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Disable built-in Atheros Bluetooth in 10.10?

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Disable built-in Atheros Bluetooth in 10.10

Hi,

I've just migrated from Chameleon to Clover and upgrade to 10.10. For now, I cannot disable Atheros bluetooth anymore.

In 10.9.x with Chameleon, it is as simple as deleting IOath3kfrmwr.kext and rebuild cache. With clover, I do not see this kext anymore in S/L/E, not sure how to do the equivalent task.

FYI, in System info, it recognizes two Bluetooth hosts

- Bluetooth USB Host Controller //This is the built-in atheros BT card
- Broadcom USB Bluetooth 4.0 Controller (Dongle BT) //This is my external BT USB

So I think it's not my USB problem.

Thanks in advance,
==========================

Solution

- Remove IOath3kfrmwr.kext or BTFirmwareUploader.kext in S/L/E. Then rebuild cache
- Open your laptop and tape 2 adjacent pins (36 and 38) on the Atheros card as the image below. You can see the text D+ on the top of two pins.


It is hard to see in a small image, you can click on my image link and zoom to see the pins and "D+"

After that, re-assemble Atheros card in laptop and crappy Atheros Bluetooth will not bother us anymore. :)

For more info, here is the pin spec



As you can see, two pins 36 and 38 are used USB_D+ and USB_D-.

Thank you, Rehabman for the suggestion and timohour for small guide and pin spec at this post
 
Last edited:
Hi,

I've just migrated from Chameleon to Clover and upgrade to 10.10. For now, I cannot disable Atheros bluetooth anymore.

In 10.9.x with Chameleon, it is as simple as deleting IOath3kfrmwr.kext and rebuild cache. With clover, I do not see this kext anymore in S/L/E, not sure how to do the equivalent task.

FYI, in System info, it recognizes two Bluetooth hosts

- Bluetooth USB Host Controller //This is the built-in atheros BT card
- Broadcom USB Bluetooth 4.0 Controller (Dongle BT) //This is my external BT USB

So I think it's not my USB problem.

Thanks in advance,

Check for BTFirmwareUploader.kext either in /S/L/E or, on EFI partition, /EFI/Clover/kexts/Other.
 
Thanks RehabMan,

I tried to do things as follows

- Deleted BTFirmwareUploader.kext and re-build cache, and restart. Then Atheros was still working
- Turned off my Built-in atheros BT (seem does not work?!), and restart. Atheros was still working
- Re-run PBI CE (that obviously installed BTFirmwareUploader.kext again and restart

Now buit-in atheros card has disappeared in System Info and I can use my external Bluetooth.

Not sure how it's solved but at least someone has the same issue as mine should try.

Please look at the 1st post for the solution
 
Thanks RehabMan,

I tried to do things as follows

- Deleted BTFirmwareUploader.kext and re-build cache, and restart. Then Atheros was still working
- Turned off my Built-in atheros BT (seem does not work?!), and restart. Atheros was still working
- Re-run PBI CE (that obviously installed BTFirmwareUploader.kext again and restart

Now buit-in atheros card has disappeared in System Info and I can use my external Bluetooth.

Not sure how it's solved but at least someone has the same issue as mine should try.

The Atheros will be active anytime firmware is loaded to the device. A cold boot will clear the firmware and make it inactive. If you really want to disable, you need to tape a couple of the pins on the card so the BT part doesn't get on the USB bus.
 
Thank you Rehabman. I've updated that solution at the 1st post/
 
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