Bluetooth Issues - Intel Alder Lake-S

Not a beginner to Linux, new to Arch systems. I’m not having WiFi issues which is why I’m a little stumped. I did already make a post about it, but I accidentally hit post before having any information typed up, sorry about that.

Chip: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-S PCH CNVi WiFi
Devices I want to connect: An Xbox Series X/S controller, Epomaker RT100 keyboard, Soundcloud(? I’m not sure of the brand.) wireless headphones
Symptoms: Absolutely no WiFi issues, Bluetooth devices will at best loop between being connected and disconnected every 5-10 seconds, at worst they are completely unable to connect/be discovered.

I’ve been fighting issues with getting any Bluetooth devices connected for about two months now. My computer has been on two different distributions in that time(Linux Mint and now CachyOS) and issues have persisted across both unfortunately. When I first switched to Linux Mint from Windows on my desktop, any Bluetooth device I tried to connect would connect just fine until 5-10 seconds pass, then they would disconnect and reconnect. It would be a loop that would only end when I either turned off the device or turned off Bluetooth on my computer. I followed the troubleshooting steps for Bluez, but nothing worked.

I’ve been on CachyOS for almost a month now(I decided I wanted a more up-to-date distro for my computer) and decided this past weekend to try to get my Xbox controller connected. No success again, but now I’m not able to connect to either device at all. If they’re discoverable, I get an error saying <device MAC address> not available. After working through the troubleshooting guide once more, searching forums, and looking high and low for answers, I’m coming up blank as to what to do.

I did see that on Hardware for Linux (link to the Hardware for Linux page on Alder Lake-S) my chip seems to have issues across the board, which helps in that I know I’m not the only one having problems, but doesn’t help me solve them. The only thing I can think of to try is switching back to a known supported kernel version, but I’m hesitant to downgrade only for Bluetooth. I’m not that reliant on my devices being wireless.

I guess my question is: Is there any niche solutions for this chip struggling with Bluetooth but not WiFi? Should I just get a different Bluetooth adapter, or am I best off just keeping my devices wired? If I do need to get another adapter, which ones are recommended?

Here’s the raw link to the Alder Lake-S page on Hardware for Linux: https://www.linux-hardware.org/?id=pci:8086-7af0-8086-0074

And sorry again for the double topic, I accidentally hit a keyboard shortcut to post the topic, and in a panic just deleted the old topic to make this one. Not my brightest moment ever, but oh well.

The easiest solution to me is to get a simple BT dongle and use that instead of the on-board adapter. Especially since there are known issues with the chipset. Other than that, wait for the appropriate kernel module to get fixed/added.

Having said that, I can confirm that Intel Corp. AX201 Bluetooth chips used for Dell laptops have not given me any issues with wireless connectivity.

Any sort of diagnosis is impossible without knowing which wi-fi/bluetooth card your PC has. All we can offer is what works for us.

And I can confirm the same for AX211 and BE200 wi-fi/bluetooth cards, also on Dell laptops (both i7-1255U and i5-1245U) using bluetooth mice (both Logitech and cheap $5 ones), 1More earbuds and Sennheiser headphones.