[Solved] Bluetooth sound unstable

[alienspy]

Hello! I have a Bluetooth headphones and its sound interrupts with total silence every few minutes for a several seconds. On other devices, including Linux Mint XFCE laptop, everything works fine. I have tried different Bluetooth hardware modules, one simple USB stick, and another one, with info below, is on the Wifi PCIE module. Same result.

I have Debian 12 Gnome on this desktop.

inxi -Eaz

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Bluetooth:
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-10:5 chip-ID: 8087:0032 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, audio,
    telephony

Is there any way to possibly fix this? Thanks.

I don't know is it a disconnection problem or a sound problem.

[arzgi]

I have switched to pipewire, but had the same problem with pulseaudio. I had this in my notes to remedy;

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sudo  service bluetooth status

sudo vim /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

FastConnectable = true
ReconnectAttemps = 7

~/.config/pulse/default.pa:

# automatically switch to newly-connected devices
load-module module-switch-on-connect

vim is just an editor, use one youlike, and if you don't have sudo installed, those sudo lines can be done as root.

[alienspy]

~/.config/pulse/default.pa:

# automatically switch to newly-connected devices
load-module module-switch-on-connect
[/code]

vim is just an editor, use one youlike, and if you don't have sudo installed, those sudo lines can be done as root.

Thank you for your reply! I have tested a hypothesis that a "choppy" sound can be caused by keyboard connected by radio and interfering the waves. But no, it doesnt affect in my case. I also connected a BT speaker and it works fine, so the problem is with these headphones particularly.

I will try your method soon, thx. But, there is no /.config/pulse/default.pa in my case, as i use Gnome and it has Pipewire by default. Any advice for PipeWire?

Also there is a section in Debian Wiki for choppy sound. HERE

But... I don't well understand what is "choppy" in english, as i am not a native speaker. In my situation sound just interrupts with silence for a few seconds rather often. And what "load" means in this context. Load of what..? Sound?

[alienspy]

~/.config/pulse/default.pa:

# automatically switch to newly-connected devices
load-module module-switch-on-connect

Nope, your advices didn't help...

I tried

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/etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/switch-on-connect.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/switch-on-connect.conf)

# override for pipewire-pulse.conf file
pulse.cmd = [
    { cmd = "load-module" args = "module-always-sink" flags = [ ] }
    { cmd = "load-module" args = "module-switch-on-connect" }
]

But it doesn't affect sound quality.

But i also noticed that HSP/HFP codec in Handsfree mode works better. Unfortunately i can't see AptX, LDAC or AAC codecs. And can't find the solution to add them on Debian 12. Or at least i don't see it (with different BT devices), as wiki says "While newer audio codecs such as AptX and LDAC are available in PipeWire"

Same question here (proposed solution there is unavailable) - https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comment ... bluetooth/

UPD

I have checked on other machine with Debian 12 XFCE and PusleAudio. It works fine there...

[alienspy]

Hm. I noticed that commands written below

First view the quantum using the pw-top command and then increase the quantum value using this command, until the audio becomes smoother.

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pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-quantum 2048

Once you find the right quantum value for your situation, you can make the value permanent by creating a config file ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/choppy-under-load.conf with the following content and restart pipewire related daemons.

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context.properties = {
   default.clock.quantum = 2048
   default.clock.min-quantum = 2048
}

Don't affect pw-top top results. That mysterious for me "quant" number stays the same. Also i noticed that VLC has quant number higher than Celluloid (mpv)

But... somehow after all the meddling with configs i don't have sound interrupts now. But i can't say the reason unfortunately. I will try to reproduce the issue and solving steps on other machine a bit later.

[alienspy]

Hm, that's strange. On second attempt PipeWire works fine on this Debian 12 XFCE also, before i did any manual configs. I don't need PW here, just for the sake of interest. Maybe there was some update, influencing bluetooth/sound?

UPD. Nothing important and relatable to the subject in apt history log, except bluez-firmware and bluez-tools, i think

[alienspy]

Nope. I was too quick to celebrate, the problem prevails. And i bought another Headphones, with support of different codecs: SBC, AAC, Aptx. But sound is again unstable on all codecs, except HSP mSBC. But sound quality is awful. If it is a common problem with Debian 12 Gnome, internet must be overwhelmed with complaints, but i don't see much. Can't understand if not the headphones then whats the problem.

[sunrat]

Do you have libspa-0.2-bluetooth installed?
Maybe try to use the backports version - https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-ba ... -bluetooth . There is also a much newer version of Pipewire available in backports which is reported to work fine on Bookworm.

I use neither Gnome nor Pipewire, only KDE Plasma, but Bluetooth works fine for my Jabra earbuds with my Thinkpad Yoga.

[alienspy]

Do you have libspa-0.2-bluetooth installed?

Yes!

Maybe try to use the backports version - https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-ba ... -bluetooth .

I will, thanks!

[alienspy]

Maybe try to use the backports version - https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-ba ... -bluetooth .

Oh my gosh, it removed GDM/Gnome... AGAIN.

[sunrat]

Maybe try to use the backports version - https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-ba ... -bluetooth .

Oh my gosh, it removed GDM/Gnome... AGAIN.

Surely it would have warned it proposed to do that and gave you the chance to abort.

[alienspy]

Surely it would have warned it proposed to do that and gave you the chance to abort.

Yes, my bad. Again. Didn't notice. I didn't assume that it is such an important package.

I have found a possibility to test the problem on a laptop with Debian 12 XFCE and Pulseaudio. There is a same problem. Another computer, another audio framework. Unlucky headphones second time..? If the problem is in Debian (Linux Mint FXCE on other laptop is fine), there must be tons of complaints, but that is not the case.

I will try Liqourix kernel now. Maybe it has other power-saving options, which can be the case, as i understood.

https://liquorix.net/#features

[alienspy]

Good news. Looks like I have solved the problem. As a last resort I have bought another one bluetooth receiver, third one. It has Realtek RTL8763BW chip and two antennas. And finally all works fine. I have spent some hours, using Bluetooth headphones, waiting for problems, but they hadn’t occur. Small problem is that LTS Kernel 6.1 doesn’t support this device, so I have used Liquorix kernel, which I have installed earlier. Though, I don’t need this kernel, as it haven’t helped me with sound interrupts, which was my hope at first. So… I bought more old bluetooth receiver with Realtek RTL8761BUV chip with antenna and it also works fine, and also works with stable 6.1 kernel.

I am glad that situation found its resolution, though it is strange for me that USB-dongle Bluetooth receiver (I don’t know the exact model) and receiver on an internal wi-fi adapter (AX 210) have worked so poorly both. Though I was in the distance not more than 2 meters from receiver.

Thanks for help