[0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio] Bluetooth has multiple connectivity issues

[Martin Gerdzhev]

Pulseaudio has been super unstable since ubuntu 20.04.
bluetooth has multiple connectivity issues which sometimes can only be resolved by unpairing and then pairing again.

A big problem comes when a bluetooth headset is connected. Sometimes it does not show up as well in the sound settings or the wrong profile is shown. Sometimes I try changing the profile it works, but other times it does not alter anything - e.g. changing from hfp to a2dp shows the change but the profile remains. If I switch settings tabs and go back to sound settings the old profile remains.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 1892814

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Reassigning also to pulseaudio since that's the problematic component, it would be worth also reporting upstream on https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/issues

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please make a separate bug for each issue using the 'ubuntu-bug' command. Please also reword this bug into a single issue and use the 'apport-collect' command to attach more information about the system.

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

apport information

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

apport information

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

apport information

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

apport information

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

apport information

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

apport information

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

apport information

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

I submit the microphone bug as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1893293

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks. Please also mention the model of headphones/headset and run these commands so we can see what kind of wireless chip it is talking to:

  lspci -kv > lspci.txt
  lsusb > lsusb.txt

And attach the resulting text files here.

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

The other bluetooth bug is now here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1893299

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

just to mention that with the same chip in 18.04 it wasn't that unstable

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

The headset is Avantree Audition

[Martin Gerdzhev (mgerdzhev)]

but the problem happens with other bluetooth headsets as well

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for all that.

The first and biggest problem I can see is this USB device:

  Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

Unfortunately Cambridge Silicon Radio dongles are unreliable and buggy for everyone. I had to learn that the hard way too... So I strongly recommend getting a different brand as a first step.

The only remaining concern then is the other wireless dongles on the same machine:

  Logitech, Inc. LX-700 Cordless Desktop Receiver
  Valve Software Wireless Steam Controller

If replacing the Bluetooth dongle with a non-Cambridge one does not solve the problem then I would try unplugging the above devices. And also moving away from other sources of 2.4GHz interference like wifi access points.

But mostly I recommend avoiding dongles that have Cambridge Silicon Radio chips. They are known to cause all kinds of random failures. The only hard part is that you can't tell that's what they are until after you buy one and plug it in :(

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

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