Bug#840220: pulseaudio: no hsp/hfp support built in in pulseaudio

[jouthuis]

On Sun, 9 Oct 2016 13:41:32 -0300 Felipe Sateler <fsateler at debian.org>
wrote:
> Control: tags -1 moreinfo
> 
> On 9 October 2016 at 13:20, j. outhuis <jouthuis at ldds.nl> wrote:
> > Package: pulseaudio
> > Version: 9.0-3
> > Severity: normal
> >
> > Dear Maintainer,
> >
> > I've been struggling with this for years now, and waiting for
upstream changes
> > that would solve the problem: Full bluetooth headset support. Which
once worked
> > and then all of a sudden went broke. I'm not the only one, as noted
on the web.
> >
> >    * What led up to the situation?
> >
> > Using bluetooth headset with Bluez 5, which dropped hsp/hfp
support.
> >
> >    * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
> >      ineffective)?
> >
> > Tried to solve the problem with ofono, like suggested on the
internet. Compared
> > packages and config files with the ones in Xubuntu 16.04, because
my headset
> > works flawlessly, out of the box when running Xubuntu. No ofono
needed either.
> > Configured everything exactly like in Xubuntu, as far as possible,
may have
> > missed something.
> 
> Ofono is not necessary AFAICT, pulseaudio has a native backend
> (headset=native option).
> 
> >
> >    * What was the outcome of this action?
> >
> > It still doesn't work, i.e. output is fine, but no input, no sound
on the mic.
> > 'Pactl list' still says: no support for hsp/hfp.
> 
> Could you attach the output of pactl list when you have your device
paired?
> 
> >
> >    * What outcome did you expect instead?
> >
> > I didn't have expectations. As far as I can tell at this moment the
Debian
> > package just has no hsp/hfp support compiled in. According to
Gentoo
> > instructions on the web there should be a compile-config like
'ofono-
> > headset=yes' for pulseaudio to pick up hsp/hfp support.
> >
> > So, please have pulseaudio support ofono functionality, or else
tell me what
> > I'm overlooking. It's very annoying to see this working on my
shadow Xubuntu
> > system (which even makes use of the same Debian-packages!) and fail
on my main
> > Debian-box.
> 
> Ubuntu 16.04 has a different version for bluez, this may be related.
> The issue might be in bluez and not in pulseaudio. To debug this,
> please attach:
> 
> 1. The output of `pactl list` with the device attached
> 2. A verbose log of pulseaudio when pairing the device[1].
> 
> Please remove the headset=ofono option from the configuration, so
that
> the native backend is used. AFAICT the ofono support does not bring
> the features you need[2]

Well, did some further experimenting, including your suggestion. Found
out that pulseaudio won't react on pairing the headset(s) with settings
headset=auto or headset=ofono in default.pa; only the default
headset=native works, at least under Debian.

Next, on studying my logs I started doing some fiddling with my dbus-
settings, and to my surprise all of a sudden my problem was solved when
I added a  <allow send_interface="org.bluez.HandsfreeAudioAgent"/> rule
 to /etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf. (Took this from ofono.conf in
the same directory)

At about the same time, I also had an update on both pulseaudio and
bluez, so that might have helped too.

Anyhow, everything works just fine now. I have hsp/hfp on my Nokia BH-
104 and  both A2DP and hsp/hfp on my Jabra Step.

Bug can be closed, AFAIC.

Greetings,
Jan Outhuis