ad2p sink profile mic not available

[Jeroen]

I have a bose soundsport bluetooth headset. When I select the ad2p sink profile there is no microphone available. Only with the HSP profile my microphone is available.

It's really annoying to have to switch between profiles to make a call or to listen to normal quality music.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:10.0-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-32.36-generic 4.10.17
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-32-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4.5
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: jeroen 3801 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: jeroen 3801 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Wed Aug 16 11:02:37 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-05-10 (98 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/15/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: E1773IMS.106
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: MS-1773
dmi.board.vendor: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: REV:0.B
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrE1773IMS.106:bd09/15/2014:svnMicro-StarInternationalCo.,Ltd.:pnGS702QE:pvrREV1.0:rvnMicro-StarInternationalCo.,Ltd.:rnMS-1773:rvrREV0.B:cvnMicro-StarInternationalCo.,Ltd.:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: GS70 2QE
dmi.product.version: REV:1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Wait a minute, this might not be a bug at all...

A2DP is uni-directional so doesn't support simultaneous audio output and input. In theory A2DP can be used for output or input, depending on what your peripherals support...
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bluetooth_profiles#Advanced_Audio_Distribution_Profile_.28A2DP.29

Generally speaking though, there is no microphone when a headset is in A2DP mode:
  http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-3286122/headset-mic-work-audio.html

The PulseAudio "fix" for the previous bug involves automatically switching to the lower quality HSP/HFP profile when the microphone is required. This is triggered automatically according to what features the application requests. However automatic switching is apparently only implemented for VoIP applications according to the release notes:

  https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Notes/10.0/

So automatic switching relies on the application supporting PulseAudio's "property media.role=phone". If it doesn't yet then that's an application bug. But beware that once switching has occurred and the mic turns on, your audio output is likely to also be low quality (HSP/HFP profile). This is just a fact of life with Bluetooth standards.

This bug is therefore invalid for pulseaudio, but your app(s) might be able to add the above feature to trigger the automatic switching. If you're having trouble with a specific app then please click on one of the "Also affects..." links at the top of the bug.

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

Then why is it that it works perfectly in android?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

That depends what you mean by perfect...

If perfect means Android is switching between A2DP and HFP/HSP automatically then that's because it's different software you're using in Android compared to Ubuntu and only the apps you're using in Ubuntu lack the triggers to switch PulseAudio automatically. Hence application bug.

If perfect means your hardware is capable of A2DP input and output simultaneously then I don't know... In that case it's possibly a shortcoming (missing feature) in BlueZ.

The answer really depends on what your hardware is capable of and what BlueZ is capable of, and I'm not sure what the answer to either of those is. You would need to find out more technical details about your Bose device and possibly contact the developers at bluez.org.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

If you could tell us what applications you're using to make calls in Ubuntu then it's possible someone might be able to reproduce the issue.

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

not a bug but a feature then lol?

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

PS Sorry I didn't mean to be disrespectful, I love (K)ubuntu, it has been my main operating system for a decade now. Just a bit disappointed that the relatively new android operating system is more mature here. I will provide more info later. Thanks for the help so far.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I agree, desktop Linux Bluetooth audio support is a bit immature still, in places.

However the Bluetooth, audio, and application software interfaces are all very different between desktop Linux and Android. Android and desktop Linux (like Ubuntu) don't have much in common there, so of course they might have different capabilities.

[Carlos Navas (carlosnavas1986)]

I'm having the exact same problem. I have to switch manually between A2DP and HFP/HSP everytime I'm listening to music and I have a meeting in Bluejeans, Hangouts, etc. Please notice that the main problem is the sound quality when you have a call.
Android, MacOSX, Windows and other operative systems have implemented a way to automatically switch from HFP/HSP and A2DP depending if you're talking or not, so you can get meetings and calls with great sound quality.

Is there any trick/feature to get this working on Linux? (last thing in the world will be leaving Linux :D) I'm sure you can get this working guys! :)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I'm not sure, but based on the previous comments it sounds like either:
 (a) Your web browser needs fixing/enhancing to use property media.role=phone under Linux/PulseAudio; or
 (b) PulseAudio is ignoring property media.role=phone, when upstream claims it should work [1].

You should log the bug with your web browser and the maintainers will be able to tell you if they are using property media.role=phone or similar that PulseAudio requires. Also note that PulseAudio needs to be at v10.0 or higher, which means you need at least Ubuntu 17.04 or later for it to work at all in theory.

[1] https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Notes/10.0/

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

When I select the ad2p source/sink profile the mic won't work anywhere.

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

As you can see there are no recording devices present.

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

However if I select the HSP/HPF profile, it is. However with very low quality audio.
The strange thing that if I switch back to the AD2p Source profile. The microphone is available.

I've tested this using Skype version 8.11.0.4

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

After you switch back to A2DP and the microphone is still available, does it keep the higher audio quality (even while running Skype) or does it degrade back to low quality? My understanding is that it would have to degrade, and that's probably not a bug.

If it doesn't degrade while using the mic then that's great. I have no idea how it's meant to work in that case. It might then be time to start talking to the experts and log the issue here:
  https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=PulseAudio

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

It keeps the high quality.

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

Actually it's a duplicate of a bug that has been fixed before (with high priority).

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

It seems like PulseAudio can handle ad2p correctly but maybe the audio configuration is not using the right parameters to initialize the sound system.

I'm a Java developer. I'm willing to take a look at the source code but it would take me some time to get started. I have no Linux developer experience.

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

Can you maybe re-open bug 508522? It will ensure that this issue get's the priority it deserves.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I think it's cleaner to keep the discussion here since you're the only one still talking about it. So I have made this no longer a duplicate of that one.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.04 (zesty) reached end-of-life on January 13, 2018.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test.

If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.

[Jinko (jinko)]

Dear Daniel,

I think we do understand EOSL release policies. It is not clear to me what is the "Root Cause Analysis" for this issue and where is the Change log release information that states that Ubuntu does understand the BUG and where the fix is in (as in package version/Ubuntu release). So far, I did not see any official statement with proof of this not being a BUG.

it is happening to me with SONY DR-BTN200 model as well. It seems that this BUG/issue would need more clarification before leaving Ubuntu users with this being marked as Incomplete-Invalid and the other bug #508522 as "Fix Released". Very unclear to me at the moment what,when,how we fixed it..if someone really did fix it at this point in time.

That would be a more valuable information just then throwing on the table the EOSL talk :)

If I am missing something, please point me to it and I will be glad to follo-up on it.

Thanks.

Best Regards,
Jinko

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

Yes, this is a duplicate of bug #508522. IMHO I think that we should close this issue and re-open bug #508533.

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

*re-open #508522