[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#1100188: pipewire: Low volume on Bluetooth HSP/HFP (mSBC) after PipeWire update (0.3.65-3+deb12u1) on Debian 12.

[Ferriol Barbena]

Package: pipewire
Version: 1.2.7-1~bpo12+1
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: ferriol at musaik.net

Dear Maintainer,

Here’s a clear and concise bug report based on your findings:

---

**What led up to the situation?**
After updating to **PipeWire 0.3.65-3+deb12u1** on Debian 12 (February 10,
2025), the volume of my **Jabra Elite 4** Bluetooth headset became
significantly lower when using **HSP/HFP mode with the mSBC codec**.

**What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or ineffective)?**
- I tested different audio profiles in GNOME sound settings:
  - **A2DP (aptX)** → Works fine, normal volume, but no microphone.
  - **HSP/HFP (mSBC)** → Low volume, significantly quieter than before the
update.
- I verified that **mSBC is enabled**
- I tried increasing the volume using `wpctl set-volume`, which worked:
  - **Setting volume to 140% makes the audio sound normal.**
- However, before the update, **HSP/HFP mode worked at normal volume without
needing manual adjustments**.

**What was the outcome of this action?**
- The only way to get acceptable volume is by **manually setting it to >100%**,
which was not necessary before.
- The sound quality remains worse than A2DP.

**What outcome did you expect instead?**
- I expected **HSP/HFP mode to work at normal volume as it did before the
update**, without needing to boost it manually.
- If this is an intentional change, a way to **restore the previous default
volume behavior** would be helpful.

Possible relevant changelog entry:
> "Fix volume control on Bluetooth devices"
> "Fix issue with microphone input on Bluetooth headset (Closes: #1014458)"



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.9
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-31-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=ca_ES.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=ca_ES.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages pipewire depends on:
ii  adduser                  3.134
ii  init-system-helpers      1.65.2
ii  libpipewire-0.3-modules  1.2.7-1~bpo12+1
ii  pipewire-bin             1.2.7-1~bpo12+1

pipewire recommends no packages.

pipewire suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information