Bluetooth headset blues ... Is there a current how-to or tutorial?

[AMRoberts]

I'm migrating to a new-to-me ThinkPad T420s and Linux Mint. When I've been on a Zoom/Teams/Meet call using the built-in microphone or my wired analog (i.e., dual 3.5mm jacks for audio out and mic in) headset I'm told I have a fair amount of white noise. I'm assuming this is electrical and I'm not overly surprised; I have read that the "hardware cost" for audio on laptops of this era varied from tiny to nearly nothing, and that noise problems are common.

Shifting my analog headset to an external USB interface cures the issue, but I wanted to try the next step of going wireless. I purchased an Anker Soundcore Life Q20 bluetooth headset ... Or at least I assumed it would function as a headset, since the documentation shows button presses for taking calls, and the sales page talked about the built-in microphones supporting both noise cancellation and taking calls. I'll admit up-front that my assumption could be in error, if anyone has wrestled with this model and knows I'm wrong please let me know.

When I pair the device with the laptop, the bluetooth connection desklet(?) calls it out as a headset, but the Sound Settings desklet only shows the output device, using an output profile of High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink). Testing sound demonstrates the headphone is working. Changed the profile (using Sound Settings) to Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) and the output device still works, but there is still no input device. Also, the profile change does not "stick," if I close and re-open Sound Settings the output device is back in the 'A2DP Sink' mode.

Vendor support pretty much crashed-and-burned, they suggested trying to pair with a phone (my phone is even older than the ThinkPad) or if it worked under Windows (none of my Windows machines have a bluetooth interface).

My forum searches turned up people taking different approaches to trying to beat bluetooth issues into submission (e.g., replace default bluetooth with other software, add different pulse audio software bits, something called oFono). A lot of this discussion seemed to be in the context of Mint versions earlier than Mint 20.x.

Is there a current-version how-to or tutorial (perhaps elsewhere than the Mint forums) on best practice for wrangling bluetooth headsets, assuming the Life Q20 really is supposed to function as such? I understand that Timeshift is my Best Friend, but I'd really like to avoid going down the rabbit hole of remove-replace-test only to find out that the older posts I've found so far are obsolete. I've already fought one battle of that kind with the Mesa driver updates breaking applications running under Wine, the time cost wasn't my idea of fun.

Thanks for any pointers or advice,
Alan

[AndyMH]

Install pavucontrol (in software manager) and check input devices, does it show up in ports:

[AMRoberts]

Install pavucontrol (in software manager) and check input devices, does it show up in ports:
Screenshot from 2021-11-26 23-48-00.png

AndyMH, appreciate the reply. pavucontrol does not show an input device for the Q20 either. When I switch to the configuration tab the Q20 is shown as High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink), and the option for Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) is listed but indicated as unavailable.

The default sound control app still seems to be present, did I need to take any steps to disable/remove it to place pavucontrol in charge?

I did not make any other explicit sound-related changes (update history indicates the default bluetooth software [bluez?] was updated prior to my testing with pavucontrol). Do you see any value in me wading deeper into the pond (disable/remove of default sound control, replacing bluez with blueman/other bluetooth stack, etc), or is this telling me that there isn't a microphone there as far as Linux is concerned?

Thanks,
Alan Roberts