Bluetooth headset HSP/HFP mode not working in Xenial

[Kristin Chuang]

Using the 2/14 Xenial daily build, paired bluetooth headsets' do not work in HSP/HFP mode.

[Steps to reproduce]
1. Pair a bluetooth headset with laptop installed with Xenial 2/14 daily build
2. In the laptop, go to sound settings > output tab > try switching mode to HSP/HFP mode
3. Press the "test sound" button and try playing sound
4. Go to the input tab and check if bluetooth headset mic is listed

[Expected result]
After step 3, a window for mono audio test should pop up
After step 4, the input tab should list a bluetooth headset mic device

[Actual result]
After step 3, the window that pops up is for stereo (A2DP) audio test
After step 4, the input tab does not list any bluetooth headset mic

[Details]
BT wireless module:
 * Intel 3160
BT headset:
 * Jabra CLI
Xenial: 2/14 daily build:
 * Kernel: 4.4.0-6
 * bluez: 5.36-0ubuntu1
 * gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:amd64: 1.7.2-1ubuntu1
 * pulseaudio: 1:8.0-0ubuntu2
 * pulseaudio-module-bluetooth: 1:8.0-0ubuntu2

[Note]
Also double checked with same set of hardware, but with 15.10 installed.
Bluetooth headset HSP/HFP mode worked correctly in 15.10.

15.10 details:
 * kernel: 4.2.0-19
 * bluez: 5.35-0ubuntu2
 * gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:amd64: 1.6.0-1ubuntu1
 * pulseaudio: 1:6.0-0ubuntu13
 * pulseaudio-module-bluetooth: 1:6.0-0ubuntu13

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Confirmed and reproduced here. Relevant log message:

module-bluez5-device.c: Refused to switch profile to headset_head_unit: Not connected

[Simon Fels (morphis)]

@David: Remember that for HFP you need a mobile telephony connection which is currently only supported through ofono which we don't ship on the desktop. What you more want here is HSP.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Oh, actually this seems fixed with today's latest image, after running a "sudo apt-get update / sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" I can no longer reproduce the problem.

Kristin, can you confirm that your problem is fixed in latest xenial?

[Kristin Chuang (kristinchuang)]

Hi David, confirmed that both A2DP & HSP/HFP are working correctly with the latest bluez 5.37-0ubuntu5.

I've tested with a Xenial based OEM image which was built on Mar-14 and includes all latest upstream Xenial packages on that date.
In this OEM image, bluez version is 5.37-0ubuntu5 and no BT workaround/fixes were implemented.
HSP/HFP mode is available and working correctly.

[Alok Parlikar (happyalu)]

I upgraded from 15.10 to 16.04 (after launch). Running into the same issue. bluez version installed is 5.37-0ubuntu5. Pulseaudio version is 1:8.0-0ubuntu3.

[Konrad Zapałowicz (kzapalowicz)]

Hey Alok,

thanks for your report and we will look into this one soon. In the meantime would you be so kind and collect syslog for us with the Bluetooth and Pulseaudio logging enabled. For the details on how to do this check the "Generating log files with debugging information" section on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingBluetooth page.

[Alok Parlikar (happyalu)]

Hi Konrad,

Please see my syslog attached.

[Konrad Zapałowicz (kzapalowicz)]

Thank you

[Bernie Bernstein (bernie9998)]

I'm seeing this same issue with Xenial and my logitech H800 headset.

The profile A2DP is automatically selected and I am unable to specify HSP/HFP. As a result, I am unable to get the microphone through bluetooth.

I have bluez 5.37-0ubuntu5 currently installed.

[Oleg (oleg-secondary)]

2 Bernie:

I had similar issue with Xenial. Two things to be mentioned:

1) It was not clean OS install, Xenial was upgraded from 14.04
2) There were error messages, when I tried to choose HSP profile:

[pulseaudio] module-bluez5-device.c: Refused to switch profile to headset_head_unit: Not connected

So, I reinstalled the bluez package and the problem disappeared. Something like this:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall bluez

[ByteFlinger (byteflinger)]

This bug is a serious issue for me. I am on Xenial and use my headset on a daily basis for audio meetings and most often selecting the HSP mode in the audio settings will not do anything and sometimes it randomly decides to work.

I really hope this can be fixed soon on Xenial and that we are not forced to upgrade ubuntu for a fix since this is not going to happen in the company until the next LTS is out.

[ByteFlinger (byteflinger)]

Forgot to add that this appears in the syslog

Jan 27 09:16:20 myhost pulseaudio[2506]: [pulseaudio] module-bluez5-device.c: Refused to switch profile to headset_head_unit: Not connected
Jan 27 09:16:36 myhost pulseaudio[2506]: message repeated 2 times: [ [pulseaudio] module-bluez5-device.c: Refused to switch profile to headset_head_unit: Not connected]

[ByteFlinger (byteflinger)]

Figured I should probably post more detailed debugging information

I am having this issue with a Bose Quiet Comfort 35 on Xenial in a Precision 5510

I enabled debugging on bluetooth and pulseaudio, restart my PC, connected the headset and attempted switching to HSP without any success

Attached is the relevant syslog lines that came out of the process, I hope it helps

[Ricardo Rodrigues (ricardorodriguesram)]

I'm also suffering from this issue.

New wireless headset with mic, can't use the mic...

But I'm using Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak). What can I do to help debug this issue?

[ByteFlinger (byteflinger)]

Do we have any update on this? This is impacting me quite a bit and I am happy to help in any way I can. Even though it has worked in the past, it has not worked since I posted my last update here.

[Sergio Callegari (callegar)]

Does not work in artful either.

On 17.10, the HSP/HFP option is shown in dropdown menus (pavucontrol, kde audio config, etc.). However, selecting them does not work and when one checks again the setting has gone back automatically to a2dp sink.

Please reopen. Otherwise advise whether a new identical bug should be opened for artful.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Folks,
This underlying problem may be quite different for each different BT controller.
Please file a separate bug for this.

[brett hetherington (brett-hetherington)]

I installed 14 alongside 16. İf I need telephony I load 14.. if I need googleearth I load 16. sorry but some dunderhead left hsp bluetooth outta 16. ask the bluez folks... any version of bluez 4 has twice the functionality of bluez5. maybe some bright spark could copy and paste the functioning lines from bluez4 to bluez5. and then tell us all what to do.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

We have made efforts to improve Bluetooth audio support over the past year, but most of the fixes are in Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 only. We've backported some to 16.04 but unfortunately can't backport everything.

Please try 17.10/18.04 and if you have any ongoing issues then open a new bug.

[Nikhil (nikwan3)]

I am using Kubuntu 17.10 and facing this exact issue.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

if you have any ongoing issues then open a new bug.

[Owais Lone (loneowais)]

Same issue on 18.04 Kubuntu, Gnome and KDE Neon

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This bug has been closed for over 2 years.

If you have any ongoing problem then please open a new bug for it.