Bluetooth headphones not working with a2dp and pulseaudio [SOLVED]

scar · 2021-08-11 06:49:07

Hi there!

I have played around with my new bluetooth headphones, but they don't seem to work properly.

The headphones work with other devices (like listening music from my phone).
I have arch stable repos enabled, xfce as a DE, bluez installed with blueberry, and pulseaudio for sound, all work fine.
The headphones are detected, paired correctly.
When I want to play music, however, they emit no sound.

In pavucontrol, they are set for playback, and in the mixer's "settings" tab they are set to A2DP.
If I chose HFP, they play the sound, but in that sloppy headsetish style (which is normal)

The olny thing I noticed is the output of:

#pactl list

...

index: 3
name: <bluez_card.B4_6C_47_54_FA_AD>
driver: <module-bluez5-device.c>
owner module: 25
properties:
device.description = "RB-HF420B"
device.string = "B4:6C:47:54:FA:AD"
device.api = "bluez"
device.class = "sound"
device.bus = "bluetooth"
device.form_factor = "headset"
bluez.path = "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_B4_6C_47_54_FA_AD"
bluez.class = "0x260404"
bluez.alias = "RB-HF420B"
device.icon_name = "audio-headset-bluetooth"
device.intended_roles = "phone"
bluetooth.codec = "sbc_xq_453"
profiles:
a2dp_sink: Hi-Fi lejátszás (A2DP bemenet) (priority 40, available: yes)
handsfree_head_unit: Handsfree Head Unit (HFP) (priority 30, available: unknown)
off: Kikapcsolva (priority 0, available: yes)
active profile: <a2dp_sink>
sinks:
bluez_sink.B4_6C_47_54_FA_AD.a2dp_sink/#1: RB-HF420B
sources:
bluez_sink.B4_6C_47_54_FA_AD.a2dp_sink.monitor/#2: Monitor of RB-HF420B
ports:
headset-output: Fejhallgató (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
properties:

headset-input: Fejhallgató (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
properties:

...

Which could mean that they are recognized as a headset, and probably they use the wrong codec?

Can anyone help me out with this?

(ps: Fejhallgató is not a 4 letter word, but the hungarian name for headset)

Last edited by scar (2021-08-11 21:49:46)

Bevan · 2021-08-11 09:39:57

To eliminate the codec as a potential issue, you may try setting the codec to standard SBC:

pactl send-message /card/bluez_card.B4:6C:47:54:FA:AD/bluez switch-codec '"sbc"'

I assume the volume is turned up, both on the computer and on the headphones? The most recent version of pulseaudio added the feature that the volume of the computer directly corresponds to the headphone volume (which is what we are used to by phones etc.). You could also try if that feature maybe misbehaves and disable it temporarily. To do so, edit /etc/pulse/default.pa and modify line

load-module module-bluetooth-discover

to

load-module module-bluetooth-discover avrcp_absolute_volume=false

and restart pulseaudio to apply the change. Then you can but also need to control the volume on the computer and the headphones.

scar · 2021-08-11 21:48:49

Thanks, tried to mess around with that and none of this worked. Setting sbc disconnected the headphones and on reconnection the codec changed to "null".

However, I installed also bluez-firmware, and pulse displays now "High Fidelity playback (A2DP SINK:SBC)" and it works, quality is OK.
By the way, checked it on another computer with gnome, there it worked out of the box.

Using simple wireless devices in 2021 should be fun.

Thank you!

Last edited by scar (2021-08-11 21:51:59)

Bevan · 2021-08-11 21:50:36

Interesting, thanks for the update! Glad it works now.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-08-11 06:49:07

Bluetooth headphones not working with a2dp and pulseaudio [SOLVED]

#2 2021-08-11 09:39:57

Re: Bluetooth headphones not working with a2dp and pulseaudio [SOLVED]

#3 2021-08-11 21:48:49

Re: Bluetooth headphones not working with a2dp and pulseaudio [SOLVED]

#4 2021-08-11 21:50:36

Re: Bluetooth headphones not working with a2dp and pulseaudio [SOLVED]

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