My Solution: Hardy 8.04 and Bluetooth headsets

[Wolle69]

Hi kepreon,

I managed to get Skype working very well with this thread (Thanks a lot to all of you!), after investigating for several days. Just a minute ago, I shared my way in a German forum in order to help others.

Unfortunately I don't get Ekiga working with my headset, which was my primary purpose. Starting a test call on sip:10005@sipgate.de (my VoIP provider) seems to work, Ekiga doesn't report any errors, just the headset stays quiet, headset microphone doesn't either seem to work.

The link you provided deals with a2dp, but I thought that would be used for stereo headset usage (one way!) instead of mono but 2-way?! Is that really what I should try in order to get Ekiga working?!

Could you please explain, how you got Ekiga working with your bluetooth headset?

Ekiga console output is:

ALSA lib pcm_params.c:2135:(snd1_pcm_hw_refine_slave) Slave PCM not usable
Cannot initialize hardware parameter structure Invalid argumentCannot set access type Invalid argumentCannot set sample format Invalid argumentCannot set channel count Invalid argumentCannot set sample rate Invalid argumentCannot set period size Invalid argumentCannot set periods to Invalid argumentCannot set buffer_time to  50 ms Invalid argumentCannot set period_time to 10 ms   Invalid argumentCannot set parameters Invalid argument

Cheers
Wolle

P.S.: My setup:
-Ubuntu-64 with 2.6.24-24-generic kernel
-Skype 2.0.0.72
-Pulseaudio running
-Headset seems to work via ALSA
-solved skype problem simply by getting libasound_module_pcm_bluetooth.so and libasound_module_ctl_bluetooth.so from the i386-package of bluez-audio and stored them in /usr/lib32/alsa-lib

[aniketvb]

Why dont you try the new skype beta version 2.1 . It has native support for pulseaudio.

[alexeix]

I bought a new Nokia headset and installed the latest Skype Beta (after a fresh install of Jaunty).

I finally managed to get Skype working with the bluetooth headset, but there seems to be a delay in the sound transmission.

I need to do some further testing to check if it was just a one-off.

It's a real shame this kind of thing doesn't just work out of the box, like with OSX...
There are clearly problems using Bluetooth devices with Ubuntu, but the issue doesn't appear to be getting much priority.

[Wolle69]

Why dont you try the new skype beta version 2.1 . It has native support for pulseaudio.

Because:
1. Skype 2.0.0.72 works very well for me!
2. The new Skype isn't in the repos and it's a beta version. Installing such software always causes a lot of huddle!
3. I don't want to use Skype! My primary goal is to use a VoIP client like Twinkle or Ekiga!!! This was just testing. I've got no regular phone number yet, so my grandfather (e.g.) can't call me. VoIP is a good solution in such cases, but I need to get the softphone software working with the headset. Using the softphone software with a cable mic and phones works perfectly!
4. By the way: Skype is proprietary software...

There are clearly problems using Bluetooth devices with Ubuntu, but the issue doesn't appear to be getting much priority.

It's always very important to have a distinct phrasing of problems in order to get a useful solution. In my case, bluetooth worked very well and out of the box! The problem getting Skype to work was a problem related to ALSA-libs (32bit/64bit incompatibility). The problem I've got with Twinkle/Ekiga also seems to be related to ALSA - not to bluetooth...

Cheers
Wolle

[alexeix]

Well I still have this problem with delayed audio in Skype.

Whether it's down to Bluetooth or Pulseaudio, I don't know (although most likely you're right and it's the latter).

However, the fact is, this just doesn't work in a usable way.

In Windows 7, once I updated the Bluetooth drivers, bingo, no problems, no audio delays!
Likewise in OSX.
I like to use Ubuntu and think it's a great OS with lots of potential, but it has to be easy to do things or there's just no point using it.

How do I log this as a bug and if I do, is it likely to be given any kind of priority?
I ask this because I've noticed various similar bugs which haven't been addressed.

[trifgabi]

Hello.
I am having some problems with the Motorola S805 headphones in Lucid Lynx. Pairing and connecting works fine. Disconnecting and audio do not work.
Any advice where to start the troubleshooting?


Nevermind! After deleting the device and re-adding it a few times it finally started working.