bluetooth issues on iMac late 2015

Hardware Support
1

Hi everyone. I'm a very recent Linux convert and so far have had very happy success with Zorin 18.1 on a few older laptops/computers.
However, I recently picked up a rather beautiful iMac 27" late-2015 with that amazing retina display but I'm having serious issues with bluetooth connectivity.
I'm using a magic keyboard and trackpad (both of which worked flawlessly on a previous mid-2011 iMac running Zorin) but which are now giving me a proper ball ache on the 2015.
After rebooting there is a 50% chance bluetooth won't even switch on, and the toggle is non-responsive. If it does work, the keyboard usually pairs but the trackpad never does. The trackpad is a first gen a1339 which I am led to believe may be some of the cause of this issue, but the non-working BT is an obviously greater problem.
I've potentially been wasting my time asking ChatGPT etc for help, and spent many hours bashing commands, but the problem persists.
I've stopped using the trackpad altogether and using a magic mouse instead. Again though, even with BT working I still have to go into Settings and toggle the mouse connection before it works.
Any and all help would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks

2

Hello and welcome to the Forum!

Look at this Forum issue, could help with needed drivers for Magic Keyboard and Trackpad:

And look at this Forum entry to get some ideas about the bluetooth problem:

Did you try to reinstall the Bluetooth driver and then to restart bluetooth?

3

Hi and welcome.

I used Brave search engine via Mojeek. The first result using Brave always brings back an A.I. scrape (note Ubuntu 24.04 was used in search criteria as Zorin 18 is a fork of Ubuntu 24.04):

" To find Bluetooth information on a Mac running Ubuntu 24.04, first ensure the service is active using sudo systemctl start bluetooth and check the adapter status with rfkill list to confirm it is unblocked.

You can retrieve specific details using the following command-line tools:

  • Adapter Version and MAC Address : Run hciconfig -a to view the LMP Version (Bluetooth version) and the adapter's MAC address, or use the modern btmgmt info command. For a human-readable summary including the version number, use inxi -E .
  • Paired and Connected Devices : Use bluetoothctl to enter the interactive shell, then run paired-devices to list paired devices with their MAC addresses, or devices to see all discovered devices.
  • Detailed Device Info : Within the bluetoothctl shell, use info <mac_address> to get detailed properties of a specific connected or paired device.
  • Hardware Identification : Use lsusb | grep -i bluetooth or lspci | grep -i bluetooth to identify the specific Bluetooth hardware model and manufacturer.

Note that on Macs, the Bluetooth adapter is often integrated with the Wi-Fi card, so lspci -knn | grep -iA3 'net' can help identify the specific chip model to look up its capabilities online.

AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts.

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4

You could take a look at this German website:
Installing Linux on a 27-inch iMac with Retina Display from 2015

Perhaps it helps. Linux Mint 22.3 is also based on ubuntu 24.04 as Zorin 18, so maybe these steps may help. If you need more help, surely someone can help you (e.g. with the script).

If bluetooth still doesn't work then, you could install kernel 6.14 or 6.8 and test it with those kernels. Old hardware is sometimes better supported by older kernels.

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5

Thanks for your replies. I've had to reboot my iMac for various reasons this evening and bluetooth has been on each time. Mouse still needs toggled on but this is a minor inconvenience at this point.
I'm inclined to stop tinkering for the meantime and hopefully BT will remain stable.

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