The following tutorial describes how to enable bluetooth support on Toshiba laptops running Linux. This guide is written from an Ubuntu perspective but should be very similar for other distros.

Image credit goes to gadgetsteria.

I've found that there are two types of Toshiba laptops - those with Toshiba BIOS and those with Phoenix BIOS. It is easy to test which kind of BIOS you have, just open a terminal and type 

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sudo modprobe toshiba_acpi

If the response is something like FATAL: Error inserting toshiba_acpi (/lib/modules/xxxx/toshiba_acpi.ko): Operation not permitted then you have the Phoenix BIOS. In that case, skip ahead to the Phoenix section. It is recommended that the following packages be installed for bluetooth support (if they aren't already installed): bluez and gnome-bluetooth. First, test if the bluetooth adapter is recognized

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sudo hcitool dev

 If this returns just "Dev:" and nothing else, then continue with the steps below. If it does show a device and its MAC address, then just run

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bluetooth-applet

Toshiba BIOS

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sudo toshset -bluetooth on

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bluetooth-properties

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bluetooth-applet

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sudo toshset -bluetooth off

Phoenix BIOS

We're going to use the omnibook kernel module to add support for the Phoenix BIOS. The best way is to use checkinstall (available via synaptic or apt-get) instead of "make install" because it is then easily possible to uninstall the omnibook module later on. However, you can just substitute the checkinstall command below with "make install" if you like.

First, clone the latest version of omnibook from git  

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git clone git://omnibook.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/omnibook/omnibook
cd omnibook/

Now, compile and install the omnibook module

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make
sudo checkinstall

We now need to load the module and see if we can now see the bluetooth adapter

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sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe omnibook ectype=14
hcitool dev # should reveal the device

 If you get the same result as before with hcitool, then you'll need to try a different ectype until you find the right one for your hardware. Valid ectype values are 1-16. To do this, repeat the following commands, trying different ectypes

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sudo make unload # alternatively try $ sudo modprobe -r omnibook 
sudo modprobe omnibook ectype=14 && dmesg | grep omnibook && hcitool dev

Once you find the right ectype, your model will no longer show up as "unknown" and you should see the device. Moreover, the directory /proc/omnibook should contain a file called bluetooth. You can check the status of your bluetooth adapter by running

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cat /proc/omnibook/bluetooth

Now its time to automate this process so the adapter is available when you boot. Substitute your ectype value in the following commands

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sudo su echo "omnibook" >> /etc/modules echo "options omnibook ectype=14 userset=1 bluetooth=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/omnibook.conf exit

Now, set the program bluetooth-applet to start with your window manager (for Gnome look at Startup Applications from the main menu). This should do it - now you have a working bluetooth adapter for your Toshiba laptop on Linux! I have also created a script to automate the process of enabling/disabling your adapter as well as checking on it's status. You can download it here:

Download Bluetooth-Utility