As best I can tell, I have the same image running on 2 Pis. one is a Pi B3 and the other is a Pi B3+. I built the pi-bluetooth package to enable the bluetooth hardware and start the service on both Pis. The thing is the B3+ has a 'ghost' hci0 device that shows up at boot. When I try to use bluetoothctl, though, it says that there are no devices until I start the brcm43438.service. After I start it, on the 3+, the bluetooth device starts up as hci1 and is now available to bluetoothctl for pairing, etc. On the 3B-, in comparison, the device installs as hci0 (where I expect the first bluetooth device to be) and is available for pairing etc.
What is going on with the 3+ and bluetooth. Why is there a ghost hci0? Can I get rid of it so the software endds up beinfg the same on both the B3- and B3+?
B3-
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '# systemctl | grep blue
sys-subsystem-bluetooth-devices-hci0.device loaded active plugged /sys/subsystem/bluetooth/devices/hci0
bluealsa.service loaded active running BluezAlsa proxy
bluetooth.service loaded active running Bluetooth service
brcm43438.service loaded active running Broadcom BCM43438 bluetooth HCI
system-bluealsa\x2daplay.slice loaded active active system-bluealsa\x2daplay.slice
bluetooth.target ')
B3+
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '# systemctl | grep blue
sys-devices-platform-soc-3f300000.mmc-mmc_host-mmc1-mmc1:0001-mmc1:0001:3-bluetooth-hci0.device loaded active plugged /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f300000.mmc/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:0001/mmc1:0001:3/bluetooth/hci0
sys-subsystem-bluetooth-devices-hci0.device loaded active plugged /sys/subsystem/bluetooth/devices/hci0
sys-subsystem-bluetooth-devices-hci1.device loaded active plugged /sys/subsystem/bluetooth/devices/hci1
bluealsa.service loaded active running BluezAlsa proxy
bluetooth.service loaded active running Bluetooth service
brcm43438.service loaded active running Broadcom BCM43438 bluetooth HCI
system-bluealsa\x2daplay.slice loaded active active system-bluealsa\x2daplay.slice
bluetooth.target ')
On a related note... Is there a reason I cannot get a regular BT dongle to work? If I stop the brcm43438.service then plug in a BT dongle, I can interact with it via bluetoothctl, but even if it is advertising, I cannot see it or connect to it with my phone.