frosch03.de/posts/2016-11-06-Bluetooth-Headset-and-Pulseaudio

Ok, so this Sunday I had a problem. I was going to make some cake and while I was baking, I wanted to listen to some music via my wireless headset. But turns out, I never did the set up with my new laptop. So before I need to surf the web for this topic again, I write the steps down this time. :)

Ok, so first of all you need to install the bluetooth libraries bluez and bluez-utils. This is done with pacman via

{% highlight bash %} sudo pacman -Suy bluez bluez-utils {% endhighlight %}

After that, the btusb module must be loaded into the kernel by:

{% highlight bash %} modprobe btusb {% endhighlight %}

Last but not least the bluetooth service must be loaded. So lets do that via:

{% highlight bash %} sudo systemctl start bluetooth {% endhighlight %}

If yoeveningke to permanently enable the service you can do this with systemctl enable

{% highlight bash %} sudo systemctl enable bluetooth {% endhighlight %}

Next lets actually talk to the bluetooth headset.

For the connection to the headset we use the tool bluetoothctl. As this is an interactive tool, start it up via:

{% highlight bash %} bluetoothctl {% endhighlight %}

Within this tool we are able to communicate with the bluetooth stack. So first of all, lets power on the bluetooth stack:

power on

After that, we need to turn the bluetooth agent on. The agent allows us to handle the pairing of devices. For this purpose a default agent is sufficient, so we set this parameter.

agent on
default-agent

Now bring your headset into discoverable mode and then start scanning for that device by:

scan on

You should see some output like this:

[NEW] Device 00:11:22:33:44:55 Philips SHB7000

With this information you are now able to pair with that device by:

pair 00:11:22:33:44:55

And after a successful pairing one is able to connect to that device:

connect 00:11:22:33:44:55

Once the connection is established, we can clean up and end bluetoothctl:

scan off
exit

We have now a connection to the bluetooth headset and are able to stream audio to that device.

My headset supports the A2DP profile and therefore is able to playback my music with a much higher quality. But I must switch my bluetooth card into a a2dp sink. This is done by this simple command.

{% highlight bash %} pacmd set-card-profile 2 a2dp\_sink {% endhighlight %}

After that switch, I'm now able to listen to my music in great quality, cordless and could now concentrate on baking that fine cake :)

Have a nice day