Re: Problems with Buster and Bluetooth

Hi,

I'm starting to suspect that this is mostly a bluetooth issue and not really a PA one. I struggle to get these earbuds connected whether PulseAudio is involved or not. I can trust them and pair them just fine, but the actual connection generally fails, and when it does work, it doesn't stay connected for long. I'm not sure how to check the BT power strength, but bluetoothctl reports that the controller is powered:

[bluetooth]# show
Controller 5C:F3:70:8C:B7:98 (public)
Name: debian
Alias: debian
Class: 0x001c0104
Powered: yes
Discoverable: no
Pairable: yes
UUID: Headset AG (00001112-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Generic Attribute Profile (00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: OBEX File Transfer (00001106-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Generic Access Profile (00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: OBEX Object Push (00001105-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: PnP Information (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: IrMC Sync (00001104-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Audio Source (0000110a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Audio Sink (0000110b-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Vendor specific (00005005-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000001)
UUID: Message Notification Se.. (00001133-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Phonebook Access Server (0000112f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Message Access Server (00001132-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Headset (00001108-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
Modalias: usb:v1D6Bp0246d0532
Discovering: no

Likewise, I'm not sure how to check the LE details.

It doesn't seem to matter whether or not I am moving around. I can set the earbuds down on my desk, a few feet from the BT adapter on my PC, and the connection will go haywire and then drop after a random (but brief) period of time. But I can pair them with my phone and connect without any problems, and walk 10-20 feet away with no signal interruption or disconnections.

I did solve one mystery, though: the left/right channels are actually reversed in the earbuds. I tested it on my phone and verified. I have an identical pair at home which do not have this issue, so it must just be a defect in this pair. So at least that's not related to PA or anything else.

Thanks,

Dave

On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 3:33 PM deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> wrote:

David Parker wrote:

> Thanks for the additional information. Unfortunately, the connection
> problems have returned and I haven't made any progress in solving them.
> When I kill the pulseaudio process, it simply restarts itself and I'm
> unable to stop this behavior, so I therefore can't run it manually with
> the -vvv to further trace the Bluetooth issue. I have followed everything
> I found online, including the steps from the PulseAudio page in the Debian
> wiki[1] but nothing seems to work.
>

you kill the PA server with pulseaudio -k - it shouldn't spawn automatically
You can also add no-spawn option to the config file

> I found instructions yesterday to enable PA debugging by adding "-d" to
> its startup options and setting a specific log file. It worked (I got
> output to the file) but it didn't log anything during my subsequent
> Bluetooth issues.

You didn't answer my previous questions - is it interrupting while you are
moving and did you check
- latency in PA
- power strength on BT
- specific LE details