HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

[Jonathan Kamens]

Greetings,

Using Fedora 18 x86_64, I've tested two different USB Bluetooth dongles 
(cheap generic Cambridge Silicon and more expensive BlueRigger BTD-400) 
and two different headsets (Motorola SF600, BrainyTrade BH-M20), in all 
combinations, the A2DP High-Fidelity profile for audio output works, but 
the HFP/HSP Telephony profile does not.

I contacted BlueRigger about this and they tested for themselves on 
different hardware and got the same result. BlueRigger says the HFP/HSP 
Telephony profile works fine with Ubuntu, which they say doesn't use Bluez.

I don't know if this problem is new in Fedora 18, because I didn't get 
the dongles until after I upgraded from Fedora 17.

I've reported this in Red Hat bugzilla 
<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=905283> and emailed the 
Fedora test list 
<http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2013-February/113598.html> about 
it; there has been no response to either.

Any suggestions or insights into how to resolve this issue would be 
appreciated.

Regards,

Jonathan Kamens

Re: HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

[Jonathan Kamens]

Hi,

I sent the below message almost three weeks ago and there have not been 
any responses that I've seen.

Was this the wrong place for me to report this problem? If so, where 
should I report it?

You can get a USB Bluetooth dongle for $2.88 on Amazon, so I don't 
really think cost is an issue, but if it is, then if there is a 
contributor to the code base who is willing to commit to working on 
this, I'm happy to mail him/her a dongle.

   Jonathan Kamens

On 02/04/2013 02:39 PM, Jonathan Kamens wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Using Fedora 18 x86_64, I've tested two different USB Bluetooth 
> dongles (cheap generic Cambridge Silicon and more expensive BlueRigger 
> BTD-400) and two different headsets (Motorola SF600, BrainyTrade 
> BH-M20), in all combinations, the A2DP High-Fidelity profile for audio 
> output works, but the HFP/HSP Telephony profile does not.
>
> I contacted BlueRigger about this and they tested for themselves on 
> different hardware and got the same result. BlueRigger says the 
> HFP/HSP Telephony profile works fine with Ubuntu, which they say 
> doesn't use Bluez.
>
> I don't know if this problem is new in Fedora 18, because I didn't get 
> the dongles until after I upgraded from Fedora 17.
>
> I've reported this in Red Hat bugzilla 
> <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=905283> and emailed the 
> Fedora test list 
> <http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2013-February/113598.html> 
> about it; there has been no response to either.
>
> Any suggestions or insights into how to resolve this issue would be 
> appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jonathan Kamens
>
>
>
>

Re: HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

[Anderson Lizardo]

Hi Jonathan,

On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Jonathan Kamens <jik@kamens.us> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Using Fedora 18 x86_64, I've tested two different USB Bluetooth dongles
> (cheap generic Cambridge Silicon and more expensive BlueRigger BTD-400) and
> two different headsets (Motorola SF600, BrainyTrade BH-M20), in all
> combinations, the A2DP High-Fidelity profile for audio output works, but the
> HFP/HSP Telephony profile does not.

More details on which steps you take to reproduce the problem should
help identifying the issue.

Also run "sudo hcidump -w hcidump.dump"  while you do these steps and
attach the generated hcidump.dump to your email so we can see what's
going on.

> I contacted BlueRigger about this and they tested for themselves on
> different hardware and got the same result. BlueRigger says the HFP/HSP
> Telephony profile works fine with Ubuntu, which they say doesn't use Bluez.

Ubuntu (as pretty much every Desktop Linux distro, as far as I know)
uses BlueZ. The only difference is that distros may use different
BlueZ and/or kernel versions and this may cause different levels of
hardware support.

> I don't know if this problem is new in Fedora 18, because I didn't get the
> dongles until after I upgraded from Fedora 17.

My suggestion is for you to download a Live CD/USB for Ubuntu (ideally
for the version BlueRigger tested) and confirm yourself it works.

> I've reported this in Red Hat bugzilla
> <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=905283> and emailed the Fedora
> test list
> <http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2013-February/113598.html>
> about it; there has been no response to either.
>
> Any suggestions or insights into how to resolve this issue would be
> appreciated.

Again, you need to provide more information:

* hcidump log (as explained above)

The information below is also important because not everyone here uses
Fedora 18:
* kernel version ("uname -r")
* bluez version ("bluetoothd --version", or at least the package
version from the distro).

Best Regards,
-- 
Anderson Lizardo
Instituto Nokia de Tecnologia - INdT
Manaus - Brazil

Re: HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

[Jonathan Kamens]

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Hi Anderson,

Thanks for your response.

On 02/24/2013 09:59 AM, Anderson Lizardo wrote:
> Hi Jonathan,
>
> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Jonathan Kamens <jik@kamens.us> wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> Using Fedora 18 x86_64, I've tested two different USB Bluetooth dongles
>> (cheap generic Cambridge Silicon and more expensive BlueRigger BTD-400) and
>> two different headsets (Motorola SF600, BrainyTrade BH-M20), in all
>> combinations, the A2DP High-Fidelity profile for audio output works, but the
>> HFP/HSP Telephony profile does not.
> More details on which steps you take to reproduce the problem should
> help identifying the issue.
I posted extensive details in both the bugzilla ticket and the Fedora 
Testers List message to which I linked; that is why I linked to them. 
Here's what I put into the Bugzilla ticket:

    I have this Bluetooth USB dongle:

    Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd
    Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

    If I pair my Motorola SF600 headset with my computer using this
    dongle, then The HSP/HFP Telephony profile doesn't work. More
    specifically, input works but output does not. At least, I think
    input is working -- I can see the mic level move in the sound
    settings control panel when I talk, though I can't play it back
    because output doesn't work.

    In addition, with various combinations of pairing, unpairing,
    turning on, and turning off, I managed to get things into two
    interesting states relatively quickly -- one in which the sound
    settings let me change the profile drop-down but refused to actually
    switch the headset to that profile, and one in which bluetooth
    stopped working completely and shutting it off and on wouldn't help
    -- it would not turn back on. Right now, for example, I connected
    the headset, went to the sound settings, saw that it was set to the
    telephony profile, changed it to the high fidelity profile, and then
    clicked Test Speakers. The speaker testing window should have two
    buttons, one for left and one for right, but it has only one, as if
    it's still in telephony mode, and clicking the Test button hangs for
    a while without doing anything. In short, it's  bit of a mess.

    I also tested with a second Bluetooth USB dongle; this one, neither
    input NOR output works when I select the HSP/HFP Telephony profile:

    Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0a5c:21e8 Broadcom Corp. BCM20702A0 Bluetooth 4.0

    I also tested a cheap Bluetiger bluetooth headset with the same result.

    In contrast, the HSP/HFP Telephony profile _does_ work with this
    headset when I pair it to Fedora 18 on my ThinkPad T420i, with this
    BlueTooth hardware:

    Bus 001 Device 021: ID 0a5c:217f Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller

Today, I tested this issue with Fedora 17 64-bit, Ubuntu 12.10 32-bit, 
and Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit Live CDs. Fedora 17  doesn't recognize the 
Bluetooth the Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle at all, and Ubuntu has the same 
problem as Fedora 18, i.e., my test results contradict BlueRigger's 
claim that the problem I'm experiencing does not occur in Ubuntu.
> Also run "sudo hcidump -w hcidump.dump"  while you do these steps and
> attach the generated hcidump.dump to your email so we can see what's
> going on.
I've attached hcidump.dump from when I first pair the headset and 
connect to it using the Bluetooth 4.0 dongle, switch it to the HSP/HFP 
profile, and attempt to test sound output, yielding only silence from 
the headset.
> The information below is also important because not everyone here uses
> Fedora 18:
> * kernel version ("uname -r")
> * bluez version ("bluetoothd --version", or at least the package
> version from the distro).
$ uname -r
3.7.9-201.fc18.x86_64
$ bluetoothd --version
4.101
$

Thanks,

Jonathan Kamens


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Re: HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

[Luiz Augusto von Dentz]

Hi Jonathan,

On Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 11:14 PM, Jonathan Kamens <jik@kamens.us> wrote:
>
> $ uname -r
> 3.7.9-201.fc18.x86_64
> $ bluetoothd --version
> 4.101
> $

The SCO connection seems to be established without problems:

> HCI Event: Command Status (0x0f) plen 4
    Setup Synchronous Connection (0x01|0x0028) status 0x00 ncmd 1
> HCI Event: Synchronous Connect Complete (0x2c) plen 17
    status 0x00 handle 6 bdaddr 00:12:3D:00:48:FD type eSCO
    Air mode: CVSD

But I cannot see any packets which might be the cause of your problem,
so it might be a controller/driver related not PulseAudio problem. You
can check what is the current voice settings of the controller by
doing:

> sudo hciconfig hci0 voice


--
Luiz Augusto von Dentz

Re: HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

[Jonathan Kamens]

On 02/25/2013 04:25 AM, Luiz Augusto von Dentz wrote
> The SCO connection seems to be established without problems:
>
>> HCI Event: Command Status (0x0f) plen 4
>      Setup Synchronous Connection (0x01|0x0028) status 0x00 ncmd 1
>> HCI Event: Synchronous Connect Complete (0x2c) plen 17
>      status 0x00 handle 6 bdaddr 00:12:3D:00:48:FD type eSCO
>      Air mode: CVSD
>
> But I cannot see any packets which might be the cause of your problem,
> so it might be a controller/driver related not PulseAudio problem. You
> can check what is the current voice settings of the controller by
> doing:
>
>> sudo hciconfig hci0 voice
I am an experienced software developer but have no experience whatsoever 
with Bluetooth software development or the Bluetooth protocol, so if you 
could try to limit the use of, or at least explain, the 
Bluetooth-related technical terms you are using, that would be helpful. 
I'm afraid most of the above is gobbledygook to me.

For example, I don't know what the "SCO connection" is. Just to be 
clear, remember that the behavior I'm experiencing is that my headset 
works just find in A2DP mode, but not int HSP/HFP mode. If the "SCO 
connection" is something that would be relevant to both modes, and I 
don't know whether it is because I don't know these terms, then it's 
understandable that the dump would show a successful SCO connection; as 
I mentioned before, in the dump, the headset starts out just fine in 
A2DP mode and only stops working when I try to switch to HSP/HFP.

I also mentioned before, or at least I think I did, that this same 
headset works fine with my ThinkPad with built-in (as opposed to USB 
dongle) Bluetooth hardware, running the same version of Linux as my 
desktop that isn't working with the dongle, so I had always assumed that 
it was likely to be a "controller/driver related not PulseAudio 
problem"; it seems to me that if it were a PulseAudio problem, it 
wouldn't work on the laptop either.

It is possible that you already know and understand everything I've 
clarified above, and I'm wasting your time and mine by restating things 
:-/, but I can't tell whether that's the case because there is so much 
here about Bluetooth that I don't understand, so I thought it important 
to make sure everything is clear. I'm sorry if I'm telling you things 
you already know.

Here is what "hciconfig hci0 voice" prints when I connect to the headset 
in A2DP mode:

hci0:    Type: BR/EDR  Bus: USB
     BD Address: 00:02:72:32:77:9C  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 64:1
     Voice setting: 0x0060 (Default Condition)
     Input Coding: Linear
     Input Data Format: 2's complement
     Input Sample Size: 16 bit
     # of bits padding at MSB: 0
     Air Coding Format: CVSD

When I use the Sound Settings applet to switch to HSP/HFP mode and run 
"hciconfig hci0 voice" again, it says *exactly the same thing*; there is 
not a single character different in the output? Should it be different?

Here's another interesting (or so it seems to me) piece of 
information... While the headset was switched into HSP/HFP mode and not 
working, pidgin generated a sound, which of course I did not hear 
because the audio wasn't working. When I switched back to A2DP mode, 
that sound, delayed by several minutes, played through the headset 
immediately.

Please tell me what more I can do to help debug this further.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Jonathan Kamens

Re: HFP/HSP Telephony profile doesn't work with Bluetooth USB dongle

[Jonathan Kamens]

FYI, the folks at BlueRigger sent me BTD-300 ("Product=Broadcom Bluetooh 
3.0 Device" in usb-devices output, as opposed to "Product=BCM20702A0" 
for the BTD-400 that wasn't working with HSP/HFP), and it works with 
HSP/HFP just fine.

This means I've got one USB Bluetooth dongle (the BTD-300) that works 
with the HSP/HFP profile, and two that don't (the BTD-400 and a cheap 
Cambridge Research dongle).

In the spirit of supporting open source software, I am willing to mail 
either or both of the dongles that don't work with HSP/HFP at my expense 
to anyone on this list who is willing to commit to (a) checking whether 
this problem still exists with the most recent kernel and bluez code) 
and (b) debugging and fixing it if it does. You can keep the dongles.

If you are willing to commit to doing these things, send me your mailing 
address in private email and let me know whether you want just one of 
the dongles or both of them.

Bonus points if you're willing to specifically make sure it works with 
Fedora 19, which just went into early testing, but I won't make that a 
hard requirement for the free dongles. :-)

Thanks,

Jonathan Kamens