Requirements:
- Debian squeeze at least for up-to date kernel, bluez and blueman (the latter is recommended, not required).
- pulseaudio + pulseaudio-module-bluetooth + pavucontrol (the latter is not required, but can be handy) packages:
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sudo aptitude install pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-bluetooth pavucontrol
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sudo aptitude install blueman
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pcm.!default plug:pulse
pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}
Note: You will have 2 volume controls, one for ALSA, other for PulseAudio - leave them both, because you might want to set volumes separately for programs who use ALSA and
PulseAudio respectively.
Pair your bluetooth device with your computer. Right-click on the PulseAudio volume control from the system tray, select sound preferences and set the in/out sound to your bluetooth device (if its there, it will probably work). Now any sound played through the PulseAudio server will be routed to the bluetooth device - Skype for example will select the pulseaudio server by default. Also all ALSA sounds are routed by default through the pulse plug to pulseaudio.
Now all PulseAudio aware programs can be used with the bluetooth headset. But what about ALSA? Some programs dont have pulseaudio plugins per se - this is where the .asoundrc file comes into play - the two sections added have the following meaning:
pcm.!default plug:pulse - defines the "pulse" plugin as default route (meaning that the "default" ALSA device will be routed to the pulseaudio server)
pcm.pulse { - this section defines the "pulse" plugin as the pulseaudio server.
type pulse
}
Caveats: Some programs might not like this setup for example older games, Wine etc. Java audio, OSS programs might bypass the ALSA sound system, so they will play through speakers (preloading alsa-oss might help here).
You might comment out the first line in .asoundrc if you dont want to route all ALSA sound through PulseAudio - the pulse plugin will be available and can be selected from programs that have advanced ALSA device support. Also this leads to sound device grabbing conflicts betweel ALSA and PulseAudio and you might experience sound cutting off sometimes.
It is recommended to either route everything through PulseAudio if you want sound to work.