January 6, 2026

Bluetooth - my TP-link UB500

I purchased a TP-link UB500 USB to bluetooth dongle. It is a tiny thing that labels itself as "Bluetooth 5.4".
Here is what I see when I plug it in to my Fedora 42 linux desktop:
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: usb 3-1.3: new full-speed USB device number 72 using ehci-pci
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: usb 3-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=2357, idProduct=0604, bcdDevice= 2.00
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: usb 3-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: usb 3-1.3: Product: TP-Link UB500 Adapter
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: usb 3-1.3: Manufacturer:
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: usb 3-1.3: SerialNumber: 782051F60784
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: NET: Registered PF_BLUETOOTH protocol family
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[1]: Starting systemd-rfkill.service - Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status...
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: examining hci_ver=0a hci_rev=000b lmp_ver=0a lmp_subver=8761
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=1
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_fw.bin
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[31123]: Reached target bluetooth.target - Bluetooth.
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[1]: Starting bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service...
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761bu_config.bin
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: cfg_sz 6, total sz 30210
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[1]: Started systemd-rfkill.service - Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-rfkill comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona bluetoothd[1977275]: Bluetooth daemon 5.84
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[1]: Started bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service.
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=bluetooth comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit: BPF prog-id=329 op=UNLOAD
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit: BPF prog-id=328 op=UNLOAD
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[1]: Reached target bluetooth.target - Bluetooth Support.
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona bluetoothd[1977275]: Starting SDP server
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona bluetoothd[1977275]: Bluetooth management interface 1.23 initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit: BPF prog-id=335 op=LOAD
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit: BPF prog-id=336 op=LOAD
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit: BPF prog-id=337 op=LOAD
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[1]: Starting systemd-hostnamed.service - Hostname Service...
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: fw version 0xdfc6d922
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona systemd[1]: Started systemd-hostnamed.service - Hostname Service.
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=systemd-hostnamed comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona bluetoothd[1977275]: Battery Provider Manager created
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: MGMT ver 1.23
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Jan  6 18:07:07 trona kernel: Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11


Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Software pages / tom@mmto.org