Bluetooth HSP/HFP not working in Raspberry PI 3

[SoloVeniaASaludar]

Trying to use a bluetooth mic/speaker in a raspberry pi 3 (headless).

Hardware is Raspberry pi 3, firmware updated today, running raspbian also dist-upgraded today. Using bluez and pulseaudio (system service start mode).

• The device is trusted, paired and connects/disconnects without problems.
• When device is initially connected, "pactl list" shows the device is using the profile named "headset_head_unit: Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 20, available: yes)". With this profile, no sound (trying to play with aplay command).
• When profile is changed to "a2dp_sink: High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 10, available: yes)" (using command pactl set-card-profile), the sound is played correctly.

No error messages seen in any log file.

Moreover, if I "down" ("hciadmin hci0 down") the internal raspberry bluetooth controller and use instead an external bluetooth controller connected in an usb port, both modes works correctly. Thus, problem seems related with the bluetooth device in raspberry card.

These are result from some related commands.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 4.9.56-v7+ #1044 SMP Fri Oct 13 15:23:13 BST 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ hciconfig -a
hci0:   Type: Primary  Bus: UART
    BD Address: B8:27:EB:7E:DA:2A  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 64:1
    UP RUNNING 
    RX bytes:14641 acl:101 sco:0 events:1341 errors:0
    TX bytes:2208546 acl:2358 sco:7 commands:97 errors:0
    Features: 0xbf 0xfe 0xcf 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87
    Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 
    Link policy: RSWITCH SNIFF 
    Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 
    Name: 'raspberrypi'
    Class: 0x0c0000
    Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing
    Device Class: Miscellaneous, 
    HCI Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Revision: 0x145
    LMP Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Subversion: 0x2209
    Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ pactl list
...
Card #3
    Name: bluez_card.E8_07_BF_11_10_A0
    Driver: module-bluez5-device.c
    Owner Module: 15
    Properties:
        device.description = "SPUBT710"
        device.string = "E8:07:BF:11:10:A0"
        device.api = "bluez"
        device.class = "sound"
        device.bus = "bluetooth"
        device.form_factor = "speaker"
        bluez.path = "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_E8_07_BF_11_10_A0"
        bluez.class = "0x240414"
        bluez.alias = "SPUBT710"
        device.icon_name = "audio-speakers-bluetooth"
    Profiles:
        headset_head_unit: Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 20, available: yes)
        a2dp_sink: High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 10, available: yes)
        off: Off (sinks: 0, sources: 0, priority: 0, available: yes)
    Active Profile: headset_head_unit
    Ports:
        speaker-output: Speaker (priority: 0, latency offset: 0 usec)
            Part of profile(s): headset_head_unit, a2dp_sink
        speaker-input: Bluetooth Input (priority: 0, latency offset: 0 usec)
            Part of profile(s): headset_head_unit 

# systemctl status bluetooth
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-10-14 15:49:16 UTC; 36min ago
     Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
 Main PID: 461 (bluetoothd)
   Status: "Running"
   CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
           └─461 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Bluetooth daemon 5.43
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Starting SDP server
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Bluetooth management interface 1.14 initialized
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Failed to obtain handles for "Service Changed" characteristic
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Sap driver initialization failed.
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.3 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.3 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Oct 14 15:55:04 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: /org/bluez/hci0/dev_E8_07_BF_11_10_A0/fd0: fd(24) ready

systemctl status pulseaudio

● pulseaudio.service - Pulse Audio
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/pulseaudio.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-10-14 15:49:12 UTC; 36min ago
 Main PID: 343 (pulseaudio)
   CGroup: /system.slice/pulseaudio.service
           └─343 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --system --disallow-exit --disable-shm --exit-idle-time=-1

Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] main.c: OK, so you are running PA in system mode. Please make sure that you actually do want to do that.
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] main.c: Please read http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/WhatIsWrongWithSystemWide/ for an explanation why system mode is usually a bad idea.
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/var/run/pulse/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authentication key '/var/run/pulse/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/var/run/pulse/.pulse-cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authentication key '/var/run/pulse/.pulse-cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: E: [pulseaudio] bluez5-util.c: Found duplicated D-Bus path for adapter /org/bluez/hci0
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: E: [pulseaudio] bluez5-util.c: Found duplicated D-Bus path for device /org/bluez/hci0/dev_E8_07_BF_11_10_A0

[pratham2003]

I'm facing the same issue too

[Pillar1989]

I'm facing the same issue too

[JamesH65]

Would it be possible for commenters to try the latest kernel (4.14) and see if the problems persists? Note, this is a testing branch, so should not be done on a critical system unless it's well backed up!

sudo BRANCH=next rpi-update

[pelwell]

It's not a kernel issue - it's a BlueZ limitation. As of version 5.0, BlueZ does not support HFP or HSP, only A2DP. I've not found an official explanation from BlueZ, but there are some notes from the PulseAudio devs here: https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Notes/5.0/

If anyone knows of a solution that doesn't involve installing BlueZ 4 as well I'll be interested to hear it.

[viktorgino]

To get HFP/HSP working properly you'll need PulseAudio 11 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Notes/11.0/
HFP works using ofono, but it is only started fully working with version PA version 11.
@SoloVeniaASaludar can you try to install lates versions of PA, bluez and ofono and report back?

[bluetiger9]

Seems that, we have a solution to use the HSP profile with Raspberry Pi 3’s built in BCM43438 chip. The culprit was the so called SCO audio routing. HSP / HFP uses SCO audio packets to transmit audio and in order to make PulseAudio work the packets must be routed to the HCI interface. This can be done by sending the the following HCI command:

sudo hcitool cmd 0x3F 0x01C 0x01 0x02 0x00 0x01 0x01

After issuing this command, both paplay and parecord should work with the HSP profile.

More details here:
https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-bluetooth/msg73883.html
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/Bluetooth/#index8h3
http://youness.net/raspberry-pi/bluetooth-headset-raspberry-pi-3-ad2p-hsp#comment-2484

[pelwell]

Ooh, interesting. That hci command that could easily be added to the Pi-specific script /usr/bin/btuart if it solves the problem.

[YOUN3SS]

Hi,

I confirm that this command solves the problem.
More details: How To Connect Bluetooth Headset Or Speaker To Raspberry Pi 3

[kp339]

Hi,

hcitool cmd can solve the connect problem in HSP/HFP mode, but the sound is terrible, have distortion.
Do anyone have the same problem as I do?

Thanks!

[bluetiger9]

@kp339, the sound is a little noisy for me too. I contacted the Cypress's support, their FW team is checking the CYW43438's firmware right now.

[kp339]

@bluetiger9 If there is any progress, please let me know. Thanks！

[CliveWongTohSoon]

It happens to me too, the sound is too distorted until the speech recognition can't even work. Please let me know how to improve the sound quality.

[bluetiger9]

The problem was identified as a timing issue in PulseAudio.

In an nutshell, PulseAudio uses a hard-coded (e)SCO packet size of 48 bytes, instead of using the packet size negotiated at the eSCO connect (ex 60 bytes). The timing logic used for SCO connections, is to send (e)SCO packets (one at a time), at each SCO packet received. If the negotiated packet size is bigger (ex 60 bytes) than the hard-coded 48 bytes, the SCO packets are received at a lower rate, which causes PulseAudio to send the SCO packets way too slow.

More details on the following [pulseaudio-discuss] thread:
[pulseaudio-discuss] Bluetooth - HSP / HFP - source based timing & hard-coded MTU causes SCO packets to be badly delayed

As a workaround PulseAudio 11.1 can be used, with the module-bluetooth-discover started with autodetect_mtu=yes parameter. The parameter can be set in /etc/pulse/default.pa:

.ifexists module-bluetooth-discover.so
load-module module-bluetooth-discover autodetect_mtu=yes
.endif

(note: be aware that this setting breaks the compatibility with some adapters)

The PulseAudio 11.1 is not yet available for Raspbian, but it can be compiled from source:

$ git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio
$ cd pulseaudio
$ sudo apt-get build-dep pulseaudio
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ sudo ldconfig

Cheers,
Attila