[pulseaudio-discuss] Pulse and bluetooth on Debian

[Cameron Hutchison]

I am trying to get my bluetooth headset (A2DP) working with PulseAudio
on my Debian sid system. So far I cannot get it to work.

Some versions:
$ pulseaudio --version
pulseaudio 0.9.15
$ dpkg -l bluez
ii  bluez          4.42-2         Bluetooth tools and daemons
$ uname -r
2.6.30.5-orthanc-1
[ that's an unpatched 2.6.30.5 kernel ]

Here's where I'm at:

1. I have PulseAudio running and working properly[1] with my Logitech
Audiohub USB speakers, via alsa. That is the only ALSA "card" loaded.

2. I can get my bluetooth headset (Phillips SHB6100) working with alsa
by editting my /etc/asound.conf and directing an ALSA application to the
defined pcm device. I remove this configuration when trying to use
PulseAudio so that it can communicate directly with the bluetooth
device.

PulseAudio does not see the headset though. I have the appropriate
bluetooth modules installed, but they seem to have trouble talking to
bluetoothd. If I start the pulseaudio daemon manually with verbose
debugging and with the bluetooth headset connected, pulseaudio seems to
get stuck for about 15-20 seconds trying to do its bluetooth stuff:

D: module-bluetooth-device.c: IO Thread starting up
D: module-bluetooth-device.c: Sending BT_REQUEST -> BT_START_STREAM
D: module-bluetooth-device.c: Trying to receive message from audio service...
D: alsa-sink.c: Cutting sleep time for the initial iterations by half.
[last message repeated 14 times]

[PAUSE HERE]

D: module-bluetooth-device.c: Received BT_RESPONSE <- BT_START_STREAM
D: module-bluetooth-device.c: Trying to receive message from audio service...
D: module-bluetooth-device.c: Received BT_INDICATION <- BT_NEW_STREAM
D: module-bluetooth-device.c: Stream properly set up, we're ready to roll!
D: rtpoll.c: Acquired POSIX realtime signal SIGRTMIN+28
I: module-bluetooth-device.c: FD error: POLLERR 
D: module-bluetooth-device.c: IO thread failed
[...]
I: module.c: Unloading "module-bluetooth-device" (index: #6).
D: module-rescue-streams.c: No sink inputs to move away.
D: module-rescue-streams.c: No source outputs to move away.
D: module-rescue-streams.c: No source outputs to move away.
D: module-bluetooth-device.c: IO thread shutting down
I: sink.c: Freeing sink 1 "bluez_sink.00_0C_78_42_AF_9E"
I: source.c: Freeing source 1 "bluez_sink.00_0C_78_42_AF_9E.monitor"
I: source.c: Freeing source 2 "bluez_source.00_0C_78_42_AF_9E"
I: card.c: Freed 1 "bluez_card.00_0C_78_42_AF_9E"
I: module.c: Unloaded "module-bluetooth-device" (index: #6).


bluetoothd reports via syslog:
bluetoothd[2426]: HUP or ERR on socket

While pulseaudio is paused above, pavucontrol cannot connect to the
daemon (I dont think anything can), so I cannot see bluetooth devices at
any time.

Any ideas?