My Bluetooth speakers won't connect either!

Help and Support Raspberry Pi
21

Time flies when you are having fun. I saw that after running bluetoothctl and then info most of the info looked right so I tried running connect from the bluetooth prompt and I now have a connection and the prompt is KEF MUO thus:-

osmc@osmc-Barnaby:~$ bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller B8:27:EB:E2:F3:2F osmc-Barnaby [default]
[NEW] Device 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E KEF MUO
[bluetooth]# info 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E
Device 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E
Name: KEF MUO
Alias: KEF MUO
Class: 0x240428
Icon: audio-card
Paired: yes
Trusted: yes
Blocked: no
Connected: no
LegacyPairing: no
UUID: Serial Port (00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Vendor specific (00001107-d102-11e1-9b23-00025b00a5a5)
UUID: Audio Source (0000110a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Audio Sink (0000110b-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: PnP Information (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
Modalias: bluetooth:v000ApFFFFdFFFF
[bluetooth]# connect 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E
Attempting to connect to 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E
[CHG] Device 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E Connected: yes
Connection successful
[CHG] Device 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E ServicesResolved: yes
[KEF MUO]#

Looks better but sound still coming from HDMI.

22

Does the BT device show up in Settings-System-Audio?

If not, have you constructed a .asoundrc file? (note the dot .) It should look like this:

pcm.kefmuo {
type plug
slave.pcm {
        type bluealsa
        device "40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E"
        profile "a2dp"
}
        hint { show on description "KEF MUO"}
}

If you type nano ~/.asoundrc you can cut and paste what Iā€™ve typed above into that file - Ctrl-X to save and exit.

Then restart Kodi with Power-Exit.

23

Hi Graham,
my file was slightly different so I have used the file you have provided. My file is named .asoundrc.kef. restarted as you advised. The Audio output device is still showing as ALSA: Default (bcm2835 ALSA bcm2835 ALSA) but still no sound. Also the indicator on the BT device remained on throughout this process but died while I was typing this. Throughout the HDMI was playing until I restarted and then came back until BT device went off.

24

I turned on the BT device with OSMC playing and it reconnected without my intervention but sound still from HDMI. Had a look at the info and all looks OK to me:-

osmc@osmc-Barnaby:~$ bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller B8:27:EB:E2:F3:2F osmc-Barnaby [default]
[NEW] Device 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E KEF MUO
[KEF MUO]# info 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E
Device 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E
Name: KEF MUO
Alias: KEF MUO
Class: 0x240428
Icon: audio-card
Paired: yes
Trusted: yes
Blocked: no
Connected: yes
LegacyPairing: no
UUID: Serial Port (00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Vendor specific (00001107-d102-11e1-9b23-00025b00a5a5)
UUID: Audio Source (0000110a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Audio Sink (0000110b-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Advanced Audio Distribuā€¦ (0000110d-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: PnP Information (00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
Modalias: bluetooth:v000ApFFFFdFFFF
[KEF MUO]#

Much as before although you had additional lines in your .asoundrc file as you had added type plug and slave pcm.

25

Just had new observation. When the BT device turns itself off (because no sound is being played through it) it turns off. OSMC then stops playing the track, ie no sound from anywhere when BT device turns off. This also stops the track that had been playing. If I start the track the track again OSMC plays and sound comes from HDMI as expected.
More grist for the mill.

26

That wonā€™t work. It must be named .asoundrc and you must re-start Kodi after renaming it or else turn the speaker off and on again.

Either works for me (with or without the plug + slave device).

Thatā€™s interesting, thanks. Your speaker can probably send ā€˜transportā€™ controls to OSMC to start/stop the audio stream. Did the track stop completely or just pause?

27

Success. I changed the name by removing the kef ending and after restarting went to Audio devices and ALSA: KEF_MUO was in the list. Selected it and bingo, so many thanks.
No doubt a few more question but now I can use my phone control point to play and the sound comes through the BT device. As far as I understand I do not have to edit anything more and a cold start seems to be OK.
Very many thanks for your time and I hope it has been of interest to you.
If I have any additional info I shall pass it on but meanwhile a thousand thanks.
Budge

1 Like
28

A follow up problem. Since I was last here I have installed upmpdcli and mpd and enabled openhome so that the playlist is held and run from the renderer and my phone can move away from both bluetooth and wifi. This enabled me to run the RPi headless and use BubbleDS to select and connect to the RPi which in upmpdcli I have given the name RPi_Player_for_KEF_MUO.

The player was working fine when connected by HDMI but when I set up as headless device next to the BT device and tried to connect the MUO was detected but would not connect with the message that pin or pass was not correct.

There is no pass or pin settable in MUO and after much effort on the phone, clearing memory and caches etc. I gave up on the phone and went to the RPi device.

bluetoothctl info confirmed that the MUO MAC address was showing as connected so I removed it and then went through the connection process again from the phone. This time the phone made the connection without any complaint but I am getting no sound although the phone indicates that the music is playing.

I went back to look at bluetoothctl and ran info 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E and received the message Device 40:EF:4C:CC:DE:9E not available. Odd because the phone says Connected to media audio.

I have broken something as I am getting no sound from either the upmpdcli nor the RPi_Player_for_KEF_Muo-UPnP/AV renderer using Bubbleupnp.
I have tried enabling bluealsa and daemon-reload but still no MAC address for the MUO is showing.

Please could you help me some more?

29

Lost the plot there a bit. Of course I am not trying to connect to the phone but to connect the RPi to the MUO.

That said, how do I initiate a connection from a headless RPi. What command must I issue to start the handshake and connection now I have remove the MAC address?

30

Just a bit off topic, but why in the hell would you want to run OSMC and all the overhead with Kodi, if all you need is raspios lite with your mpd and upnp and bluez etc?

31

Good question. Before I started here with upmpdcli etc I already had a virgin OSMC installation which I had been using for Kodi and have loaned my sd card adaptor so I cannot burn an OS at present. Havenā€™t rehearsed doing it another way.

What I am now doing shouldnā€™t make any difference to what I am now trying to sort out and I shall start over with a raspios lite install as soon as I get the device back.
Thanks for the thought.

34

Hi I have resumed here in this thread. Once I moved the device and RPi to my office where I only have headless ssh access I couldnā€™t get the BT to connect. Move back to where I have HDMI screen and reconnected the BT device using OSMC Kodi gui.
Once connected to BT device I tried to play using BubbleDS control point. The playing proceeded according to my control point screen but the sound came from HDMI speakers.
I cannot see any option to change on Kodi.
Please can somebody help!

35

I believe this is a configuration problem with my installation because I believe mpd which would normally play (I believe) to the localhost whereas I want it to play to the BT device. All the bits are in the box, just need assembly.

36

I am trying to find the bluetooth connection so I may configure mpd.conf to play to the BT device.
Even when BT device is on and connected and can be seen on Kodi screen under Settings>System>Audio>Audio output device as ALSA:KEF_MUO, I cannot see it from the terminal using aplay -l. This is what I get;-

osmc@osmc-Barnaby:/etc$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
Subdevices: 7/7
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 2: bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI1 [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
osmc@osmc-Barnaby:/etc$

How can I get the KEF_MUO to show as a device here?

37

I should leave this thread now as I have now been able to install RPi Lite and not OSMC. I would like to thank all who have helped me to get the basic bluetooth playing on my BT device. I do have a question on parting concerning bluealsa which featured in this thread. When I read the Raspbery Pi OS Lite release note I saw the following firsst two lines:-

Blockquote

  • PulseAudio now included and running by default
    • Bluealsa Bluetooth interface removed - Bluetooth audio is now handled by PulseAudio

Blockquote

How does this sit with the work still in progress on bluez-alsa?
Budgie

38

There are no plans to revert to pulseaudio.