No aptX support

[ab]

Despite the changelog entry "Enable libopenaptx", version 4.0.0-2 of this package lacks support for the aptX codec, resulting in poor-quality audio.

bluealsa -h shows:

Available BT audio codecs:
  a2dp-source: SBC, LDAC
  a2dp-sink: SBC
  hfp-*: CVSD

This appears to be because debian/rules runs configure with only --enable-libopenaptx, but not --enable-aptx. Somewhat confusingly, you need both options to have any effect. I would recommend the maintainers pass all three of --enable-libopenaptx --enable-aptx --enable-aptx-hd. A binary I built myself with those options supports:

Available BT audio codecs:
  a2dp-source: SBC, aptX, aptX-HD, LDAC
  a2dp-sink: SBC, aptX, aptX-HD
  hfp-*: CVSD

[Jochen Sprickerhof (v-launchpad-jochen-sprickerhof-de)]

From my understanding --enable-aptx and --enable-aptx-hd depend on https://github.com/Arkq/openaptx which states in the readme:

This project is for research purposes only. Without a proper license private and commercial usage might be a case of a patent infringement.

So we can't distribute it in Debian or depend on it.

[ab (0xabu)]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I now understand the licensing constraints. Still, you should be aware that passing --enable-libopenaptx alone appears to have no effect -- the configure logic that checks it is all gated behind other flags.

The good news is that since I opened this bug, bluez-alsa added support in v4.2.0 for libfreeaptx:
https://github.com/arkq/bluez-alsa/pull/679
https://github.com/iamthehorker/libfreeaptx
... perhaps this avoids the licensing issues?

[Jochen Sprickerhof (v-launchpad-jochen-sprickerhof-de)]

Thanks for the reply, the actual problem is that it must be --with-libopenaptx not --enable-libopenaptx as currently in the package.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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