[SOLVED] Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

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JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by JeremyB »

hrmcrm
Can you post results for

Code: Select all

pactl list short | grep blue
To get something to compare to?

I had very few issues in LM17.3 with bluetooth audio compared to LM18/Ubuntu 16.04 as some changes in Bluez and pulseaudio has resulted in some bad bugs that are being worked on
br1anstorm
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by br1anstorm »

Looks as if both Howard and I are struggling with similar issues over Bluetooth.

For what it's worth,I have a few more fragments of evidence to throw into the mix. I'm just trying to be analytical and logical: I don't have the expertise to figure out command-line and terminal stuff.

First, Pulse Audio Volume Control (pactl). I re-checked Howard's point about looking at the Configuration tab in Pulse Audio Volume Control. My dropdown list is set on Analogue Stereo Duplex; its other options are Analogue Stereo Input, ditto Output, four different Digital Stereo variations, and Off. No "High Fidelity Playback" or similar. I continue to think the issue has more to do with Pulse Audio Volume Control listing - or rather failing to list - the Bluetooth device in the Output Device tab: the only devices which show up are the built-in speakers, and the headphone socket. Question is, why doesn't PAVC show the Bluetooth device when blueman says it is connected?

Second, is it a DE issue? We all seem to be talking about Mint 17.3 (which is my OS). But I have been doing some other checking. I also run PCLinuxOS dual-booted on the same laptop (ie same hardware). But it is the MATE version. It also has "blueman" as the Bluetooth Manager, and Pulse Audio. And in PCLOS MATE, the Bluetooth speaker is found, paired, and connects successfully. PAVC lists the Bluetooth speaker as an output device. The only manual task is to go into PAVC and select - from the dropdown menu, which includes the Bluetooth speaker - which output device to direct the sound through. Works flawlessly. It's also relevant that I have seen other forum posts suggesting that Bluetooth (blueman) works fine in Cinnamon, and in KDE.

So I deduce (a) that it's not a hardware issue. My laptop has a Broadcom Bluetooth adapter - which some say causes problems - but my PCLOS/MATE/blueman/PAVC setup operates it fine. Therefore (b) the problem must be somewhere in the Mint 17.3/XFCE/blueman/PAVC setup. Something in that combination just isn't "seeing" and directing the sound through the Bluetooth device, even when blueman says it is connected.

Given that the two variables are PCLOS v Mint, and MATE v XFCE, that does seem to narrow down the source of the problem, doesn't it? Looks as if there's an issue either with Mint 17.3 or with XFCE.
hrmcrm

Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by hrmcrm »

JeremyB wrote:hrmcrm
Can you post results for

Code: Select all

pactl list short | grep blue
To get something to compare to?
I get

Code: Select all

howard@X201-LM18KDE ~ $ pactl list short | grep blue
7       module-bluetooth-policy
8       module-bluetooth-discover
9       module-bluez5-discover
howard@X201-LM18KDE ~ $ 
hrmcrm

Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by hrmcrm »

br1anstorm wrote:First, Pulse Audio Volume Control (pactl). I re-checked Howard's point about looking at the Configuration tab in Pulse Audio Volume Control. My dropdown list is set on Analogue Stereo Duplex
Seems you are not getting a profile for your speakers. With my bluetooth headphones connected, the pavu window is:
pavu.png
The lower entry, AF32, is the headphones. That entry is not there if the headphones are not connected. As soon as they connect, the profile appears.

The upper profile, Built-in Audio, has all the entries you list in its drop-down list. The AF32 profile has only three choices.

What profiles do you see in the configuration tab?
br1anstorm
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by br1anstorm »

Hi Howard

Short answer (I'm no good at taking and pasting-in screenshots) is that the Bluetooth manager (blueman) shows my Bluetooth speaker as paired and connected with link quality 100% and good signal strength. But the PAVU sound-settings Configuration tab shows no profile for my Bluetooth device: it only shows the Built-in Audio (which on my laptop is the inbuilt speakers and/or the headphone socket).

Hope that might give a clue as to what's not working or connecting properly.....
hrmcrm

Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by hrmcrm »

br1anstorm wrote:But the PAVU sound-settings Configuration tab shows no profile for my Bluetooth device: it only shows the Built-in Audio (which on my laptop is the inbuilt speakers and/or the headphone socket).

Hope that might give a clue as to what's not working or connecting properly.....
Something is wrong that a speaker profile does not show.

I got out my Xfce laptop to test. It's different from yours though: mine is Mint 18 Xfce 32-bit. On it I get

Code: Select all

howard@T23LM18Xfce ~ $ pactl list short | grep blue
7	module-bluetooth-policy		
8	module-bluetooth-discover		
9	module-bluez5-discover		
howard@T23LM18Xfce ~ $ 
same as KDE 64-bit.

The volume control Configuration panel shows only the Built-in profile if no bluetooth device is connected. As soon as I connected the bluetooth headphones, their profile appeared. When I turned them off, the profile went away.

With the bluetooth headphones connected, I could tinker with the Configuration, Output Devices, and Playback settings to get sound to them.

I do not know why 17.3 behaves differently. Hopefully JeremyB can spot the problem.
hrmcrm

Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by hrmcrm »

I started a Mint 17.3 Xfce 64-bit live session. When I initially paired and connected the bluetooth headphones, they did not show in the Volume Control program. After I did as recommended here
JeremyB wrote:It does, you need another module to use audio devices

Code: Select all

pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover
Then connect with your device and see if it works
the headphone profile appeared as soon as the headphones connected. I adjusted settings and got sound to them. Info is

Code: Select all

mint@mint ~ $ pactl list short | grep bluetooth
6	module-bluetooth-policy		
mint@mint ~ $ pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover
25
mint@mint ~ $ pactl list short | grep bluetooth
6	module-bluetooth-policy		
25	module-bluetooth-discover		
mint@mint ~ $ 
Does pactl list short | grep bluetoothshow that the discover module got loaded?
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by JeremyB »

hrmcrm wrote:I started a Mint 17.3 Xfce 64-bit live session. When I initially paired and connected the bluetooth headphones, they did not show in the Volume Control program. After I did as recommended here
JeremyB wrote:It does, you need another module to use audio devices

Code: Select all

pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover
Then connect with your device and see if it works
the headphone profile appeared as soon as the headphones connected. I adjusted settings and got sound to them. Info is

Code: Select all

mint@mint ~ $ pactl list short | grep bluetooth
6	module-bluetooth-policy		
mint@mint ~ $ pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover
25
mint@mint ~ $ pactl list short | grep bluetooth
6	module-bluetooth-policy		
25	module-bluetooth-discover		
mint@mint ~ $ 
Does pactl list short | grep bluetoothshow that the discover module got loaded?
Yes it does and you should be able to use the headphones after disconnecting from them and then reconnecting with any luck
br1anstorm
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by br1anstorm »

Yay! Amazing! Problem solved.

I did that sequence of commands exactly as in Howard's post, and sure enough the terminal listed both "module-bluetooth-policy" and "module-bluetooth-discover", just as also shown in JeremyB's post.

So I then switched on my Bluetooth speaker, and blueman instantly found it, connected, and displayed a popup on screen saying the device would now show up in Pulse Audio Volume Control..... which of course it did.

So all I then had to do was to go into the Configuration tab of PAVC and re-set the profile of the Bluetooth speaker from the (default) Telephony setting to High Fidelity (A2DP), and in the Playback tab select the Bluetooth device rather than the Built-in Audio as the output.

Smooth and simple. A straightforward solution to what seemed to be a tricky problem. I am slightly puzzled as to why I didn't get to the solution when JeremyB recommended at an earlier stage the loading of the 'discover' module. Maybe I didn't complete, or follow through, the steps correctly in the terminal at that time?

The only thing I now need to check is to shut down completely, then boot up again and see if it all still works - or whether I have to go through those "pactl load-module" commands each time I switch on the laptop.....

Anyhow, thanks to both for persisting with this and finally reaching the solution. I'm very grateful.
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by JeremyB »

I have no idea why the solution didn't work earlier but thanks for sticking with it.

The biggest issue I had in LM17 using blueman was that I used an early version of blueman that would unload module-bluetooth-discover when blueman loaded, a later version of blueman was reported to fix that issue. I was using LM17 Cinnamon and it had it's own bluetooth manager that worked well.
br1anstorm
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by br1anstorm »

Just a quick postscript.

On booting-up, while the laptop's built-in audio switches automatically between internal speakers and headphones socket whenever headphones are plugged in, the Bluetooth device isn't seen, or connected, automatically. It seems that each time I want to use the Bluetooth speakers, I have to go into the terminal and do those "load module" commands.

Not too complicated, now that I know what to do. But it is a bit of a PITA that the Bluetooth manager and the Pulse Audio controls don't kick in automatically when I hit 'connect' in the blueman GUI. I wonder if there is a way of making it do so?
hrmcrm

Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by hrmcrm »

Mint 17.3 must be afflicted with the bluetooth - pulseaudio bug that is well-documented at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1274613. Seems there is no reliable workaround.

Best fix may be to install Mint18 Xfce 64-bit. I ran a live session of it, and bluetooth worked immediately. I did not have to manually load any modules. I paired and connected the bluetooth headphones, then did the steps you listed in your post,
go into the Configuration tab of PAVC and re-set the profile of the Bluetooth speaker from the (default) Telephony setting to High Fidelity (A2DP), and in the Playback tab select the Bluetooth device rather than the Built-in Audio as the output.
and had sound to the headphones.

Cheers,
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by JeremyB »

hrmcrm wrote:Mint 17.3 must be afflicted with the bluetooth - pulseaudio bug that is well-documented at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1274613. Seems there is no reliable workaround.

Best fix may be to install Mint18 Xfce 64-bit. I ran a live session of it, and bluetooth worked immediately. I did not have to manually load any modules. I paired and connected the bluetooth headphones, then did the steps you listed in your post,
go into the Configuration tab of PAVC and re-set the profile of the Bluetooth speaker from the (default) Telephony setting to High Fidelity (A2DP), and in the Playback tab select the Bluetooth device rather than the Built-in Audio as the output.
and had sound to the headphones.

Cheers,
Don't even think about LM18 if you want bluetooth audio, it is better to stay with 17. I have to run a script or delete my pairing then pair again to my headset to get them to work with hifi(A2DP) sound and there are issues with people not even being able to connect to bluetooth headphones.

That bug was supposed to fixed in a newer Blueman and I remember using Blueman after the fix was out and didn't have to reload module-bluetooth-discover
This might be an Xfce issue in LM17 as I used Cinnamon
br1anstorm
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by br1anstorm »

I'm still following this thread with interest to see if there is a solution as opposed to a workaround.

I'm inclined to agree with JeremyB's advice not to move to LM18. In every other respect LM17 suits me fine.

Howard said:
Mint 17.3 must be afflicted with the bluetooth - pulseaudio bug that is well-documented at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1274613.
I had a look at that bug report thread. Didn't mean that much to me, as I'm no tech expert! But it did seem to suggest that the bug hasn't been fixed. Perhaps it is specific to the version(s) of Blueman (and Pulse Audio) that LM 17.3 and XFCE use, if Blueman works OK in LM18 and Cinnamon?

Which prompts the thought: is there a version of Blueman more recent than v1.23 which I have in my LM17.3 XFCE? My Synaptic Package Manager says the latest version is v1.23. But is there a newer one obtainable from some other repository, and if so could I install it in 17.3/XFCE and would it work?
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by JeremyB »

Post the result for

Code: Select all

dpkg -l | grep blueman
br1anstorm
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by br1anstorm »

Hi Jeremy....

Here's what I get:

Code: Select all

brian@BS-Samsung-RF511 ~ $ dpkg -l | grep blueman
ii  blueman                                     1.23-git201403102151-1ubuntu1                       amd64        Graphical bluetooth manager
JeremyB
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by JeremyB »

I see you do have the buggy version. Do this

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove blueman

Code: Select all

wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/blueman/1.23-git201406261335-deb-1ubuntu1/+build/6155310/+files/blueman_1.23-git201406261335-deb-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -i blueman_1.23-git201406261335-deb-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
Reboot, you still may have to load the modules manually but it should only be needed after the first reboot
br1anstorm
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Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by br1anstorm »

JeremyB....... that absolutely nailed it!

I did exactly as you suggested. Worked like a charm. I removed the existing blueman, installed that (new) blueman, loaded the modules in terminal, paired and connected, and all worked well. Rebooted, and now blueman sees the external speakers straight away and Pulse shows the device. So it all works smoothly - no more need to load the modules via the terminal each time.

Many, many thanks. Now I can mark this thread properly solved. More to the point, I hope that the combined efforts of both JeremyB and Howard (hrmcrm) to help me in this thread will also help others who may be facing a similar situation.

Linux Mint.... and its forum .... utterly outstanding. I'm pleased and thankful to be a part of such a great community.
hrmcrm

Re: Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by hrmcrm »

JeremyB wrote:Don't even think about LM18 if you want bluetooth audio, it is better to stay with 17.
Right. After more experimenting with bluetooth, LM18 KDE 64-bit has shown to be inconsistent in function. Yesterday after resuming from suspend, the headphones were seen and would try to connect, but immediately disconnect. I changed lots of settings in the bluetooth control module, and rebooted, without success. I think what got things connected again was removing the device in the controller, then pairing it again. After that it connected.

Today after suspending and resuming several times, the headphones have always connected correctly. To get sound to them, I have to switch the audio setting from the previously used A2DP to HSP/HFP. That starts sound, then I can switch back to A2DP.

I hope the LM18 bugs get fixed soon. I really like this distro and version 18.
Thanks,
JeremyB
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Re: [SOLVED] Bluetooth speakers added, but won't connect (so no sound)

Post by JeremyB »

On my Ubuntu 16.04 laptop, I have to use this command to connect and be able to use bluetooth headset in A2DP

Code: Select all

pacmd set-card-profile `pacmd list-cards | grep bluez_card -B1 | grep index | awk '{print $2}'` off; sleep 2 ; echo -e "disconnect MAC_ADDRESS\n quit"|bluetoothctl;sleep 5; echo -e "connect MAC_ADDRESS\n quit"|bluetoothctl; sleep 5; pacmd set-card-profile `pacmd list-cards | grep bluez_card -B1 | grep index | awk '{print $2}'` a2dp_sink
Replace MAC_ADDRESS with the MAC address of the headset. Most of the issues seem to be related to Bluez5 and pulse audio not using the right lables.

I just tested the same headset on my LM18 laptop and the same command was needed
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