Hello all,
When I connect the librem 5 to my car via bluetooth (Suzuki/Bosch SLDA) it seems to only connect as a multimedia device, and not also as a phone.
Does anyone have any tips for me there?
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I have the same issue with my toyota prius c
In my case with my Volvo V60 the devices paired, but I can’t play music from my L5 to the car. Perhaps I do something wrong because I’m not used to use BT connections, apart of a keyboard with integrated touchpad with the L5.
I think this is a known limitation i.e. that Bluetooth profile is just not working yet on the Librem 5.
Maybe confirm that a new sound output device was created on the Librem 5 once you paired and confirm that it is explicitly or by default selected as the sound output device.
To be honest I have cloned my music collection
server ⇒ Librem 5
and
server ⇒ a USB flash drive
and then just plug USB flash drive into car. Of course I get nowhere near the sophistication of functionality that way (car has limited sort, no search etc.) but it works. (The phone can still be used “offline” for sort, search etc.)
Disclaimer: Because of my first response above, I have not yet even tried to pair the Librem 5 with my car.
I was wondering about this. There’s some info here which gives a bit of info - https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=12593
Is it just that the phone needs to present itself as a phone to the car, rather than a generic PC?
Some more info here - https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/341776/how-to-use-bluetooth-device-with-hsp-hfp-profile-using-pulseaudio-6-and-bluez
That seems to suggest things are better with Pipewire?
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According to Pulseaudio, HFP currently only works with oFono, which is the hands free functionality that allows phone calls to take place through a Bluetooth device. oFono is in the PureOS repository but I do not know if it can be installed with Phosh running. Pulseaudio says setting up these profiles is a pain with oFono. HSP should work if the headset supports it.
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/Bluetooth/#troubleshooting
There is a patch available to use HFP with out the need for oFono but it does not give phone functionality. It may help to play music through an automotive stereo if you feel brave enough to give it a shot.
Also, The current Pulseaudio version is 2 years old and there have been releases up to 16.1 last year. I can’t say if there are any fixes for our issue. I suppose we just have to wait for PureOS to catch up.
I upgraded my WiFi/Bluetooth card this morning and it definitely made a difference. I just went test out the connection on my Tacoma and I can connect only the audio player but nothing else, when before, I could not connect at all. No phone function which sucks shit sickles but at least there is some progress. The stereo will only recognize the phone as an audio player and will not display any audio information about what was currently playing. I did not install that patch so maybe some version of it has been integrated into the latest releases. I don’t know. Perhaps when I have enough time I can go through the source code and config files and see what can be figured out. Maybe one day, it will all work and the L5 will be a solid daily driver.
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Thanks for your report. I too would love to have HSP functionality with my car. My kids make fun of me with their 8 year old Iphones. They annoy me. I want to someday tell them that their old, walled-garden Iphones are terrible and here is why. But, when I can’t talk to my car with bluetooth, it’s hard to be cool. You know?
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Perhaps they are too young to appreciate the innovation in the L5? What I find outstanding is that its a phone with an actual desktop OS and the fact that if I just need to balance some books or want to work on the phone itself, all I have to do is plug it into any TV, Bluetooth my travel keyboard in and I can do more productive things than just a smart phone. At least that Bluetooth part works fine! this is the future. no need for a desktop or even a laptop to do general computing. It would be nice if it had a few more gigs of ram but when you are tinkering you don’t need much memory. The ability of convergence is definitely a plus when you need to accomplish more then just browsing and chatting. Also the fact that you can do absolutely anything you want with it. I have always felt that you don’t own mainstream phones. You more or less renting it. You have to agree with the terms of service. You can only install what they tell you that you can install… unless its jailbroken. You dont have access to the root filesystem. And you can forget about changing a program to suit yourself. Personally I think the L5 is way cooler even with its short comings. Learn a some coding and you can make it your own through and through. It will get there eventually but the fact that the OS is completely open source allows the community to help out and pitch in to make it better and more secure. At least I know my L5 isnt sucking my data away. it has come a long way from what I understand back when this was nothing but a kit phone. Now its quite the little machine. I also like the fact that I can change and upgrade the hardware myself. I can carry an extra battery for those times I am fidgeting on it too much. I dont have to find a place to plug it in or carry a power pack. Swap it out and keep rolling. I do recommend upgrading the wireless card though. You would be going from Wifi5/Bluetooth4 to WiFi6/Bluetooth5. Updated hardware makes a difference. I have better WiFI and the bluetooth picks up way better. I think I was picking up all my neighbors devices when I was testing the installation. Besides that they will be more inclined to make updates and improvements with Bluetooth 5 over 4.
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Well said.
I think we are all waiting on this merge request to get approved and integrated in PulseAudio.
The developer has some test demo videos that show a good function bluetooth HFP (Hands Free Profile). I don’t know what’s delaying this merge. The ModemManager part is already merged.
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I wanted to offer my experiences with our new Kia. The L5 had no issue pairing Bluetooth with the car. Playing music through Lollipop was pretty good most of the time, but there was noticeable stuttering after a while, which a Lollipop restart seemed to address. I don’t think it was the mp3s themselves. I was also able to make and receive calls. Contacts didn’t sync, but I wasn’t expecting that anyway. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised. I’m using the new SparkLAN card, for what that’s worth.
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And the microphone was the Kia mic through Bluetooth? If so, it’s time to install my SparkLAN card!
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I assume it was, no way to tell other than that I had the phone in the cup holder and was talking into the air.
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Couple of other things I wanted to add:
- I had similar success with our older Hyundai Santa Fe (~10 years old). The garbling and stuttering was less apparent than with the Kia, but I don’t know if I had any background apps running at the time when I was driving the latter.
- I notice when I pull into our garage that the phone attempts to join the house’s wifi, which causes a lot of static and stuttering. Most likely due to the wifi on the same card, but that’s just my assumption.
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