<![CDATA[Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support]]>This is the followup from my previous call-for-testing. This time, in addition to updated PulseAudio from 16.04, this also includes:

  • a fix to Bluez which should improve the experience for users that use a Bluetooth headset for calling.
  • an update to the modern pulseaudio-module-droid to make sure they work with the updated version.

All devices are welcome to participate in the test.

How to test:

Make sure your device runs the latest devel image. Run the following command in the ADB shell or SSH session:

# Mount a tmpfs so apt can breathe
sudo mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/cache/apt/archives 
# Prevent Bluez from restarting & get stuck.
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
sudo tee /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d >/dev/null <<EOF
#!/bin/sh
exit 101
EOF
sudo chmod +x /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
# Actually install the packages.
sudo ubports-qa install xenial_-_pulseaudio-updates-to-0ubuntu3.10
# Reboot the phone.
sudo reboot; exit

What to test:

See if there's any regression in both built-in speaker, wired headset, and Bluetooth headset. If possible, use a Bluetooth headset that can be in both music mode (hi-fidelity audio) and call mode (low-latency 2-way audio).

Two possible regressions that can happen are

  • issue #528 ([xenial] Sound does not go to bluetooth headset)
  • a call via Bluetooth does work but cuts off after a few seconds

I believe they're fixed, but please report if you encountered these issues.

Also, if you have a Bluetooth headset with an accept/hangup button, try pressing the button while in call and see if the call hangs up. Accepting the call or last number redial might not work, and is a known issue.

You may want to also follow this test plan from Canonical if you want to be extra sure there's no issue. However, even in the current version of PulseAudio, not all tests in this test plan pass. Thus, you may want to double-check if it's a regression or not.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Process/Merges/TestPlan/pulseaudio

If you found any issue/regression:

Luckily, someone has written a script that automates enabling, disabling, and collecting debug logs [1]. It's located at https://github.com/bergotorino/bt-debugging-tools

To enable debugging, run ./bt-device-enable.sh -e -p <lockscreen password>. The device will reboot automatically. Then, after reproducing the issue, run ./bt-collect-logs.sh <password>. A tarball will be produced. Please send that to me via PM or Telegram (@peat_psuwit) as it can contain sensitive information. Please also mention the brands of all devices you used to test in the PM; they'll be used to match up with what's in the log.

To disable debugging, run ./bt-device-enable.sh -d -p <password>

[1] For devices with ADB anyway. If you use a Halium 7.1 devices without ADB, you may take a look at the script, or you can ask me.

Known issues:

  • The issue that the playing streams won't switch to the headset after a re-connect/connecting another device is issue #1045. The fix requires that this update works first. To workaround, please close and reopen the app playing the sound.
  • Even though using the button on the headset to hangup work, using it to accept a call or redial might not work.
  • It's been reported that Bluetooth on OnePlus One is unstable in general. Thus, you may want to skip testing Bluetooth on this particular device.
]]>https://forums.ubports.com/topic/4300/call-for-testing-updated-pulseaudio-better-bluetooth-headset-supportRSS for NodeSun, 10 May 2026 06:12:54 GMTWed, 20 May 2020 16:01:27 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Wed, 08 Jul 2020 10:08:23 GMT]]>@Flohack @peat_psuwit I believe I got this new version in the rc update from this morning. Thanks to everyone for the amazing job pursuing this... I'm still patiently waiting for my Pro5 to work without noise for bluetooth calls... Again, great job!

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/36413https://forums.ubports.com/post/36413Wed, 08 Jul 2020 10:08:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Mon, 06 Jul 2020 20:43:20 GMT]]>@mihael yeah sure all things that are pretty close to finalization will be in devel first to be tested and then QAed before OTA release in RC

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/36343https://forums.ubports.com/post/36343Mon, 06 Jul 2020 20:43:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Mon, 06 Jul 2020 20:38:38 GMT]]>@peat_psuwit When this will be merged unto the main branch, will it appear in devel and, respectively, rc version?

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/36342https://forums.ubports.com/post/36342Mon, 06 Jul 2020 20:38:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Wed, 01 Jul 2020 09:20:32 GMT]]>@peat_psuwit I believe that I reverted to the current version following your instructions (even tough I got an error regarding some dependencies for repowerd-data). The situation now is not better and by that I mean that during a phone call through not-high quality audio mode Nokia J bluetooth headset there is an initial noise and then the sound is muted. While, with your new version installed, the call would not be muted although still very noisy.

Unfortunately I cannot update again to your new version because of the same dependency error as described above. I delayed my answer hoping that a new rc version would land this morning but it was not the case.

Again thank you for all your work and I hope this noise issue will be solved...

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/35989https://forums.ubports.com/post/35989Wed, 01 Jul 2020 09:20:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Tue, 30 Jun 2020 21:56:14 GMT]]>I'm using Meizu 5 as a daily driver. I can confirm there has been a progress. Before the update I could listen to music flawlessly but making phone calls was impossible. After following instructions and installed the update, phone call won't cut off anymore after few secs but the quality of voice of the caller still needs work. It was cutting up a lot. I just tried to listen to my voicemail messages and I could barely understand what the caller was telling me. Too much cutting up. Pleasant surprise was when I finally hung up music player resumed playing where it left off. Nice one !

So yeah I could see the progress but the quality of voice transmitted needs extra work.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/35968https://forums.ubports.com/post/35968Tue, 30 Jun 2020 21:56:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:40:00 GMT]]>@mihael Could you please test if the noise problem is a regression from the current version in the system image? You may do so by running ubports-qa remove xenial_-_pulseaudio-updates-to-0ubuntu3.10 or by re-flashing the phone.

If it's not a regression, I'll consider the test successful and proceed to merge this into the main branch.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/35951https://forums.ubports.com/post/35951Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:40:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Wed, 24 Jun 2020 20:11:27 GMT]]>I tried this on my Pro5 rc channel with Nokia J headset - without high quality audio mode. The headset finally has call audio and both speaker and microphone work but there is so much noise that it makes it unusable. I sent you the logs.

Needless to say, a very big thank you for all your work!!! I am amazed that this is finally going somewhere... I was waiting this moment for maybe 4 years...

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/35630https://forums.ubports.com/post/35630Wed, 24 Jun 2020 20:11:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Wed, 24 Jun 2020 09:47:51 GMT]]>Hello,

I've pushed an update to the repository to fix an issue with the Bluetooth headsets without high-quality audio mode. If you have such a headset, I encourage you to test this new version.

Thank you to everyone for testing this out.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/35601https://forums.ubports.com/post/35601Wed, 24 Jun 2020 09:47:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:47:58 GMT]]>@peat_psuwit said in Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support:

Since the update from yesterday in the dev channel, media-hub audio stops when locking the device. Is it related to this? Is better to tet this as well?

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/34985https://forums.ubports.com/post/34985Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:47:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:55:15 GMT]]>@mihael Please follow the debugging instruction and send the log to me.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/34976https://forums.ubports.com/post/34976Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:55:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Wed, 10 Jun 2020 08:04:33 GMT]]>There was an update on the rc channel that landed this morning so, ufter the update, I followed the instructions in the first post. I then connected my Nokia J bluetooth headset to my Pro5 (turbo). There is a crackling noise that comes out of the phone speaker (the bottom loud speaker, not the small top speaker used for phonecalls). The calls don't go through the bluetooth headset, neither is the music. Actually the music app doesn't even show any progress in playing the music. After disconnecting the bluetooth headset and restarting the music app, songs do play throught the loudspeaker of the phone. Also, after disconnecting the bluetooth headset, the phonecalls work.

Another thing is that, even without connecting the bluetooth headset, ofonod uses 100% of one core of the cpu, so I had to stop it with kill.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/34588https://forums.ubports.com/post/34588Wed, 10 Jun 2020 08:04:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sun, 07 Jun 2020 14:19:21 GMT]]>Unfortunately, the bluetooth headset I secured was not registered by my N5. So I tested once more with my JBL bluetooth speakers. I got a connection between the device and the speakers, but the sound was not routed to the BT speakers. Instead, sound came from the device itself. After rebooting the device connected automatically to the BT speakers and I was able to play music on them. But when I disconnected the speakers from the bluetooth menu and then reconnected them, the sound once again came only from the device itself.

I have collected logs using the script you pointed out and will send them to you.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/34414https://forums.ubports.com/post/34414Sun, 07 Jun 2020 14:19:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sun, 07 Jun 2020 11:28:32 GMT]]>@peat_psuwit said in Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support:

@aribk The issue that the playing streams won't switch to the headset after a re-connect is issue #1045. However, the rest of the issues is not known to me. If you care enough, could you please check if it's a regression or not. If it is, or it's inconvenient to test with the previous version, please follow the instructions for collecting the log.

OK. Today I resumed testing on my N5. I reinstalled devel with the UBports installer and repeated your steps above.

I tried out a wired headset and this works well.

Then I followed some of canonical's steps that you linked to. I have the output of all the 'pactl list sink' tests if you're interested. They all give the expected media.role output, except when playing a ringtone. In this case I got 'media.role = "multimedia" ' But I played the ringtone from settings > sound > ringtones . Just thought it might be worth mentioning in case this gives a different result from an actual call.

I hope to secure a bluetooth headset during the course of the day to be able to test this. Will follow up and send you the logs if I run into trouble.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/34407https://forums.ubports.com/post/34407Sun, 07 Jun 2020 11:28:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Wed, 03 Jun 2020 07:49:57 GMT]]>@peat_psuwit said in Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support:

@aribk The issue that the playing streams won't switch to the headset after a re-connect is issue #1045. However, the rest of the issues is not known to me. If you care enough, could you please check if it's a regression or not. If it is, or it's inconvenient to test with the previous version, please follow the instructions for collecting the log.

Thank you!

I read this only now, sorry! I will see if I can get round to it within the next couple of days.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/34185https://forums.ubports.com/post/34185Wed, 03 Jun 2020 07:49:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Thu, 28 May 2020 16:14:54 GMT]]>@Stefano Could you please follow the instructions for collecting the log? The issue where the audio via Bluetooth cuts off after a few seconds is supposed to be fixed.

@aribk The issue that the playing streams won't switch to the headset after a re-connect is issue #1045. However, the rest of the issues is not known to me. If you care enough, could you please check if it's a regression or not. If it is, or it's inconvenient to test with the previous version, please follow the instructions for collecting the log.

Thank you!

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33863https://forums.ubports.com/post/33863Thu, 28 May 2020 16:14:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Tue, 26 May 2020 10:30:46 GMT]]>@peat_psuwit I tested this in my OPO, Ota-12, devel channel. Bluetooth is now working for making and receiving calls from my car, It was not working before. Great job!

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33710https://forums.ubports.com/post/33710Tue, 26 May 2020 10:30:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sun, 24 May 2020 12:31:11 GMT]]>Tested on N5

JBL and Bose speakers both work nicely.
I connected the phone to the sound system of my car (which is registered as a bluetooth headset) and there were issues. I did not have a SIM installed, so the following is based on playing music (which worked perfectly on the aforementioned speakers):

  1. I got sound on the in-car sound system.
  2. Sound was a bit low, even with in-car volume near max, so I decided to turn up the volume on the N5. This worked for a couple of seconds, then the sound was cut off. The music app (Cloud Music v. 1.6.2) intermittently showed progress playing the song, but no sound came over the speakers (nor from the phone).
  3. I disconnected the phone from the car and was able to restart the app and get sound on the phone. I then reconnected while a song was playing. The phone showed it was connected, but sound emanated from the phone itself, not the in-car sound system. I was still on the in-car menu for connecting a bluetooth device. When I switched to the media menu, sound came from the car speakers a couple of seconds, then cut off completely. The device was still registered as connected. No sound came from the device itself either.

I also tested using the device hooked up to an external display. Previously, on RC, when using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, the mouse would continue to work when the external display was connected, but the keyboard would not. It would still be connected, but text could not be typed from it. Now, using devel and testing your bluetooth modifications the keyboard functions perfectly when the external display is connected.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33600https://forums.ubports.com/post/33600Sun, 24 May 2020 12:31:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sat, 23 May 2020 20:50:53 GMT]]>So, in my case (rc channel), can I try this after the next phone update?

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33578https://forums.ubports.com/post/33578Sat, 23 May 2020 20:50:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sat, 23 May 2020 18:57:58 GMT]]>Meizu Pro 5, devel, followed the guide, installed, connected to bt headphones and can only hear a terrible noise, nothing else.a call via Bluetooth does work but cuts off after a few seconds = well I couldn't hear anything else only a noise, but it did not cut off, I did terminate the call after about 15 -20 seconds )
Music plays well on bt headphones ( had to reboot to get a proper connection and detection (

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33574https://forums.ubports.com/post/33574Sat, 23 May 2020 18:57:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sat, 23 May 2020 17:14:30 GMT]]>@lduboeuf missed that ,,devel,, in my case

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33566https://forums.ubports.com/post/33566Sat, 23 May 2020 17:14:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sat, 23 May 2020 16:04:35 GMT]]>@mihael as @peat_psuwit said in his post, you need to be on the latest devel image

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33560https://forums.ubports.com/post/33560Sat, 23 May 2020 16:04:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sat, 23 May 2020 14:37:08 GMT]]>Thanks for all the replies and testing on Pro5. @lduboeuf there is no new update for the rc channel since may 8th...

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33554https://forums.ubports.com/post/33554Sat, 23 May 2020 14:37:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sat, 23 May 2020 16:00:57 GMT]]>@ernest can you call using Bluetooth headphones? No cracking noise?

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33553https://forums.ubports.com/post/33553Sat, 23 May 2020 16:00:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Call for testing: Updated Pulseaudio & better Bluetooth headset support on Sat, 23 May 2020 14:07:09 GMT]]>@mihael I tried on Ota-11, it succeeded installation, was able to pair the bluetooth headphones with phone, but sound and mic did not work. There was no terrible noise and cracking sound like before, but no sound at all. I was able to switch the call output from BT to speaker to headset and back, but no sound output or input on BT. (Jabra BT headphones)
Haven't tried on Ota-12 yet(must do a backup first)

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/33552https://forums.ubports.com/post/33552Sat, 23 May 2020 14:07:09 GMT