Ubuntu – PulseAudio fails to set card profile to ‘a2dp_sink’. How to see the logs and figure out whats wrong

16.04alsabluetoothpulseaudiosound

I have currently installed ubuntu 16.04 and a2dp used to work on fresh install, which I'd prefer to leave as a last option. When the pairing is erased from bluetooth settings and is paired again sometimes it manages to be on a2dp profile, but if the headset is disconnected and then reconnected the a2dp profiles doesn't work anymore (though it says is on a2dp), it only works after switching to HSP/HSF and then I'm unable to set it on a2dp.

I have tried doing:

 pacmd set-card-profile <index> a2dp_sink

but the following error comes out:

"Failed to set card profile to 'a2dp_sink'"

I'm quite inexperienced in Linux so I don't know how to get logs or what to look for in them, but I got this from pacmd list-cards:

When it works:

name: <bluez_card.50_C9_71_97_A1_86>
driver: <module-bluez5-device.c>
owner module: 27
properties:
    device.description = "Jabra REVO a4.0.0"
    device.string = "50:C9:71:97:A1:86"
    device.api = "bluez"
    device.class = "sound"
    device.bus = "bluetooth"
    device.form_factor = "headset"
    bluez.path = "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_50_C9_71_97_A1_86"
    bluez.class = "0x240404"
    bluez.alias = "Jabra REVO a4.0.0"
    device.icon_name = "audio-headset-bluetooth"
    device.intended_roles = "phone"
profiles:
    headset_head_unit: Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) (priority 20, available: unknown)
    a2dp_sink: High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) (priority 10, available: unknown)
    off: Off (priority 0, available: yes)
active profile: <a2dp_sink>
sinks:
    bluez_sink.50_C9_71_97_A1_86/#6: Jabra REVO a4.0.0
sources:
    bluez_sink.50_C9_71_97_A1_86.monitor/#10: Monitor of Jabra REVO a4.0.0
ports:
    headset-output: Headset (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
        properties:

    headset-input: Headset (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
        properties:

When it doesn't:

name: <bluez_card.50_C9_71_97_A1_86>
driver: <module-bluez5-device.c>
owner module: 25
properties:
    device.description = "Jabra REVO a4.0.0"
    device.string = "50:C9:71:97:A1:86"
    device.api = "bluez"
    device.class = "sound"
    device.bus = "bluetooth"
    device.form_factor = "headset"
    bluez.path = "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_50_C9_71_97_A1_86"
    bluez.class = "0x240404"
    bluez.alias = "Jabra REVO a4.0.0"
    device.icon_name = "audio-headset-bluetooth"
    device.intended_roles = "phone"
profiles:
    headset_head_unit: Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) (priority 20, available: unknown)
    a2dp_sink: High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) (priority 10, available: yes)
    off: Off (priority 0, available: yes)
active profile: <off>
ports:
    headset-output: Headset (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
        properties:

    headset-input: Headset (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
        properties:

And the owning module is:

name: <module-bluez5-device>
argument: <path=/org/bluez/hci0/dev_50_C9_71_97_A1_86>
used: 0
load once: no
properties:
    module.author = "João Paulo Rechi Vita"
    module.description = "BlueZ 5 Bluetooth audio sink and source"
    module.version = "8.0"

I have already tried to modify /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf and install blueman but it didn't work. I also tried to reinstall bluez and pulseaudio but nothing changed.

Is there any way I can know what's wrong and fix it?

Best Answer

In order to allow your system to be detected as an A2DP sink (e.g. to play music from your phone via your computer speakers), add Enable=Source,Sink,Media,Socket under [General] in /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf.

After doing this, restart the bluetooth daemon

systemctl restart bluetooth

Connect you headphone device

bluetoothctl
connect <MAC>

Check your card and set profile

pactl list cards short
pacmd set-card-profile <index> <profile>

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Bluetooth profile locked to A2DP (high-quality audio sink) but cannot change to HFP/HSP (low-quality bidirectional headset)

EDIT: also try connecting using Blueman. I don't know why PulseAudio has so much trouble but simply opening Blueman, right-clicking on my headphones in the overview, and selecting Audio Profile > Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) fixed it for me. I have since stopped and removed oFono and it still seems to work.

I had a similar (the same?) problem with my Bose QC35 II and fixed it by following these instructions ("Using HFP with oFono").

I'm on Debian buster so things might be a little bit different for you.

Install ofono and ofono-phonesim:
```
sudo apt-get install ofono-phonesim
```

Clone the oFono Git repository (currently at cf850de632):

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/ofono/ofono.git
cd ofono

List the available modems you have:
```
./test/list-modems
```
It'll probably have no modems, which is not surprising on a modern Linux desktop. But for reasons I don't really understand you really do need to have some sort of modem to get headphones to work, so we're going to simulate one now.
Start by simulating one (you can probably pick a different port if you want):
```
ofono-phonesim -p 12345 /usr/share/phonesim/default.xml
```
Modify /etc/ofono/phonesim.conf to use this simulated modem. My Debian version was so kind to put something in there already but commented it out. This is what it looks like for me now (without the comments):
```
[phonesim]
Driver=phonesim
Address=127.0.0.1
Port=12345
```
Restart oFono:
```
sudo service ofono restart
```
Check that the device is now listed:
```
./test/list-modems
```

Enable the device:

./test/enable-modem /phonesim

If you get an error like this, make sure your phonesim is up and running:

Connecting modem /phonesim...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./test/enable-modem", line 20, in <module>
    modem.SetProperty("Powered", dbus.Boolean(1), timeout = 120)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 70, in __call__
    return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 145, in __call__
    **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 651, in call_blocking
    message, timeout)
dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.ofono.Error.Failed: Operation failed

Check that the device is now powered on using ./test/list-modems.

Hopefully it works now! You may need to restart other services too (bluez, pulseaudio).

I can now pick my headphone as an input device. It will cause the device to use very low quality audio but at least it works. Make sure to switch back to "High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)" when you're done with the microphone as you'll otherwise get very low quality audio output.

Ubuntu – IEC958 (S/PDIF) not working

The answer is actually so simple that it's silly that it's not included in the default gnome audio control panel.

Step 1:

sudo apt install libavresample-dev pavucontrol libasound2-plugins-extra

Step 2:

pavucontrol

Step 3:

Tick all the boxes for the advanced audio codecs

Step 4:

Enjoy amazing sound over S/PDIF out (optical or coax) to a speaker set that supports it.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Bluetooth profile locked to A2DP (high-quality audio sink) but cannot change to HFP/HSP (low-quality bidirectional headset)

Ubuntu – IEC958 (S/PDIF) not working

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