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Bluetooth Audio Stutter / Skipping

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methuen
Posts: 3
Joined: 2021-04-08 22:30

Bluetooth Audio Stutter / Skipping

#1 Post by methuen »

Hi - new convert - very much enjoying Debian vs. High Sierra (and fantastically impressed that everything just works, including the VM client I need for work).

One thing I've hit a wall with is bluetooth audio streaming. I use some standard speakers and the built-in Apple hardware, so nothing exotic or too clever on the physical side.

Question (I've added all of the context, TLDR - nothing works so far, and I've got some conflicting status outputs so have hit a wall) - what should I try next in my quest to get bluetooth audio up & running ?

The issue -
I turn on bluetooth via the UI tool in Gnome (nothing extra installed)
I pair the speakers in the normal manner
I put on a song via Lollypop (I've tried Gnome music also, same result)
The music skips / stutters as if it was a badly damaged vinyl record.
This cleans up for brief stretches, but always returns to skipping / stuttering.

Context -

The same speakers via bluetooth work totally fine under MacOS, even when using the wifi.

My understanding / attempts to resolve -

My understanding is that it's a buffering problem under Linux - I've searched & found this problem reported for Ubuntu / Arch / Debian on other sites.
I've read / installed the packaged from https://wiki.debian.org/BluetoothUser/a2dp
I initially tried simply changing the latency via the slider in PAVUControl - no difference made there
I've tried turning off the wifi - no difference made there
Finally I had a go with an old solution I remembered from breaking-laptops-in-fedora days - this also made no difference, and I've reverted it so that it's not hanging around waiting to cause a conflict.
echo "options iwlwifi bt_coex_active=0" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf
Help pages got me to trying via rfkill,however the outputs conflict; rfkill doesn't think it's blocking anything, but the status output thinks that something is being blocked.
root@Methuen:/home/methuen# sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth status
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-04-09 07:49:20 BST; 42min ago
Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Main PID: 538 (bluetoothd)
Status: "Running"
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915)
Memory: 3.4M
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
└─538 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Apr 09 07:49:22 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.77 path=/MediaEndpo…PSink
Apr 09 07:49:22 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Failed to set mode: Blocked through rfkill (0x12)
Apr 09 07:49:34 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.299 path=/MediaEndp…ource
Apr 09 07:49:34 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.299 path=/MediaEndp…PSink
Apr 09 07:49:34 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: RFCOMM server failed for Headset Voice gateway: rf… (98)
Apr 09 07:49:34 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: RFCOMM server failed for :1.299/Profile/HSPHSProfi… (98)
Apr 09 07:49:35 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Failed to set mode: Blocked through rfkill (0x12)
Apr 09 07:49:54 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.77 path=/MediaEnd…ource
Apr 09 07:49:54 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.77 path=/MediaEnd…PSink
Apr 09 07:50:02 Methuen bluetoothd[538]: Failed to set mode: Blocked through rfkill (0x12)
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
root@Methuen:/home/methuen# sudo rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-wir ... 51520.html - similar question from 2016, so I'm not alone at least.

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