Bluetooth Audio with PulseAudio

[jtang613]

This is a really nice feature to have working if you have a Bluetooth headset. Especially for watching movies or listening to music on your laptop. And lately BT under Linux has been making good progress toward becoming seamlessly integrated. Although it still requires a bit of manual configuration. Hopefully this howto will help others get BT audio up and running.

This howto should work equally well under F8 or F9. Of course, you'll need a supported Bluetooth module and BT headset. I use a Motorola S9 headset and it works great.

Some packages you should have:

yum install bluez-gnome pulseaudio-module-bluetooth bluez-utils-gstreamer bluez-utils-alsa

In order for ALSA to recognize your headset, you need to determine its device MAC address and create a ~/.asoundrc file.

To determine your headset's device MAC, turn it on and issue the command:

hcitool scan

You should see something like: 00:11:22:33:44:55. That's the MAC you need, write it down or copy to clipboard.

Next, create the file: ~/.asoundrc (in your home folder) with the following contents:

pcm.bluetooth {
	type plug
	slave {
		pcm "bluetooth_hw"
	}
}

pcm.bluetooth_hw {
	type bluetooth
	device 00:11:22:33:44:55   # Make sure you put YOUR device MAC here
	profile "auto"
}

In order to get PulseAudio to recognize your headset, you need to issue a few commands each time you power up your headset. Eventually someone will add auto-detect functionality, but for now I've just created a script that I launch whenever I want to use my headset. You can add a launcher to your panel beside the volume control for one-click-to-go. The ~/bt_snd script contains:

#!/bin/bash
pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=bluetooth
pactl load-module module-alsa-source device=bluetooth

After powering up your headset and running the script, open the PulseAudio volume control. You should see your Bluetooth device under the Output tab. At this point, you can right-click on it to set it as Default, or right-click on individual streams to direct them to the Bluetooth output.


Hope this helps,
Jason

[bobyn]

Just a quick thank you for the instructions, I got my Sony Ericsson HBH-DS980 bluetooth headsets working on F9.

I didn't use pulse before as a few of my apps (mythtv) weren't compatible, now its sorted.

Thanks again.

[TheTweaker]

When I do this with my logitech headset and Kensington-USB bluetooth adapter, hcid segfaults when I issue the pactl commands:

hcid[29040]: segfault at 1c ip 17f4f76 sp 7fff9801b8d0 error 6 in libaudio.so[17e9000+23000]

the pulse audio daemon reports this when it happens:

ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1505:(audioservice_recv) Error receiving data from audio service: Success(0)
ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1521:(audioservice_expect) Bogus message BT_SETCONFIGURATION_REQ received while BT_SETCONFIGURATION_RSP was expected
W: alsa-util.c: Unable to determine current swparams: Operation not permitted
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL bluetooth
pulseaudio: pcm_bluetooth.c:797: bluetooth_playback_poll_revents: Assertion `pfds[1].fd >= 0' failed.
Aborted

Any help would be great (I'm on fedora 9, x86_64).

[RudeBwoy]

If i could make it work would be great.
I have Motorola DC800 like audio gateway. It is paired with my laptop. I am trying to issue commands

pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=bluetooth

that you posted but i get

Failure: Module initalization failed

I have tried to do it as root, still same error. Even when i unloaded this module it still gave me same error message.

[jtang613]

I've noticed similar behaviour lately.

1) It seems Bluez / Gstreamer / PulseAudio are going through some development that has affected how the module inits work. I've been able to get it to work by directly loading bluetooth_hw instead of the slave device.

2) Make sure PulseAudio has not crashed on you. Load the PulseAudio Volume Control, it will fail if the PulseAudio daemon has crashed.

3) Make sure the Bluetooth 'Audio Service' is enable in the Bluetooth Preferences dialog prior to running pactl.

- J

[RudeBwoy]

2) Make sure PulseAudio has not crashed on you. Load the PulseAudio Volume Control, it will fail if the PulseAudio daemon has crashed.

3) Make sure the Bluetooth 'Audio Service' is enable in the Bluetooth Preferences dialog prior to running pactl.

That is done.

Frankly speaking i have no idea how to follow your suggestion in first step. Little info so i could try to do it.

[yissachar]

I have the same problem as TheTweaker; my pulseaudio crashes when i try to load the modules as above. I'm running 64 bit FC9. I can't get anything to come out of the headset.

[jtang613]

Try using the line below with bluetooth_hw instead of just bluetooth. Recent updates to some of the Alsa / Gstreamer / etc internals seem to have botched the slave - device resolver.

pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=bluetooth_hw

btw: Make sure The Bluetooth Audio service is running and make sure PulseAudio is running before turning on your headset AND TURN ON AND PAIR YOUR HEADSET BEFORE RUNNING PACTL.

[yissachar]

I tried that, and it doesn't work either The bluetooth applet (gnome) reports that it is paired, and connected. The audio service is running.

[jtang613]

Well, then you should report the error to the PulseAudio Bugzilla / Mailing Lists / developers . Hopefully they're already aware of the issue, but if not I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to let them know about it.

[RudeBwoy]

I have reported this bug. Feel free to sign up https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=455224

[giulianobr]

it's works just one time for me.

[giulianobr]

please, I need run the pactl command every time I connect to my bluetooth headset??

[M4rc0]

Originally Posted by giulianobr

please, I need run the pactl command every time I connect to my bluetooth headset??

Dae

That's why he created a launcher for this
I would add in ~/.bashrc if I were you
---

Now my question, would this be so different for ALSA instead of PULSE ?
The instructions are almost the same except for the last part with pactl

Altho i tried anyway and got the following:

Connection failure: Connection refused

On skype I get "problem with audio codec" or something.

What am I missing?

I've created a topic for this

[jnalley]

Originally Posted by jtang613

btw: Make sure The Bluetooth Audio service is running and make sure PulseAudio is running before turning on your headset AND TURN ON AND PAIR YOUR HEADSET BEFORE RUNNING PACTL.

jtang613, I'm glad you mentioned the topic of pairing. It didn't seem to be addressed in the original post in this thread. I'm trying to pair my Plantronics 510 headset with a Kensington Micro USB bluetooth dongle. My issue is that i'm not able to successfully pair in Fedora 9 but I am in that _other_ operating system. When i just use the command line to pair (as opposed to kde/gnome tools), i get the following output:

[root@jnalley ~]# hcitool cc mac_obtained_by_hcitool scan
Can't create connection: Input/output error

hcidump gives the following info for this connect attempt:

HCI sniffer - Bluetooth packet analyzer ver 1.41
device: hci0 snap_len: 1028 filter: 0xffffffff
< HCI Command: Create Connection (0x01|0x0005) plen 13
> HCI Event: Command Status (0x0f) plen 4
> HCI Event: Role Change (0x12) plen 8
> HCI Event: Link Key Request (0x17) plen 6
< HCI Command: Link Key Request Reply (0x01|0x000b) plen 22
> HCI Event: Command Complete (0x0e) plen 10
> HCI Event: Connect Complete (0x03) plen 11

Despite what that dump may lead you to believe, it never actually pairs/connects. My /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf contains the following:

options {
        autoinit yes;
        security user;
        pairing multi;
        passkey "0000";
}

device {
        name "%h-%d";
        class 0x000100;
        iscan enable; pscan enable;
        lm accept;
        lp rswitch,hold,sniff,park;
}

I've tried security auto with no change in behavior. Any thoughts or insight are greatly appreciated.