How do I attach a Bluetooth headset?

The linux bluetooth struggle

There are some troubles that you may run into if you are trying to connect to bluetooth using linux or raspberry pi, so this is a guide to try and overcome those difficulties. Hopefully, it is helpful.

Install Pipewire

Run the following commands to install Pipewire and disable PulseAudio.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream
sudo apt update
sudo apt install pipewire
sudo apt install libspa-0.2-bluetooth
sudo apt install pipewire-audio-client-libraries
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user --now disable pulseaudio.service pulseaudio.socket
systemctl --user mask pulseaudio
systemctl --user --now enable pipewire-media-session.service

To check that Pipewire is properly installed, run

pactl info

If this doesn't work, try restarting Pipewire or your computer:

systemctl --user restart pipewire

If you get the error: Connection failure: Connection refused

systemctl --user restart pipewire-pulse

Source for procedure

Steps taken to get bluetooth headset to run

Check the status of your bluetooth:

sudo systemctl status bluetooth 

To connect your bluetooth device, run the following commands:

sudo bluetoothctl
agent on
default-agent
scan on
pair XX:XX:XX:XX
connect XX:XX:XX:XX
trust XX:XX:XX:XX

Set profile

After this, run:

pactl list

You'll get a list of devices and the bluetooth device will be in the form of bluez_card.84_6B_45_98_FD_8E

From what I understand, most bluetooth headsets have two different profiles: ad2p and headset-head-unit. To use the microphone, you will need to set the card profile of your bluetooth device to headset-head-unit

pactl set-card-profile bluez_card.84_6B_45_98_FD_8E headset-head-unit

Then, test whether or not the device is recording and playing properly:

parec -d bluez_card.84_6B_45_98_FD_8E.headset-head-unit | lame -r -V0 - out.mp3
mpg321 out.mp3

Change default

You can set the default input and output devices using the following commands.

First check what sources are available:

pactl list short sources
pactl list short sinks

Then set the default source and sink devices:

pactl set-default-source <device_name_output>
pactl set-default-sink <device_name_input>