Audio doesn't switch automatically to Bluetooth speaker when hotplugged after application playback started

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement]

artful desktop

Test Case.
1. Pair a BT Speaker and set the output channel to the speaker
2. Play something with vlc or totem (and make sure it uses the speaker with pavucontrol for instance)
3. Switch the output to another channel eg internal speaker and turn the BT speaker off (do not close the music player)
4. Turn the speaker back on and wait until it connects
5. If the speaker is not selected automatically as the output, select it in the sound settings
6. Resume playing in VLC

Expected result
The track plays on the speaker

Actual result
It plays on the internal audio.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: pulseaudio 1:10.0-2ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.11.0-10.15-generic 4.11.8
Uname: Linux 4.11.0-10-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.5-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Mon Jul 17 17:09:17 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-09-03 (1412 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha amd64 (20130902)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/29/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: UX32VD.214
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: UX32VD
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrUX32VD.214:bd01/29/2013:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnUX32VD:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnUX32VD:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: UX32VD
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Partially confirmed, but...

* Only confirmed in Totem. VLC did automatically switch back to bluetooth for me (so its menu says). Except I then lost all sound. One possibly related observation is that VLC provides a menu for you to select the current audio device. I don't think Totem does or can (because GStreamer is too generalised to expose devices by name?).

* PulseAudio is designed to allow different applications to use different audio devices of their choosing. So choosing to ignore newly added devices may in fact be an application bug/feature. The recent fixes to PulseAudio mostly relate to default devices (that which is used at application startup, not switched to during application execution).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Oh, maybe GStreamer does provide interfaces for enumerating devices abstractly. In that case an app like Totem might still have a say in device selection.

$ gst-inspect-1.0 pulseaudio
Plugin Details:
  Name pulseaudio
  Description PulseAudio plugin library
  Filename /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0/libgstpulseaudio.so
  Version 1.12.1
  License LGPL
  Source module gst-plugins-good
  Source release date 2017-06-20
  Binary package GStreamer Good Plugins (Ubuntu)
  Origin URL https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gst-plugins-good1.0

  pulsesink: PulseAudio Audio Sink
  pulsesrc: PulseAudio Audio Source
  pulsedeviceprovider: PulseAudio Device Provider

  3 features:
  +-- 2 elements
  +-- 1 device providers

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.10 (artful) reached end-of-life on July 19, 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.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gst-plugins-good1.0 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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