Another How to turn your Pi in a Bluetooth Speaker Tutorial

[DrFunk]

[EDIT Mar 23, 2020] - Added volume control and minor fixes. Fully tested on Raspbian Buster Lite at the time of editing (except for PIN control).

1) Introduction

Why another Rasperry Pi Bluetooth Speaker tutorial ?

Because I could not find a reliable and up-to-date source to tell me how to proceed.
Because Bluez is real pain to configure.

My purpose here is hence to present a step-by-step consistent procedure to help anybody to turn its Raspberry Pi into a headless bluetooth speaker.

What follows has been tested on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2 running Raspbian Stretch Lite at the time of writing, i.e. March 9th, 2019.

Note : I choose pulseaudio and not alsa as I need to run and mix several applications in my project.

2) Configuring Bluetooth as an A2DP Sink

We'll be needing pulseaudio and it's bluetooth module.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt-get install pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

We need to add our user to group bluetooth. And reboot.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo usermod -a -G bluetooth pi
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo reboot

Let's make our Pi permanently discoverable as an A2DP Sink.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

And add / uncomment / change

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...
Class = 0x41C
...
DiscoverableTimeout = 0
...

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl restart bluetooth

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX raspberrypi [default]
[bluetooth]# power on
Changing power on succeeded
[bluetooth]# discoverable on
Changing discoverable on succeeded
[CHG] Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX Discoverable: yes
[bluetooth]# pairable on
Changing pairable on succeeded
[bluetooth]# agent on
Agent registered
[bluetooth]# default-agent
Default agent request successful
[bluetooth]# quit
Agent unregistered
[DEL] Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX raspberrypi [default]

We need to start pulseausio manually now.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ pulseaudio --start

And now let's check if everything is OK.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status bluetooth
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-03-09 21:55:45 CET; 31s ago
     Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
 Main PID: 2296 (bluetoothd)
   Status: "Running"
   CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
           └─2296 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service...
Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: Bluetooth daemon 5.43
Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: Starting SDP server
Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: Bluetooth management interface 1.14 initialized
Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: Failed to obtain handles for "Service Changed" characteristic
Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: Sap driver initialization failed.
Mar 09 21:55:45 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
Mar 09 21:56:14 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.30 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Mar 09 21:56:14 raspberrypi bluetoothd[2296]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.30 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink

And it is ! Bluetooth is up and running and A2DP is registered.

At this stage, you should be able to see you Pi as an A2DP Source/Sink from your mobile bluetooth menu.

Let's go for a quick test. Try to connect to your Pi. You should be able to pair but you can't connect. Your device must be trusted first. Let's do it manually for the purpose of a quick test.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX raspberrypi [default]
[NEW] Device YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY <your smartphone>
[bluetooth]# trust YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY
Changing YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY trust succeeded
[bluetooth]# quit
[DEL] Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX raspberrypi [default]

Now you should be able to connect. And play Music !!!

3) Starting pulseaudio on boot

Your system won't be seen as an A2DP capable device until pulseaudio is launched. Let's start pulseaudio on boot.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ systemctl --user enable pulseaudio
Created symlink /home/pi/.config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/pulseaudio.service → /usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service.
Created symlink /home/pi/.config/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/pulseaudio.socket → /usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.socket.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo raspi-config

And activate autologin for user "pi".

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┌─────────┤ Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool (raspi-config) ├──────────┐
│                                                                              │
│    1 Change User Password           Change password for the current u        │
│    2 Network Options                Configure network settings               │
│    3 Boot Options                   Configure options for start-up           │
│    4 Localisation Options           Set up language and regional sett        │
│    5 Interfacing Options            Configure connections to peripher        │
│    6 Overclock                      Configure overclocking for your P        │
│    7 Advanced Options               Configure advanced settings              │
│    8 Update                         Update this tool to the latest ve        │
│    9 About raspi-config             Information about this configurat        │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                     <Select>                     <Finish>                    │
│                                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Select 3 Boot Options.

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┌─────────┤ Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool (raspi-config) ├──────────┐
│                                                                              │
│    B1 Desktop / CLI                 Choose whether to boot into a des        │
│    B2 Wait for Network at Boot      Choose whether to wait for networ        │
│    B3 Splash Screen                 Choose graphical splash screen or        │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                     <Select>                     <Back>                      │
│                                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Select B1 Desktop / CLI.

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┌─────────┤ Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool (raspi-config) ├──────────┐
│                                                                              │
│    B1 Console           Text console, requiring user to login                │
│    B2 Console Autologin Text console, automatically logged in as 'pi' user   │
│    B3 Desktop           Desktop GUI, requiring user to login                 │
│    B4 Desktop Autologin Desktop GUI, automatically logged in as 'pi' user    │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                                                                              │
│                     <Ok>                         <Cancel>                    │
│                                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

And choose B2 Console Autologin.

Close raspi-config and reboot.

At this stage, on your mobile, you can pair your Pi as a bluetooth audio speaker BUT you cannot connect if your mobile hasn't been trusted first.

4) Auto pairing / trusting / no PIN

Let's configure our Pi for bluetooth autopairing / trusting.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt-get install bluez-tools

The bluez-tools package comes with the bt-agent, bt-device, bt-adapter and bt-network commands, which are quite handy. I would recommend to have a look at their respective man pages.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service

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[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth Auth Agent
After=bluetooth.service
PartOf=bluetooth.service

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bt-agent -c NoInputNoOutput

[Install]
WantedBy=bluetooth.target

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl enable bt-agent
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.target.wants/bt-agent.service → /etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl start bt-agent
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status bt-agent
● bt-agent.service - Bluetooth Auth Agent
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset:
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-02-23 11:36:23 CET; 5s ago
 Main PID: 503 (bt-agent)
   CGroup: /system.slice/bt-agent.service
           └─503 /usr/bin/bt-agent -c NoInputNoOutput

févr. 23 11:36:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth Auth Agent.
févr. 23 11:36:24 raspberrypi bt-agent[503]: Agent registered
févr. 23 11:36:24 raspberrypi bt-agent[503]: Default agent requested

And now we're done ! Our Pi is a headless bluetooth speaker any mobile can connect, pair and play music with.

5) Not secure enough ? Let's add a (fixed) PIN

The bt-agent command allows you to add a PIN configuration file. Note that SSP must be deactivated.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/pin.conf

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*	123456

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo chmod 600 /etc/bluetooth/pin.conf

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service

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[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth Auth Agent
After=bluetooth.service
PartOf=bluetooth.service

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bt-agent -c NoInputNoOutput -p /etc/bluetooth/pin.conf
ExecStartPost=/bin/sleep 1
ExecStartPost=/bin/hciconfig hci0 sspmode 0

[Install]
WantedBy=bluetooth.target

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl restart bt-agent
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status bt-agent
● bt-agent.service - Bluetooth Auth Agent
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-02-24 09:34:42 UTC; 1min 26s ago
  Process: 604 ExecStartPost=/bin/hciconfig hci0 sspmode 0 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 590 ExecStartPost=/bin/sleep 1 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 589 (bt-agent)
   CGroup: /system.slice/bt-agent.service
           └─589 /usr/bin/bt-agent -c NoInputNoOutput -p /etc/bluetooth/pin.conf

févr. 24 09:34:41 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth Auth Agent...
févr. 24 09:34:41 raspberrypi bt-agent[589]: Agent registered
févr. 24 09:34:41 raspberrypi bt-agent[589]: Default agent requested
févr. 24 09:34:42 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth Auth Agent.

Done.

6) Using an external USB dongle

As the onboard bluetooth module is not so good, especially when used in conjunction with the Wi-Fi onboard module, one may want to use an external dongle instead. I would definitely recommend it.

In that case, we need to disable the onboard bluetooth module

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bluetooth.conf

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blacklist btbcm
blacklist hci_uart

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo reboot

Note: as an alternative, you can also edit /boot/config.txt and add dtoverlay=disable-bt at the end of the file.

7) Controlling Volume

By default, AVRCP is enabled but not bound by any way to volume control. To sort this out, you can choose the easy way or the hard way.

7.1) The easy way - disabling avrcp

The easy way consists in just disabling AVRCP. By doing so, your mobile will handle volume control on its own.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.target.wants/bluetooth.service

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[Unit]
...
[Service]
...
ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd --noplugin=avrcp
...
[Install]
...

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl restart bluetooth
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status bluetooth

● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2020-03-23 21:30:35 GMT; 1min 32s ago
     Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
 Main PID: 331 (bluetoothd)
   Status: "Running"
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 2200)
   Memory: 3.3M
   CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
           └─331 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd --noplugin=avrcp

mars 23 21:30:35 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: Bluetooth daemon 5.50
mars 23 21:30:35 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: Starting SDP server
mars 23 21:30:35 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: Excluding (cli) avrcp
mars 23 21:30:35 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
mars 23 21:30:35 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: Bluetooth management interface 1.14 initialized
mars 23 21:30:35 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: Sap driver initialization failed.
mars 23 21:30:35 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
mars 23 21:30:43 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.15 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
mars 23 21:30:43 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.15 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
mars 23 21:31:48 raspberrypi bluetoothd[331]: /org/bluez/hci0/dev_34_2D_0D_F3_41_CD/fd0: fd(22) ready

7.2) The hard way - python and dbus

Let's do some python coding to watch remote A2DP bluetooth properties through dbus.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt install python-dbus
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /usr/local/bin/avrcp_volume_watcher.py

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#!/usr/bin/python

import os
import sys
import logging
import logging.handlers
import signal
import dbus
import dbus.service
import dbus.mainloop.glib

try:
    import gobject
except ImportError:
    from gi.repository import GObject as gobject

LOG_NAME = 'avrcp-volume-watcher'
LOG_LEVEL = logging.INFO
#LOG_LEVEL = logging.DEBUG
LOG_FORMAT = '%(name)s[%(process)d]: %(message)s'

# Increase VOLUME_MAX if you experience saturation issues. Standard value is 127
#VOLUME_MAX = 127
VOLUME_MAX = 141
#VOLUME_MAX = 159

def shutdown(signum, frame):
    mainloop.quit()

def pa_source_number(address):
    """ Returns the Pulseaudio source number matching bluetooth address

    Args:
        address(string) : bluetooth address formatted as AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

    Returns:
        int: pulseaudio source number

    """

    stream = os.popen('pactl list short sources | grep bluez_source.{}'.format(address.replace(':', '_')))
    pulseaudio_source = stream.read()

    if pulseaudio_source == '':
        # Cannot find source in pulseaudio source list
        logger.debug(u'Cannot find pulseaudio A2DP source {}'.format(address))
        return

    # Pulseaudio source number is the first field in a \t seperated string
    pa_source_number = pulseaudio_source.split('\t')[0]
    logger.debug(u'Pulseaudio A2DP source {} is #{}'.format(address, pa_source_number))
    return pa_source_number

def pa_set_volume(address, volume):
    """ Set the volume of the pulseaudio source bound to the A2DP interface

    If A2DP interface is idle, pulseaudio source does not exist, do nothing

    Args:
        address(string) : bluetooth address formatted as AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
        volume(int) : volume level 0-127

    """

    # Let's find the pulseaudio source matching address and set its volume
    pa_source = pa_source_number(address)
    if pa_source:
        logger.debug(u'Running pactl set-source-volume {} {}'.format(pa_source, format(float(volume) / VOLUME_MAX, '.2f')))
        os.system('pactl set-source-volume {} {}'.format(pa_source, format(float(volume) / VOLUME_MAX, '.2f')))
    else:
        logger.debug(u'Skipping volume change')

def device_property_changed(interface, properties, invalidated, path):
    """ Check for changes in org.bluez object tree

    Check for Volume change event and State = active event
    Retrieve the volume value and set pulseaudio source accordingly

    Args:
        interface(string) : name of the dbus interface where changes occured
        properties(dict) : list of all parameters changed and their new value
        invalidated(array) : list of properties invalidated
        path(string) : path of the dbus object that triggered the call
    """

    if interface == 'org.bluez.MediaTransport1':
        bus = dbus.SystemBus()
        mediatransport_object = bus.get_object('org.bluez', path)
        mediatransport_properties_interface = dbus.Interface(mediatransport_object, 'org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties')
        device_path = mediatransport_properties_interface.Get('org.bluez.MediaTransport1', 'Device')
        device_object = bus.get_object('org.bluez', device_path)
        device_properties_interface = dbus.Interface(device_object, 'org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties')
        name = device_properties_interface.Get('org.bluez.Device1', 'Name')
        address = device_properties_interface.Get('org.bluez.Device1', 'Address')
        if 'State' in properties:
            state = properties['State']
            logger.info(u'Bluetooth A2DP source: {} ({}) is now {}'.format(name, address, state))
            if state == 'active':
                codec =  mediatransport_properties_interface.Get('org.bluez.MediaTransport1', 'Codec')
                logger.debug(u'Bluetooth A2DP source: {} ({}) codec is {}'.format(name, address, int(codec)))
                volume = mediatransport_properties_interface.Get('org.bluez.MediaTransport1', 'Volume')
                logger.debug(u'Bluetooth A2DP source: {} ({}) volume is {}'.format(name, address, volume))
                pa_set_volume(address, volume)
        elif 'Volume' in properties:
            volume = properties['Volume']
            logger.debug(u'Bluetooth A2DP source: {} ({}) volume is now {}'.format(name, address, volume))
            pa_set_volume(address, volume)
        elif 'Codec' in properties:
            codec = properties['Codec']
            logger.debug(u'Bluetooth A2DP source: {} ({}) codec is {}'.format(name, address, int(codec)))


if __name__ == '__main__':

    # shut down on a TERM signal
    signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, shutdown)

    # Create logger
    logger = logging.getLogger(LOG_NAME)
    logger.setLevel(LOG_LEVEL)

    # Choose between /var/log/syslog or current stdout
    ch = logging.handlers.SysLogHandler(address = '/dev/log')
#    ch = logging.StreamHandler()
    ch.setFormatter(logging.Formatter(fmt=LOG_FORMAT))
    logger.addHandler(ch)
    logger.info('Started')

    # Get the system bus
    try:
        dbus.mainloop.glib.DBusGMainLoop(set_as_default=True)
        bus = dbus.SystemBus()
    except Exception as ex:
        logger.error('Unable to get the system dbus: "{0}". Exiting. Is dbus running?'.format(ex.message))
        sys.exit(1)

    # listen for PropertyChanged signal on org.bluez
    bus.add_signal_receiver(
        device_property_changed,
        bus_name='org.bluez',
        signal_name='PropertiesChanged',
        dbus_interface='org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties',
        path_keyword='path'
        )

    try:
        mainloop = gobject.MainLoop()
        mainloop.run()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        pass
    except:
        logger.error('Unable to run the gobject main loop')
        sys.exit(1)

    logger.info('Shutting down')
    sys.exit(0)

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/avrcp_volume_watcher.py

Let's do a quick test.

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ avrcp_volume_watcher.py

Playing with your volume +/- button on your mobile should change the volume now.

Pressing CTRL+C will stop the script.

Check /var/log/syslog if you experience any problem. Also change LOG_LEVEL to logging.DEBUG if needed.

Now let's launch this script on boot

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/systemd/user/avrcp-volume-watcher.service

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[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth AVRCP Volume Watcher Agent
After=bluetooth.service
PartOf=bluetooth.service

[Service]
Type=simple
KillSignal=SIGINT
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python /usr/local/bin/avrcp_volume_watcher.py

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

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pi@raspberrypi:~ $ systemctl --user enable avrcp-volume-watcher

Created symlink /home/pi/.config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/avrcp-watcher.service → /etc/systemd/user/avrcp-watcher.service.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ systemctl --user start avrcp-volume-watcher
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ systemctl --user status avrcp-volume-watcher

● avrcp-volume-watcher.service - Bluetooth AVRCP Volume Watcher Agent
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/user/avrcp-volume-watcher.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2020-03-23 21:54:41 GMT; 4s ago
 Main PID: 1024 (python)
   CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/avrcp-volume-watcher.service
           └─1024 /usr/bin/python /usr/local/bin/avrcp_volume_watcher.py

mars 23 21:54:41 raspberrypi systemd[459]: Started Bluetooth AVRCP Volume Watcher Agent.
mars 23 21:54:42 raspberrypi avrcp-volume-watcher[1024]: Started

And we are all good !

8) Getting track metadata

Following §7.2 above, once hooked to dbus, you can get additional information such as album title, track title, track number etc.

9) Choppy sound, slitches, skips or crackling ?

This may be due to some troubles with pulseaudio resampling. Please have a look to

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu ... io_quality

That's all for today.

[LiJu09]

Thanks for help.
I use it in my internet radio + Bluetooth speaker project.
I can send code if you are interested.

[DrFunk]

Thanks for help.
I use it in my internet radio + Bluetooth speaker project.
I can send code if you are interested.

I'm glad it helped. Sure I'm interested. You can either post your code below or PM me.

[granel]

hi, I am Pi unior.
need connect bluetooth SANWU amplifier with Pi 3B/B+
All day work -- no result.
Can you help (((((

[Tobias31512]

You really helped me. I've tried it several times with different tutorials, but it didn't work. At the moment I only can use the pi with headphones, because I don't have free speakers at home. But I'm planning to install a Sound- System in my room.

[Muchieman7]

I got my phone to connect, but the audio plays through HDMI. I tried

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amixer cset numid=3 1

but it doesn't work...

[Albertoo]

Hello,

very clear tutorial. i am wondering on how to make it possible to vary the volume. when i change the volume of my phone i would like to change the volume of the aux output as well. is this possible?

[daskalov_st]

Related to this project, i have couple of questions:


1. How i can reed Track ID, track duration, loaded playlist?
2. How i can send commands from PI to the phone, commands like play/pause, next track, volume control
3. How i can set different levels for music playing and headset. in headset mode the volume level is to high and have sound distortion.

[ToothpickPi]

I dont know if it's a volume thing but I'm connect and It says the music is playing on my phone but no sound through the speakers plz help if you know what the problem could be

[daskalov_st]

Hello,

First check if the pulseaudio is started, and make it autostart. Without running pulseaudio the PI cannot be connected as Headset.
Second you can try to set volume to 100% using this command pacmd set-sink-volume 0 0x10000

I experience problem with very bad audio quality, at the first place the music completely stops for 1sec twice per minute, on the second place the integrated audio card on the PI cannot provide me good sound quality.

I think the first problem will be fixed with external BT module, and the second problem will be fixed with external audio device.

How to make automatic connection?
I wont my phone to connect automatically when the PI is available

[Alez_Mullet]

Thanks for the tutorial.
I tried for hours over several days to follow other tutorials and always got stuck with the pi saying my phone (iPhone 8 running iOS 13) did not have any usable service available (not sure abut the exact language, but the phone also said that the RPi4 wasnt supported). Can you explain why your setup allowed the phone to connect? The previous tries were with Bluealsa, but even trying to connect BT via the GUI, the no usable service error would not allow for connection.

Thanks agin.

[Douglas6]

Here's how I do it: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 8&t=247892

[PistiSan]

Thank you, works fine with my raspberry pi4!
The bluetooth audio volume is low, how can i increase it?

I found it!
Type to console:

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alsamixer

and set volume.

[nerocon]

Great tut, thanks much, worked like a charm! Now my RetroPi arcade is also a giant BT speaker! wewt

[kozervar]

Hi
I've followed steps in this thread and I was successful. Problem was with controling volume by phisical smartphone buttons. I've solved it by editing

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 sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service

and adding a2dp plugin to ExecStart

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ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd --plugin=a2dp

after that restart and it should work

[kombi21251]

Thanks for tutorial!
But, I am have some probllems.

After installing the packages in this guide, everything works fine. But, as soon as I restart the raspberry, I have one output source working (the one that was active before the reboot). I cannot select output sources and adjust the volume. Setting pusleaudio by default does not help.

Who had such problems?

[karlikos]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to set it on raspberry pi 0 W. Everything works, but the audio is not steady. many short pauses etc.
Is there any buffer to configure or any other solution for this problem?

[Cinnabar]

Hi, I´m running into a problem with this tutorial.
Everything works fine, up until to the point when I add a PIN for secure connections.
Before that, I can connect via bluetooth without a problem, and play music through I2S fine.
After I set the PIN, the phone tries to connect, I can enter the PIN, and after a few seconds, it asks for the PIN again, never connecting to the PI, and eventually saying "couldn´t connect to raspberrypi" or "couldn´t pair with raspberrypi".

Any help would be greatly appreciated

RasPi Model: 4b+, running the latest Raspian
Phone: OnePlus6 , Huawei P-smart (the Huawei won´t even let me enter the PIN and refuses communication immediately).

BR

[DrFunk]

Hi, I´m running into a problem with this tutorial.
Everything works fine, up until to the point when I add a PIN for secure connections.
Before that, I can connect via bluetooth without a problem, and play music through I2S fine.
After I set the PIN, the phone tries to connect, I can enter the PIN, and after a few seconds, it asks for the PIN again, never connecting to the PI, and eventually saying "couldn´t connect to raspberrypi" or "couldn´t pair with raspberrypi".

Any help would be greatly appreciated

RasPi Model: 4b+, running the latest Raspian
Phone: OnePlus6 , Huawei P-smart (the Huawei won´t even let me enter the PIN and refuses communication immediately).

BR

Hi

I just tested it right now and it works fine with my Samsung Galaxy S8.
Have you added the line setting sspmode to 0 in /etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service ?

BR

[Cinnabar]

Hi, I´m running into a problem with this tutorial.
Everything works fine, up until to the point when I add a PIN for secure connections.
Before that, I can connect via bluetooth without a problem, and play music through I2S fine.
After I set the PIN, the phone tries to connect, I can enter the PIN, and after a few seconds, it asks for the PIN again, never connecting to the PI, and eventually saying "couldn´t connect to raspberrypi" or "couldn´t pair with raspberrypi".

Any help would be greatly appreciated

RasPi Model: 4b+, running the latest Raspian
Phone: OnePlus6 , Huawei P-smart (the Huawei won´t even let me enter the PIN and refuses communication immediately).

BR

Hi

I just tested it right now and it works fine with my Samsung Galaxy S8.
Have you added the line setting sspmode to 0 in /etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service ?

BR

Hi, yes of course, I followed the whole tutorial.

the file looks exactly like this:

[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth Auth Agent
After=bluetooth.service
PartOf=bluetooth.service

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bt-agent -c NoInputNoOutput -p /etc/bluetooth/pin.conf
ExecStartPost=/bin/sleep 1
ExecStartPost=/bin/hciconfig hci0 sspmode 0

[Install]
WantedBy=bluetooth.target

[Cinnabar]

Hi, I´m running into a problem with this tutorial.
Everything works fine, up until to the point when I add a PIN for secure connections.
Before that, I can connect via bluetooth without a problem, and play music through I2S fine.
After I set the PIN, the phone tries to connect, I can enter the PIN, and after a few seconds, it asks for the PIN again, never connecting to the PI, and eventually saying "couldn´t connect to raspberrypi" or "couldn´t pair with raspberrypi".

Any help would be greatly appreciated

RasPi Model: 4b+, running the latest Raspian
Phone: OnePlus6 , Huawei P-smart (the Huawei won´t even let me enter the PIN and refuses communication immediately).

BR

Hi

I just tested it right now and it works fine with my Samsung Galaxy S8.
Have you added the line setting sspmode to 0 in /etc/systemd/system/bt-agent.service ?

BR

Nevermind, it might just be the phones...
just tried it with a zte blade and it worked like a charm.
Need to check what the error could be :/
would be happy if you had any ideas tho

BR

[Cinnabar]

aaaand now it works with my phone as well, and the only thing i did was to restart the bluetooth agent via the GUI (just turned bluetooth off and on again), and now its taking the pairings.
very strange, because I did exactly that from the console, yet that apparently didnt work.
BR

[bpdronkers]

Hi all. This is coming from a noobie. I'm running a Raspberry Pi 4 with the unaltered Raspbian Desktop (Buster). It's my main desktop that I use for various things, including web browsing, email, Netflix, Spotify, etc. I have it all setup and working. In addition, I'd like to use these instructions to allow me to play music from my phone, or more importantly -- a guest who's visiting and wants to play their own music. My Raspberry Pi is hooked up to my Hi-Fi system for sound (and it doesn't have bluetooth since it's vintage). So, long story short. Can I follow these instructions while keeping my desktop environment so I can keep using my Pi 4 for all the other uses as well?

[Cinnabar]

Hi all. This is coming from a noobie. I'm running a Raspberry Pi 4 with the unaltered Raspbian Desktop (Buster). It's my main desktop that I use for various things, including web browsing, email, Netflix, Spotify, etc. I have it all setup and working. In addition, I'd like to use these instructions to allow me to play music from my phone, or more importantly -- a guest who's visiting and wants to play their own music. My Raspberry Pi is hooked up to my Hi-Fi system for sound (and it doesn't have bluetooth since it's vintage). So, long story short. Can I follow these instructions while keeping my desktop environment so I can keep using my Pi 4 for all the other uses as well?

Hi, yes that should be possible.

You just configure your RasPi as a bluetooth sink with this, so it accepts input from bluetooth devices, and plays it back, by default I think through the audio jack, but that can be configured how you like.

So it´ll basically be a desktop that also acts as a bluetooth speaker.

Edit: Just tried it with my own, works like a cgarm, plays the music it gets through bluetooth while still being a normal desktop. (didnt test with audio jack though but with I2S since my speaker is connected through that)

Hope that helps
BR

[timsumm]

Hi, many thanks for posting this tutorial for the latest version of Raspbian Buster Lite. I dug out an old HiFi and was really looking forward to getting this set up. Unfortunately I get halfway through step 2 of your instructions (after I've changed Bluetooth.conf).

I then go to bluetoothctl and it says "No default controller available" when I attempt to power on. To note, I am using a USB Dongle on a model B that has no onboard Bluetooth. It shows up in lsusb as Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI Mode).

Can anyone help me?

Many thanks.