bluetooth audio skips, cuts out

[Victor Van Hee]

Binary package hint: bluetooth-alsa

In Gutsy Server edition and using bluetooth-alsa 0.5cvs20070602, I'm experiencing issues streaming audio from a dongle to an audio receiver / headset device. After quite some time getting things connected and working (it was fairly difficult without a GUI), I get good quality audio for brief periods of time followed by intermittent loss of sound (~2-3 seconds at a time). When I boot into Windows XP using the same dongle (ASUS) and headset and stream music, the problem never occurs. I had the same problem with a previous completely different dongle / headset combination I was using previously.

Whether I use the pcm.A2DPD device or the pcm.bluetooth device doesn't seem to matter -- I still get intermittent loss of sound.

The only error messages that I can find are long streams of the following in /var/log/syslog:
l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)

'hcitool con' gives me:
< ACL xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx handle 12 state 1 lm MASTER

'hciconfig -a' gives me:
hci0: Type: USB
        BD Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx ACL MTU: 1017:8 SCO MTU: 64:0
        UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
        RX bytes:118166 acl:24 sco:0 events:16699 errors:0
        TX bytes:40583941 acl:66660 sco:0 commands:26 errors:0
        Features: 0xff 0xff 0x8d 0xfe 0x9b 0xf9 0x00 0x80
        Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3
        Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK
        Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT
        Name: 'storm-0'
        Class: 0x080100
        Service Classes: Capturing
        Device Class: Computer, Uncategorized
        HCI Ver: 2.0 (0x3) HCI Rev: 0x4000 LMP Ver: 2.0 (0x3) LMP Subver: 0x430e
        Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)

[amias (amias)]

i get the same effect on my dell vostro 1710 running 8.10 64bit desktop.
but i don't get any error messages anywhere. It also seems to effect my
wireless network connection which doesn't recover unless i stop hcid
with sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth stop

hciconfig -a

hci0: Type: USB
 BD Address: 00:1E:37:EC:FF:73 ACL MTU: 310:10 SCO MTU: 64:8
 UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
 RX bytes:1548632 acl:19 sco:0 events:221075 errors:0
 TX bytes:63505375 acl:221031 sco:0 commands:38 errors:0
 Features: 0xff 0xff 0x8f 0xfe 0x9b 0xf9 0x00 0x80
 Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3
 Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK
 Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT
 Name: 'rome'
 Class: 0x0a010c
 Service Classes: Networking, Capturing
 Device Class: Computer, Laptop
 HCI Ver: 2.0 (0x3) HCI Rev: 0x10db LMP Ver: 2.0 (0x3) LMP Subver: 0x10db
 Manufacturer: Cambridge Silicon Radio (10)

Are there any settings i can adjust to give it a chance of being more robust ?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 9.04?

[amias (amias)]

i dont know i only have 8.10 and am not ready to move to 9.04 yet.

let me know if there is anything else i can do to help

[ridesn (travis-buuck)]

Same exact problem here. Works perfectly for a while (usually several minutes), but once the audio starts skipping i generally have to "killall -9 pulseaudio" and restart to regain normal audio. It seems better if I start playing audio and leave the laptop alone. Plenty of hardware tho (1.5ghz dual core and 2.5gb ram).

bluez4.12 is installed. Machine is a dell m1330 running intrepid ibex

uname -a = 2.6.27-9-generic

bluetooth headset receiver is a sony hws-bta2w, and it works perfectly with my ipod bluetooth transmitter. I'd love to see this get fixed :)

a portion of my /var/log/syslog (the message goes on and on)
Jan 5 18:00:46 travis-laptop bluetoothd[5459]: link_key_request (sba=00:1C:26:E0:56:B7, dba=00:1A:80:48:07:5D)
Jan 5 18:00:48 travis-laptop kernel: [13346.796960] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)
Jan 5 18:00:49 travis-laptop kernel: [13346.866972] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)
Jan 5 18:00:49 travis-laptop kernel: [13346.878964] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)
Jan 5 18:00:49 travis-laptop kernel: [13346.903946] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)
Jan 5 18:00:49 travis-laptop kernel: [13347.546955] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)
Jan 5 18:00:49 travis-laptop kernel: [13347.550937] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)
Jan 5 18:00:49 travis-laptop kernel: [13347.602946] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)
Jan 5 18:00:49 travis-laptop kernel: [13347.606949] l2cap_recv_acldata: Unexpected continuation frame (len 0)

[ridesn (travis-buuck)]

I've continued playing with this. After some more experimentation it seems (for me at least) its a bluetooth signal strength issue. I moved my bluetooth audio receiver closer to the laptop (within 4 feet now) and the audio almost never cuts out now. Furthermore if I obstruct the line of sight between the laptop and the receiver the audio will cut out. The audio comes back right away if i remove the obstruction.
It's unfortunate the signal strength is the problem in my opinion since the 4ft max distance somewhat defeats the purpose of having a wireless connection. I also wonder why my ipod bluetooth transmitter is so much stronger; as it sounds good from 20ft and through walls, only being powered by the ipod battery.
The next obvious question is; is there any way to monitor/boost the bluetooth signal strength emitted by the laptop? I understand there very well may be hardware limitations with this.
No complaints from me regardless, I can still very much enjoy pandora radio from my home stereo w/out wires!

[Matthew Woerly (nattgew)]

Is this still a problem in Jaunty or Karmic?

[Victor Van Hee (vvanhee)]

Don't think it works in Jaunty. Haven't tried Karmic.

On Sep 16, 2009, at 8:30 PM, Nattgew wrote:

> Is this still a problem in Jaunty or Karmic?
>
> --
> bluetooth audio skips, cuts out
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/192502
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.

[Louie (louie-savva)]

My experience is the same as ridesn. 9.10. It seems to be a signal strength problem.

[Paul Brannan (pbrannan)]

I am experiencing this problem on 9.10. I had long suspected this might be a signal problem, as indicated by other users. However, I have no way to prove this one way or the other, and I'm not sure I can improve the signal, given that the device is within two feet of the computer.

[amias (amias)]

its a lot better in karmic and seems that a signal above 215 is need for smooth audio.
this equates to about a 1m distance

[Eric Veenendaal (eveenendaal)]

Has there been any progress on this? I have my phone less then 2 feet from dongle and I still get a ton of skips. The signal strength at this distance is only about 50%. Are there any better drivers for the BCM2046 chipset yet?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for bluetooth-alsa (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Matthew Woerly (nattgew)]

The BCM2046 in my Inspiron 1525 has always performed fairly poorly. Sometimes I can get it to work, but even moving the laptop just a little tends to make the audio skip, and it's tough to get it to play right.
Interestingly, the Atheros AR5BBU12 in my Cr-48 runs great under Ubuntu. If I block it with my hands, it has issues, but otherwise works much better.

Ubuntu 10.10 on both.

[Curt Sampson (cjs-cynic)]

I have this same problem with my Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth dongle (ID 0a5c:2123) under 10.04 (lucid).

[Curt Sampson (cjs-cynic)]

I bought a new BT 3.0 dongle which works well, so I have the one that reproduces this bug available to send to anybody who wants to work on fixing it. Contact me at <email address hidden> if you need it.

[jmrk (joergen-kornfeld)]

Have the same issue with 11.04. Pausing audio in rhythmbox and resuming a second later helps for a while (sometimes hours). Distance to laptop: <1m. Headset: BH-214; HP Elitebook 8530w;

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sune Woeller (sune-woeller)]

Same issue with ubuntu 12.10 and Belkin bluetooth music receiver.
No problems at all when streaming from iphone or ipad to belkin.

[Botond Szász (boteeka)]

Still happening on 13.04 too.

[seba (5-admin-starepro-info)]

Similar issue here

3.8.0-27-generic

ASUS USB bluetooth dongle.

Everything work ok, i left open computer without playing music for a few hours and when i play i have cuts and slashs.
I click at bluetooth icon and (disable bluetooth) disconnect, reconnect with headphones - everything work ok.
After reboot, everything woork perfect too.

When i play music all time for example x hours - everything perfect.

[James Brierley (jmb8710)]

I got rid of this problem by disabling un-needed options in /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf. Here’s my file:

# Configuration file for the audio service

# This section contains options which are not specific to any
# particular interface
[General]

# Switch to master role for incoming connections (defaults to true)
Master=false

# If we want to disable support for specific services
# Defaults to supporting all implemented services
#Disable=Gateway,Source,Socket

# SCO routing. Either PCM or HCI (in which case audio is routed to/from ALSA)
# Defaults to HCI
#SCORouting=PCM

# Automatically connect both A2DP and HFP/HSP profiles for incoming
# connections. Some headsets that support both profiles will only connect the
# other one automatically so the default setting of true is usually a good
# idea.
#AutoConnect=true

# Headset interface specific options (i.e. options which affect how the audio
# service interacts with remote headset devices)
[Headset]

# Set to true to support HFP, false means only HSP is supported
# Defaults to true
HFP=false

# Maximum number of connected HSP/HFP devices per adapter. Defaults to 1
MaxConnected=1

# Set to true to enable use of fast connectable mode (faster page scanning)
# for HFP when incoming call starts. Default settings are restored after
# call is answered or rejected. Page scan interval is much shorter and page
# scan type changed to interlaced. Such allows faster connection initiated
# by a headset.
FastConnectable=true

# Just an example of potential config options for the other interfaces
#[A2DP]
#SBCSources=1
#MPEG12Sources=0

Enable=Source,Sink,Headset

[Chris Jones (tibernut)]

James Brierley solution seemed worked for me in Ubuntu 18.04. audio.conf did not exist so I simply created it. I suspect dumping these in main.conf would also work.

[Diego (diego-giglio)]

I tried to create audio.conf, but it doesn't work for me.
Ubuntu 18.10