[pulseaudio-discuss] Bluetooth HSP and HFP support in pulseaudio

[Pali Rohár]

Hello! One month passed and I have not answer which solution would
pulseaudio choose for HSP and HFP support. Could you please really look
at my email about state of HSP / HFP support?

On Saturday 15 February 2020 22:33:10 Pali Rohár wrote:
> If Linux desktop / laptop with pulseaudio want to support HFP profile
> there are following options:
> 
> 1) As written above, implement full HFP profile, therefore telephony
>    stack in pulseaudio and handle all users features in pulseaudio
>    (input devices, power devices, telephony features) including audio
>    features (wide band support, custom codec support). In this setup
>    pulseaudio would be incompatible with ofono and ofono must be stopped
>    on that computer to prevent ofono from taking rfcom socket.
> 
> 2) Delegate all non-audio features of HSP and HFP profiles from 1) to
>    hsphfpd daemon and implement in pulseaudio only audio related
>    features via DBus API provided by hsphfpd daemon. In this setup
>    hsphfpd would own rfcom socket and via DBus API would communicate
>    with other applications (e.g. pulseaudio, upower). This setup is
>    incompatible with ofono, as ofono developers wrote that they do not
>    want to use this design and because ofono implements own handling of
>    HFP profiles, ofono daemon would need to be stopped on such machine
>    to prevent ofono from taking rfcom socket. So telephony functions would
>    not be supported until somebody write alternative telephony software
>    which would connect to hsphfpd as ofono devs do not want to use
>    hsphfpd.
> 
> 3) In pulseaudio drop support for all desktop and laptop computers which
>    do not have connected cellular modem compatible with ofono. In this
>    way we could use ofono's HFP implementation for some basic audio
>    stuff. But no additional features (like battery status or input
>    buttons) would be provided. Also no custom codecs, etc.
> 
> 4) In pulseaudio do not implement proper and full HFP profile support at
>    all. Just say to users, that if they want to use bluetooth HFP
>    headset, they have to change operating system from Linux to some
>    other which implement it.
> 
> 5) Like 4) but be silent and do not say anything to users. Do not answer
>    to question from users about bluetooth HSP/HFP. Just do not do
>    anything.
...
> So please, pulseaudio developers/maintainers, write what you think and
> which option you choose and who would implement that option. Remember,
> that silence means you automatically chose option 5) which would be rude
> to all pulseaudio users.

Does really silence mean that option 5) was automatically chosen? I hope
that not.

If you have not had time to discuss, compare and choose solution, please
write at least that you are not going to choose option 5).

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar at gmail.com