I know that Ubuntu (PulseAudio) has well-known issues with Bluetooth Headsets and for some time I was struggling to fix this. After different attempts this one helped me and everything seems to be working. I even managed to make auto-switch profiles work when I use a microphone.
But I use two Ubuntu systems (18.04 and 20.04) and available codecs differ for the same headphones on both systems. Even though I checked all the configs, installed packages, logs, etc., everything looks exactly the same.
On 20.04 I have AAC codec by default and mSBC when using a microphone which is nice. But on 18.04 I have SBC codec by default and CVSD when using a microphone which is worse.
All available profiles on 18.04:
- Headset Head Unit (HSP/HPF, codec CVSD)
- High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)
- High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink, codec SBC)
All available profiles on 20.04:
- Headset Head Unit (HSP/HPF, codec mSBC)
- High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)
- High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink, codec SBC-XQ)
- High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink, codec SBC)
- High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink, codec AAC)
How to bring the same codecs to 18.04 to make the quality better?
/etc/pipewire/media-session.d/bluez-monitor.conf (the same for both systems, pretty much default but bluez5.autoswitch-profile set to true):
# Bluez monitor config file for PipeWire version 0.4.1 #
#
# Copy and edit this file in /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/
# for system-wide changes or in
# ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/ for local changes.
properties = {
# These features do not work on all headsets, so they are enabled
# by default based on the hardware database. They can also be
# forced on/off for all devices by the following options:
#bluez5.enable-sbc-xq = true
#bluez5.enable-msbc = true
#bluez5.enable-hw-volume = true
#bluez5.enable-faststream = true
# See bluez-hardware.conf for the hardware database.
# Enabled headset roles (default: [ hsp_hs hfp_ag ]), this
# property only applies to native backend. Currently some headsets
# (Sony WH-1000XM3) are not working with both hsp_ag and hfp_ag
# enabled, disable either hsp_ag or hfp_ag to work around it.
#
# Supported headset roles: hsp_hs (HSP Headset),
# hsp_ag (HSP Audio Gateway),
# hfp_hf (HFP Hands-Free),
# hfp_ag (HFP Audio Gateway)
#bluez5.headset-roles = [ hsp_hs hsp_ag hfp_hf hfp_ag ]
# Enabled A2DP codecs (default: all).
#bluez5.codecs = [ sbc sbc_xq aac ldac aptx aptx_hd aptx_ll aptx_ll_duplex faststream faststream_duplex ]
# HFP/HSP backend (default: native).
# Available values: any, none, hsphfpd, ofono, native
#bluez5.hfphsp-backend = native
# Properties for the A2DP codec configuration
#bluez5.default.rate = 48000
#bluez5.default.channels = 2
# Register dummy AVRCP player, required for AVRCP volume function.
# Disable if you are running mpris-proxy or equivalent.
#bluez5.dummy-avrcp-player = true
}
rules = [
# An array of matches/actions to evaluate.
{
# Rules for matching a device or node. It is an array of
# properties that all need to match the regexp. If any of the
# matches work, the actions are executed for the object.
matches = [
{
# This matches all cards.
device.name = "~bluez_card.*"
}
]
actions = {
# Actions can update properties on the matched object.
update-props = {
# Auto-connect device profiles on start up or when only partial
# profiles have connected. Disabled by default if the property
# is not specified.
#bluez5.auto-connect = [
# hfp_hf
# hsp_hs
# a2dp_sink
# hfp_ag
# hsp_ag
# a2dp_source
#]
bluez5.auto-connect = [ hfp_hf hsp_hs a2dp_sink ]
# Hardware volume control (default: all)
#bluez5.hw-volume = [
# hfp_hf
# hsp_hs
# a2dp_sink
# hfp_ag
# hsp_ag
# a2dp_source
#]
# LDAC encoding quality
# Available values: auto (Adaptive Bitrate, default)
# hq (High Quality, 990/909kbps)
# sq (Standard Quality, 660/606kbps)
# mq (Mobile use Quality, 330/303kbps)
#bluez5.a2dp.ldac.quality = auto
# AAC variable bitrate mode
# Available values: 0 (cbr, default), 1-5 (quality level)
#bluez5.a2dp.aac.bitratemode = 0
# Profile connected first
# Available values: a2dp-sink (default), headset-head-unit
#bluez5.profile = a2dp-sink
# A2DP <-> HFP profile auto-switching (when device is default output)
# Available values: false, role (default), true
# 'role' will switch the profile if the recording application
# specifies Communication (or "phone" in PA) as the stream role.
bluez5.autoswitch-profile = true
}
}
}
{
matches = [
{
# Matches all sources.
node.name = "~bluez_input.*"
}
{
# Matches all sinks.
node.name = "~bluez_output.*"
}
]
actions = {
update-props = {
#node.nick = "My Node"
#node.nick = null
#priority.driver = 100
#priority.session = 100
node.pause-on-idle = false
#resample.quality = 4
#channelmix.normalize = false
#channelmix.mix-lfe = false
#session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 5 # 0 disables suspend
#monitor.channel-volumes = false
# A2DP source role, "input" or "playback"
# Defaults to "playback", playing stream to speakers
# Set to "input" to use as an input for apps
#bluez5.a2dp-source-role = input
}
}
}
]
upd. Looks like the reason is bluez version. Ubuntu 20.04 has bluez5.53 while Ubuntu 18.04 latest version is bluez5.48. I tried looking for PPAs, found only one (ppa:bluetooth/bluez) which offers 5.50 version. But unfortunately, it changes nothing. Any good way to upgrade bluez version in Ubuntu 18.04 to the latest one? Only manual compiling?
