How to use a bluetooth headset?

[Marcelo Magno T. Sales]

Em quinta-feira, 25 de outubro de 2012, às 05:29:18, Duncan escreveu:
> Marcelo Magno T. Sales posted on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:03:34 -0300 as
> 
> excerpted:
> > I have a bluetooth headset which I can use perfectly well with my
> > Android devices, but can't make it work with KDE.
> > The KDE bluetooth application sees the headset, pears and connects to
> > it,
> > but the sound is still sent to the speakers even when the headset is
> > connected. No sound is heard through the headset, only through the
> > speakers.
> > KMix and SystemSettings does not seem to have any option to direct the
> > sound to the headset.
> > When I connect a wired headset, it is automatically used by the system
> > (and the speakers are automatically turned off).
> > How do I make KDE use the bluetooth headset?
> 
> There's a lot of levels at which this question could be asked... and
> answered.  Unfortunately, you don't provide a lot of hints as to what
> level your actual intent was, except the conflicting hints of (1) asking
> about kde on a kde list, which suggests you know the actual hardware
> (computer side, it's obvious the bluetooth headset is working) and system
> drivers level is working and it's just kde-based-apps that aren't
> working, vs (2) you compare to a fully integrated hardware/software
> system normally sold as such, android-based devices (the phone/tablet/
> whatever normally comes with android), indicating you're treating it as a
> single unitary whole, to kde, just a GUI desktop layer on top of...

I just mentioned the android devices to make it clear that the headset is 
working fine and that I have a software problem that I think is in KDE, hence 
I ask in the KDE list.

> normally Linux, but it could be MS Windows or one of the BSDs, and if
> it's Linux it could be any one of a huge variety of distros, current or
> old version, on current or old hardware, and further, you mention nothing
> at all about the distro/platform you're on or whether it works in non-kde
> apps on the kde desktop, or whether it works on other desktops (gnome,
> unity, xfce, MS Windows), again suggesting you're considering it a single
> monolithic whole, which it definitely is *NOT*.

I don't have any of those other desktops / operating system installed, just 
Linux + KDE. And the headset does not work for any application I run on this 
desktop. 

> (...)

> Simple first:  If non-kde apps and non-kde desktops are already working,
> and all you need is to get kde working...
> 
> Then you need to look in kde's system settings (which are more kde
> settings than system settings, the kde3 name kcontrol thus being a more
> accurate name, but they decided to unhelpfully confuse things in kde4 and
> call it something it's pretty much not, system settings), under hardware,
> multimedia, phonon, and adjust the priority of the bluetooth sound device
> accordingly for the desired category (or for everything).

The bluetooth headset does not appear there. Only the internal soundcard is 
listed. Anyway, I would expect KDE would have a more automated solution for 
directing sound to a connected headset than having to manually change the 
order in which phonon should use the available devices for each possible 
application category every time I connect and disconnect the headset...

> If you don't see any bluetooth sound devices in that list, then it's
> probably not a kde problem, but a system/platform problem.  That's really
> out of scope for this list, but I'm guessing it's what you're seeing.

I don't think so, since the headset appears in KDE's bluetooth application and 
in SystemSettings -> Network and connectivity -> Bluetooth. Besides, I can 
pair and connect the headset successfully there.

> Assuming you're running kde on some sort of Linux distro (or FreeBSD or
> whatever), you're probably best off finding the lists/forums/irc-channels
> for that distro/bsd and asking there.

I'm running Kubuntu 12.04 x86_64.

> (...)
 
> Add any information you have about other bluetooth devices (say
> keyboards, or for that matter your android devices, paired over bluetooth)
> you have and whether they work fine over bluetooth with the computer, or
> not.

I have a bluetooth keyboard + mouse kit (just one dongle for the two devices). 
They work perfectly. But this is another thing, because they do not use the 
bluetooth adapter embedded in the desktop, but their own provided bluetooth 
dongle, which doesn't require any configuration and works even before the OS 
is loaded. I don't think KDE or even the kernel know that these are bluetooth 
devices. I think the keyboard and mouse are presented to the system as regular 
USB devices.
However, I can send files from the KDE desktop to my android devices using the 
embedded bluetooth adapter.

> Also mention whether /any/ apps, not just kde apps, play sound to the
> bluetooth headset or not.  The common Firefox browser is gtk-based
> (Chrome/Chromium aren't kde based either, neither is Opera, all of which
> are browsers), for instance, so if it works with the bluetooth headset it
> may well be a kde problem.  But if they don't work either, it's probably
> lower in the system.

No application play sound to the bluetooth headset, Qt or GTK. System sounds 
are not played to the headset either.

> (...)

Thanks,

Marcelo
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