ble-scan -d <addr> (deep scan) not showing "Generic Access"

[ikarus23]

First of all: Thank you for this amazing project! It helped me a lot!

Regarding the issue:
When I do a ble-scan -d AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF I get something like this

Found device AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF: FooBar (out of 1)
SERVICE 6e400001-b5a3-f393-e0a9-e50e24dcca9e (Handle: 14): Nordic UART Service
     CHARACTERISTIC 6e400003-b5a3-f393-e0a9-e50e24dcca9e (Handle: 17): Nordic UART TX ['notify']
         DESCRIPTOR 00002902-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb (Handle: 19): Client Characteristic Configuration
     CHARACTERISTIC 6e400002-b5a3-f393-e0a9-e50e24dcca9e (Handle: 15): Nordic UART RX ['write-without-response', 'write']
SERVICE 0000180a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb (Handle: 20): Device Information
     CHARACTERISTIC 00002a24-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb (Handle: 23): Model Number String ['read']
     CHARACTERISTIC 00002a29-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb (Handle: 21): Manufacturer Name String ['read']
SERVICE 00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb (Handle: 10): Generic Attribute Profile
     CHARACTERISTIC 00002a05-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb (Handle: 11): Service Changed ['indicate']
         DESCRIPTOR 00002902-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb (Handle: 13): Client Characteristic Configuration

Is there a reason why it is not showing the "Generic Access"? Like e.g. "Device Name" and "Appearance". It would be great to have these information in there as well. I'm running the latest ble-scan version on Kali Linux installed via pipx.

[Jakeler]

Because of the ble stack on Linux: BlueZ (and similar on other OS)
hbldh/bleak#553 (comment)
hbldh/bleak#849 (comment)

You can play around with bluetoothctl if you are interested:

[bluetooth]# connect ...
[HMSoft]# info
Device ... (public)
        Name: HMSoft
        Alias: HMSoft
        Paired: no
        Bonded: no
        Trusted: no
        Blocked: no
        Connected: yes
        LegacyPairing: no
        UUID: Generic Access Profile    (00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Generic Attribute Profile (00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Unknown                   (0000b000-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
        UUID: Unknown                   (0000ffe0-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)

[HMSoft]# menu gatt
Menu gatt: ...
[HMSoft]# list-attributes 
Primary Service (Handle 0x0010)
        /org/bluez/hci0/dev_20_91_48_DF_76_D9/service0010
        0000ffe0-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
        Unknown
Characteristic (Handle 0x0011)
        /org/bluez/hci0/dev_20_91_48_DF_76_D9/service0010/char0011
        0000ffe1-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
        Unknown
Descriptor (Handle 0x4390)
        /org/bluez/hci0/dev_20_91_48_DF_76_D9/service0010/char0011/desc0014
        00002901-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
        Characteristic User Description
Descriptor (Handle 0x4390)
        /org/bluez/hci0/dev_20_91_48_DF_76_D9/service0010/char0011/desc0013
        00002902-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
        Client Characteristic Configuration
Primary Service (Handle 0x000c)
        /org/bluez/hci0/dev_20_91_48_DF_76_D9/service000c
        00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
        Generic Attribute Profile
Characteristic (Handle 0x000d)
        /org/bluez/hci0/dev_20_91_48_DF_76_D9/service000c/char000d
        00002a05-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
        Service Changed
Descriptor (Handle 0x4390)
        /org/bluez/hci0/dev_20_91_48_DF_76_D9/service000c/char000d/desc000f
        00002902-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
        Client Characteristic Configuration

As you can see they are not listed and also cannot be selected or read like custom attributes. The stack automatically reads it on connection and provides the (cached) info. So we can't change this here.

You could ask on bluez why exactly they took that design decision if you are even more curious. I assume it's for the alias functionality, it would be confusing if some app uses the original device name.

[ikarus23]

Thanks! I was not aware of that design within bluez!