Public bug reported:
Pipewire/BlueZ is constantly sending audio data to Bluetooth headphones
even when no audio is playing.
This causes three problems:
1. Prevents any other device sending audio to the headphones when Bluetooth
multipoint connection is use.
2. Additional battery drain on a laptop due to unnecessary Bluetooth traffic.
3. Additional battery drain on the headphones for the same reason.
The first problem is the primary reason for creating this bug report, it
can prevent the headphones from being used with two devices
simultaneously (e.g. computer and mobile phone) when only one device
plays audio at any one time (a so-called 'multipoint connection').
The issue can be easily diagnosed by running 'sudo btmon' and noticing
that very similar packets are continually being transmitted, even when
no audio is being played, likely representing silence encoded as
Bluetooth A2DP packets. When audio is played via the computer, these
packets look like encoded data (the audio encoded as Bluetooth A2DP
packets).
Sometimes this does not cause an issue, it all depends on what
connection the headphones deem as the primary connection, if the
computer is deemed the priority then the silence being continually
transmitted prevents audio from the other connected device being heard.
If the other connected device is deemed the priority then its audio will
be heard instead and the silence from the computer ignored.
Note that Android works properly in this aspect: when no audio is
playing, it does not continually send audio packets to the headphones
allowing the other device to play audio correctly, irrespective of which
device is deemed the priority by the headphones.
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
Release: 22.04
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy bluez
bluez:
Installed: 5.64-0ubuntu1
Candidate: 5.64-0ubuntu1
Version table:
*** 5.64-0ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy pipewire-media-session
pipewire-media-session:
Installed: 0.4.1.r11.ga870086-2~ubuntu22.04
Candidate: 0.4.1.r11.ga870086-2~ubuntu22.04
Version table:
*** 0.4.1.r11.ga870086-2~ubuntu22.04 500
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
0.4.1-2ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy pipewire-pulse
pipewire-pulse:
Installed: 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04
Candidate: 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04
Version table:
*** 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04 500
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
0.3.48-1ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy pipewire-audio-client-libraries
pipewire-audio-client-libraries:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04
Version table:
0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04 500
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main amd64 Packages
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main i386 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
0.3.48-1ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
$ bluetoothctl info
Device 80:C7:55:FB:B1:4E (public)
Name: RB-M700B
Alias: RB-M700B
Class: 0x00240404
Icon: audio-headset
Paired: yes
Trusted: yes
Blocked: no
Connected: yes
LegacyPairing: no
UUID: Vendor specific (00000000-0000-0000-0099-aabbccddeeff)
UUID: Headset (00001108-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Audio Sink (0000110b-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Advanced Audio Distribu.. (0000110d-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Headset AG (00001112-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Handsfree (0000111e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
** Affects: bluez (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
--
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to bluez in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1990081
Title:
Computer continually sends audio to bluetooth headphones
Status in bluez package in Ubuntu:
New
Bug description:
Pipewire/BlueZ is constantly sending audio data to Bluetooth
headphones even when no audio is playing.
This causes three problems:
1. Prevents any other device sending audio to the headphones when Bluetooth
multipoint connection is use.
2. Additional battery drain on a laptop due to unnecessary Bluetooth traffic.
3. Additional battery drain on the headphones for the same reason.
The first problem is the primary reason for creating this bug report,
it can prevent the headphones from being used with two devices
simultaneously (e.g. computer and mobile phone) when only one device
plays audio at any one time (a so-called 'multipoint connection').
The issue can be easily diagnosed by running 'sudo btmon' and noticing
that very similar packets are continually being transmitted, even when
no audio is being played, likely representing silence encoded as
Bluetooth A2DP packets. When audio is played via the computer, these
packets look like encoded data (the audio encoded as Bluetooth A2DP
packets).
Sometimes this does not cause an issue, it all depends on what
connection the headphones deem as the primary connection, if the
computer is deemed the priority then the silence being continually
transmitted prevents audio from the other connected device being
heard. If the other connected device is deemed the priority then its
audio will be heard instead and the silence from the computer ignored.
Note that Android works properly in this aspect: when no audio is
playing, it does not continually send audio packets to the headphones
allowing the other device to play audio correctly, irrespective of
which device is deemed the priority by the headphones.
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
Release: 22.04
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy bluez
bluez:
Installed: 5.64-0ubuntu1
Candidate: 5.64-0ubuntu1
Version table:
*** 5.64-0ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy pipewire-media-session
pipewire-media-session:
Installed: 0.4.1.r11.ga870086-2~ubuntu22.04
Candidate: 0.4.1.r11.ga870086-2~ubuntu22.04
Version table:
*** 0.4.1.r11.ga870086-2~ubuntu22.04 500
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
0.4.1-2ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy pipewire-pulse
pipewire-pulse:
Installed: 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04
Candidate: 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04
Version table:
*** 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04 500
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
0.3.48-1ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
richard@richard-dell:~
$ sudo apt-cache policy pipewire-audio-client-libraries
pipewire-audio-client-libraries:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04
Version table:
0.3.58-1~ubuntu22.04 500
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main amd64 Packages
500
https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/pipewire-debian/pipewire-upstream/ubuntu
jammy/main i386 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
0.3.48-1ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
$ bluetoothctl info
Device 80:C7:55:FB:B1:4E (public)
Name: RB-M700B
Alias: RB-M700B
Class: 0x00240404
Icon: audio-headset
Paired: yes
Trusted: yes
Blocked: no
Connected: yes
LegacyPairing: no
UUID: Vendor specific (00000000-0000-0000-0099-aabbccddeeff)
UUID: Headset (00001108-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Audio Sink (0000110b-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control Target (0000110c-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Advanced Audio Distribu.. (0000110d-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: A/V Remote Control (0000110e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Headset AG (00001112-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
UUID: Handsfree (0000111e-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
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