How to get Bluetooth earbuds to work in BionicPup64?

[Jafadmin]

I'm trying to get my usb earbuds to work on BionicPup 64-8.0. I've gotten them to work really well on the full Debian variants, but for the life of me I'm not getting to the goal line with Janky_BT.

I added the mac to the file. I even get it to pair. But I can't get it to connect and play any sound. Is this a PA problem?

Thx, etc ..

[mistfire]

I'm trying to get my usb earbuds to work on BionicPup 64-8.0. I've gotten them to work really well on the full Debian variants, but for the life of me I'm not getting to the goal line with Janky_BT.

I added the mac to the file. I even get it to pair. But I can't get it to connect and play any sound. Is this a PA problem?

Thx, etc ..

Puppy does not use PulseAudio, instead it uses ALSA. Install Bluez first then Install pBluetooth 4.0 and pair your headset. If your headset is connected then goto Multiple Sound Card Wizard and select your Bluetooth device

[Jafadmin]

@mistfire Thanks for the reply. What is "pBluetooth 4.0" and where would one possibly download it?

So far, I have been unsuccessful in locating anything with that (or similar) names using PPM, or on ibiblio.

A download link pointing to a .pet or .deb would be helpful ..

[edit] I found the .sfs files posted on github, but the 64 bit one (which I need) doesn't start. I don't think that sfs was intended for BionicPup 64. https://github.com/Pro-pra/PuppyBT

[Trapster]

There is a .pet in this thread

I've never had much luck with bluetooth.

[Jafadmin]

Thanks for the link. I installed that pet on the machine where I need it. I can get all the way to my headphones telling me they are paired and connected. Now if I could just figure out how to tell puppy to use them for sound.

As far as puppy is concerned, the headphones don't even exist. I can find no way to sent sound to the bluetooth connected device. It just keeps sending sound to the internal speaker.

There is something missing that pipes the sound from apps to the bluetooth device.

[mistfire]

Thanks for the link. I installed that pet on the machine where I need it. I can get all the way to my headphones telling me they are paired and connected. Now if I could just figure out how to tell puppy to use them for sound.

As far as puppy is concerned, the headphones don't even exist. I can find no way to sent sound to the bluetooth connected device. It just keeps sending sound to the internal speaker.

There is something missing that pipes the sound from apps to the bluetooth device.

Did you use ALSA or PulseAudio?

If ALSA then install the bluez-alsa

Goto to Mutiple Sound Card Wizard on Puppy Menu

Select your paired bluetooth device if present

[mistfire]

There is a .pet in this thread

I've never had much luck with bluetooth.

Make sure that your Puppy supports Bluez5

[Jafadmin]

Thanks for the link. I installed that pet on the machine where I need it. I can get all the way to my headphones telling me they are paired and connected. Now if I could just figure out how to tell puppy to use them for sound.

As far as puppy is concerned, the headphones don't even exist. I can find no way to sent sound to the bluetooth connected device. It just keeps sending sound to the internal speaker.

There is something missing that pipes the sound from apps to the bluetooth device.

Did you use ALSA or PulseAudio?

If ALSA then install the bluez-alsa

Goto to Mutiple Sound Card Wizard on Puppy Menu

Select your paired bluetooth device if present

I'm using bluez-alsa. I had it installed already. I can pair just fine. My headset says it is paired. When I click the "connect" button in the app, my headset tells me "phone 1 connected".

It's just that there is no transport device to sent the sound output to the headphones. Nothing shows up for it in the sound card wizard or amixer.

Is there supposed to be a transport pipe running that I can check for? ps shows bluetoothd and bluealsa running . I have to kickstart bluealsa with a link in Startup. Maybe it needs some switches or something?

Oh, and thanks for the help.

[mistfire]

@Jafadmin

Did you run Multiple Sound Card Wizard?
Did your paired bluetooth device showed on Multiple Sound Card Wizard?

Alternative
1. Go to pBluetooth > Paired Devices
2. On your paired bt headset click "Manage"
3. If you see about redirecting audio click it

[Jafadmin]

@Jafadmin

Did you run Multiple Sound Card Wizard?
Did your paired bluetooth device showed on Multiple Sound Card Wizard?

Alternative
1. Go to pBluetooth > Paired Devices
2. On your paired bt headset click "Manage"
3. If you see about redirecting audio click it

As I said in my post above, YES, I ran Multiple Sound Card Wizard. NO, the paired device DOES NOT show up.

So, to review ..
YES, I can pair my earbuds
YES, My earbuds tell me they are connected by saying in my ear, "Phone 1 connected'
YES, PBluetooth shows them connected, and gives me the 'Connected' dialog after connecting.

connected.png (311.77 KiB) Viewed 2110 times

NO, Multiple Sound Card Wizard does not show my earbuds. (just internal speaker)
NO, amixer does not show my earbuds
NO, puppy does not play test sound to my earbuds.

I hope this is clear enough. I just don't think the sound device gets created on the software level.

[Jafadmin]

Here is the '/etc/asound.conf' that gets created.

Code: Select all

#pBluetooth send to 17:EC:5D:F2:4E:A6
   pcm.!default {
   type plug
   slave.pcm {
           type bluealsa
           device "17:EC:5D:F2:4E:A6"
           profile "a2dp"
  }
}
ctl.!default {
  type bluetooth
  interface "hci0"
}

Also, when I run command: 'aplay --list-devices' it only shows the internal speaker

[mistfire]

@Jafadmin

Since your bluealsa was running nice. Try this configuration suggested on this link. Read the documentation very well

https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa
https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa/wiki ... pcm-plugin

In case that your Bluetooth headset works on your puppy. Show me your asound configuration here.

[mistfire]

@Jafadmin

Try this configuration, copy this and save as /etc/asound.conf

Code: Select all

pcm.btreceiver { 
    type plug 
    slave.pcm { 
        type bluealsa 
        device "[ BLUETOOTH MAC ADDRESS HERE ]"
        profile "a2dp" 
    } 
    hint { 
        show on 
        description "Bluetooth Receiver" 
    } 
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "btreceiver"
}

Right now, I'm revising my pBluetooth for BlueAlsa support

[mistfire]

@Jafadmin

You can also try the newly released pBluetooth 4.0 alpha 5
viewtopic.php?f=89&t=1135

And to this procedure again
1. Go to pBluetooth > Paired Devices
2. On your paired bt headset click "Manage"
3. If you see about redirecting audio click it

[Jafadmin]

Uninstalled Alpha 4 and installed Alpha 5.
re-discovered and re-paired
Clicked "manage device" and clicked "stream to device"
Headset says, "Connected" in my earbuds.

Then nothing. Multiple Soundcard Wizard does not show any new devices
Neither aplay -l or aplay -L show the BT speakers.

There is a piece missing that creates the sound device. Sound does keep playing to the internal speaker.

In my opinion, the bluetooth part is working ok. The problem is that the script or whatever that is responsible for creating the new sound/audio device just isn't present, or doesn't work right.

In all other linuxes, the bt app creates a new sound device for the system to use. That just isn't happening here.

[Jafadmin]

I guess I'm going to have to shelve this project for now. No time for a deep dive on it. I'll solve this by using Mint, I guess.

Just in case there are others searching for why puppy can't do "user friendly" bluetooth, it seems to boil down to this; Puppy Linux has made an "all-in" commitment to "Direct to ALSA" sound architecture, and the Bluez (bluetooth) folks have made a commitment to the PulseAudio to ALSA to sound toolchain.

Back in the day, serious effort was put into bluetooth on Puppy Linux to the point where it could be used for file transfer, gps, and keyboards, but there has never been a serious effort to create a robust BT to speakers (headphones) solution.

The problem is that now, the "older" computers are all BT capable, and many expect you to use an add-on speaker setup. USB earbuds are everywhere, but puppy has his paws over his eyes on the subject.

All that said, Bluetooth in general is the most convoluted mess I've seen since Windows Millennium Edition. I've never seen a technology before that is so dependent on so many moving pieces and parts. It's like trying to juggle cups of coffee.

[greengeek]

I think it is common to have too much Bluetooth stuff going on at once.

And I think pulse audio has the potential to complicate matters further if you are aiming for a simple connection that is completely understood and transparent to manage. Not really in the Puppy tradition.

I have seen most success when Bluetooth functionality is limited to alsa connection to audio headset only - leaving out obex etc capability.

But how to strip modern BT down to audio only?

It would be nice to see a simple module for pairing, a simple module for creating a new default alsa device, and a simple method for switching each audio utility to that new audio default device.

I had that functionality running fine on Slacko 5.6 but newer BT utilities seem to complicate things rather than modularise them.

For some reason I found that certain browsers would find (and stream to...) my BT headphones where no other audio utility would. Seemed to be something to do with asound.conf, asoundrc or similar files that define the default audio device. Some utilities allow selection of audio device from a list but others grab only the alsa default.

I would like to see more investigation around identifying what are the most minimal requirements for alsa definition of a bluetooth pairing as default audio device. Once that is understood the headset connection and selection should be easier.

[Jafadmin]

This was my final solution for this problem. Easy-peasy .. Works like a charm ..

taotronics.jpg (22.12 KiB) Viewed 1590 times

It's a little smaller than a cigarette lighter.

[wizard]

@Jafadmin

Does your TaoTronics Portable Bluetooth Transmitter for TV have low enough latency to work with videos and not produce lip sync problems? I've tried several and all failed that test.

Thanks
wizard

[Jafadmin]

@Jafadmin

Does your TaoTronics Portable Bluetooth Transmitter for TV have low enough latency to work with videos and not produce lip sync problems? I've tried several and all failed that test.

Thanks
wizard

That's hard for me to accurately gauge. I primarily use it with web browsing. The bluetooth earbuds have a certain amount of latency no matter what. I seriously doubt this setup would be suitable for video editing and production work. Hardwired is the only sane solution for that.

That said, I tried playing some mp4 music videos of live performances and noticed no discernible lag induction.

[wizard]

@Jafadmin
Thanks, my use is for mp4 movies, netflix, and TV so will give it try and let you know.

wizard

[wizard]

@Jafadmin

Took me a while, but got a TaoTronics Bluetooth Transmitter and Receiver 2-in-1 Wireless Adapter TT-BA07 from ebay and it does work well with my TV/puppy laptop/bluetooth speaker. Thanks for the tip.

wizard