After recent updates my bluetooth has become unusable. The device connects but fails to establish the audio path to the bluetooth device, only very occasionally it happens to do so but now it’s virtually useless.
Previously simply toggling the device in bluetooth settings fixed this but now nothing seems to work, not even a reboot. Very frustrating to move backwards.
When was this update?
There was something a couple days ago…some lib files of some sort…sorry don’t really remember specifics, only that my BT is much less reliable now.
You can see recent at:
/var/log/apt/history.log
There are older entries in such files as:
/var/log/apt/history.log.1.gz
/var/log/apt/history.log.2.gz
etc.
Most recent:
Upgrade: libavdevice58:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), ffmpeg:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), libpostproc55:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), gnome-settings-daemon-common:arm64 (3.38.2-1pureos4, 3.38.2-1pureos5), gnome-settings-daemon:arm64 (3.38.2-1pureos4, 3.38.2-1pureos5), libavcodec58:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), libavutil56:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), libswscale5:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), libswresample3:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), libavformat58:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), libavresample4:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1), libavfilter7:arm64 (7:4.3.5-0+deb11u1, 7:4.3.6-0+deb11u1)
End-Date: 2023-05-01 12:46:58
Looks like some of these are related to audio source and sinks…so that might explain things.
What I do is toggle the device on and off a dozen times hoping to trigger the audio path creation then I try to reboot. If that doesn’t work I shut down my bluetooth device and reboot…wait until it’s done booting then turn on my bluetooth device and then sometimes it works. It’s extremely flaky.
So after thinking bluetooth was broken again after updating with today’s updates (I think a kernel update as well?) bluetooth is working much better, I no longer have to toggle each device to make it create the sound path, but one particular scenario still breaks it.
@dos Let’s say I’m listening to Kasts and I turn off bluetooth with the soft toggle switch, when I renable it the device is connected, at least that’s what my bluetooth device is reporting but there is no sound from either the BT device or the L5 speakers. It’s almost like the Kasts pipe gets orphaned in the process of toggling the bluetooth off then on again. I’m going to play around with that more to see if it’s consistent but I have noticed this for a while now and none of the recent updates have alleviated it.
So for some reason Bluetooth has stopped working. Device connects but audio path refuses to get established to the device, it will only play through the system speaker.
None of my previous gymnastics can get it to work.
EDIT: So I connected my L5 to my Nexdock and then toggled my bluetooth headphones while connected and now they connect??? Before they would not connect no matter what I did.
For the last few weeks I have been able to use the bluetooth, albeit with the occasional random stuttering. Then yesterday after using it most of the day with its usual quirks it suddenly started stuttering non-stop. It won’t play clearly unless it is only a few inches/centimeters from my headphones. I haven’t done any updates, and it persists even after a reboot. This post is just venting frustration because I thought I had it in a semi-usable state for good while.
Just checking to make sure that it is not something simple, was a window that does network scanning open? Such as a WiFi network list or a Bluetooth device list. Those windows are known to cause stuttering.
It’s always good to ask and be sure. I had WiFi off and I was not scanning for any bluetooth devices.
I religiously close the settings app after checking EVERY time that the audio path has been established to the device after connection.
When will bluetooth be fixed? It has become practically unusable lately. Totally unreliable audio path switching. Device connects but does not establish a path. Uber frustrating.
Unfortunately the only way I got Bluetooth to be usable again was to wait a week for whatever issue to work itself out.
One observation I made was that I tend to get more stuttering in my car when I am on roads with more traffic. When I travel on a highway with very few cars around the sound is clear. Once I get into a larger city it will start to stutter a bit. Maybe there is some type of interference going on?
Got my phone a few weeks ago. This has been my experience as well. Essentially no distance on the BT and when it is connected, its dropping out.
Even if you close the BT settings page?
The weird thing is, I’ve been using BT audio (and a keyboard) almost thoughtlessly as of late.
No stuttering whatsoever (settings page closed, of course).
I still need to manualy connect most of the times. But the connection works well with all speakers and receivers.
(Phone and audio connection in the car, different story, of course.)
yes been religiously shutting down settings page. It seems to get stuck establishing the audio path only. Maybe its my particular devices it doesn’t like?
Is Bluetooth ever going to work properly? I admit it works better when you make sure the settings app is closed (shouldn’t have to do this), but it seems the range of the Bluetooth module is about 2 feet. If I put the phone near my wireless headphones on my head, it generally works alright. But anything more than a couple of feet and the audio constantly drops out. And forget about putting the phone in your pocket. This happens across multiple headsets and I know other users have the same issues with range. Is the module not strong enough? Is it not getting sufficient power? Is the antenna too small? What’s the issue here?
Purism says all these things are “working” but almost everything that is “working” has some sort of asterisk that comes with it. Another example is trying to use maps (terrible app). Another example is watching youtube; works super inconsistently and is laggy. MMS doesn’t work. Home screen is laggy. Why isn’t anyone else talking about these issues? Is everyone just using their phone for calling only? These are the biggest things for me personally that prevent me from even attempting dailying the librem 5. I’d bet theres even more caveats I haven’t even gotten into yet because the basics (for me) don’t even work properly. I can accept a certain level of jank, but when super basic features that make a smartphone a smartphone don’t work, whats even the point? I could legitimately get more security and ease of use going and buying a burner TracFone with cash. Purism, please make the phone dailyable. I’d bet my left nut Todd Weaver doesn’t daily a Librem 5 because its broken compared to android; it can’t perform useful smartphone features. Sorry for the rant, but I’m almost at my witts end with this company and device. Waited 3 years and in that whole time the software was not even ironed out. Been trying on and off for a few months to make this phone close to dailyable but it just never gets close.
Well the Redpine it is Long Range WPAN, so i not sure if Purism reduced the energy to improve the battery in L5. There are massive fixes on WPAN in GeNUine Crimson. Crimson will AWESOME!