Hi, after installing the latest version of Bluez-alsa:
…on my pi4, it gives support for much better quality bluetooth codecs, wasn’t too much of a pain to install and setup, and the difference in audio quality between the standard bluetooth codec SBC and LDAC or Aptx-HD is like night and day.
So Im having a crack at installing it on my Vero4k+, but running into a few issues.
One of the requirements is the package bluez >= 5.0, but when I try to install it im getting the error:
Unpacking bluez (5.43-2+deb9u1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/bluez_5.43- 2+deb9u1_armhf.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf', which is also in package armv7-bluez-osmc 5.43-3
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/bluez_5.43-2+deb9u1_armhf.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
When you get to the third (configure) step it’ll fail when it checks for various packages, eg bluez, dbus-1, glib-2.0, and so on. You’ll need to install the relevant development package for each missing package you encounter. Most will be in the format lib<pkgname>-dev, eg libdbus-1-dev, libglib-2.0-dev, etc, though the bluez package is, I believe, called libbluetooth-dev.
@sam_nazarko@dillthedog
Progress:
Followed the advice here and everything is installed and working, in that I can successfully play wav files from the CLI to my bluetooth receiver using both AptX-HD and LDAC codecs, and they sound great.
Only problem now is diverting the Kodi audio to the bluetooth on the Vero.
On my Pi4, after creating the .asoundrc file, I just set Kodi’s audio output setting to ‘ALSA:default’ and audio comes through the bluetooth, or ‘ALSA:HDMI’ to get the sound back through the TV.
I’ve tried the same approach on my Vero, but I still only get the options of ‘AML-M8AUDIO’, either PCM or HDMI.
There’s obviously a step needed on the Vero that wasn’t needed on the Pi4…feel like I’m really close now, any ideas?
We looked in to bluez-alsa and the reason we didn’t use the package above is it doesn’t support streaming from some devices to others. I even spoke to Arkadiusz (the developer) of the package; but we both came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the right solution.
Can you post a Kodi log so we can see which sinks are being made available to Kodi?
Ive made a change to the .asoundrc file (renamed the device from ‘default’ to ‘dongle’) and now the device shows up as an option in audio devices…however when selected I still get no audio output from the bluetooth dongle.
.asoundrc:
defaults.bluealsa.interface "hci0"
defaults.bluealsa.device "40:ED:98:19:9A:8E"
defaults.bluealsa.profile "a2dp"
defaults.bluealsa.delay 10000
pcm.dongle {
type plug
slave.pcm {
type bluealsa
device "40:ED:98:19:9A:8E"
profile "a2dp"
}
hint {
show on
description "BT_Headset"
}
}
Apart from that It’s exactly as suggested by the guy who made Bluealsa.
Yes I noticed that after changing the name.
The default is 2 channel, ive tried adjusting lots of Kodi audio settings, but it doesn’t make a difference…ive reverted back to default which is 2 channels.
My brother is coming round later and he’s bringing his BT headphones, I’ll see if they behave any differently.
The problem we had with bluez ALSA is that it doesn’t support streaming from a device, such as a phone. I’m not sure what the issue is, but it may be worth contacting the maintainer or seeing if they have some troubleshooting steps.
When I last looked, the issue was that bluez-alsa didn’t present itself as a separate device. There has been some github discussion about that but I haven’t seen anything to suggest a device has been implemented.
If it works in RPi, we ought to be able to get it to work (as a sink) on vero.
2019-12-30 13:12:56.093 T:4024431328 ERROR: ActiveAE::InitSink - failed to init
Can you turn on detailed debugging for the audio component and repeat?
It works really well on the pi graham, had it all setup and working in under 15 mins, including compiling it.
I naively thought it would be the same simple process on the Vero.
Its a shame as I use my BT headphones a lot with kodi, so I can blow my own ears in late at night without disturbing anyone…tbh if the difference in quality wasn’t so stark then id just blow the idea off and use pulse and the SBC codec, but it really makes a difference.
Any ideas or suggestions then please give the thread a bump mate.
Edit: Just seen your post mate, ill turn on detailed debugging for the audio component and repeat.
Something worth noting, the BT device in the .asoundrc only shows up after manually connecting via bluetoothctl, then restarting the mediacenter service, not sure if thats important or not.