I have a strange problem. Essentially I am trying to connect my Bluetooth headset to my laptop so that I can listen to music, watch videos etc.

This is what I have achieved:

1. BT headset is connected. Connection is fine. In certain instances I can get sound out of my bluetooth headphones.
2. BT headset is listed in Kmix and in the "multimedia" settings in system settings.
3. BT headset is connected using A2dp profile.
4. BT headset is top priority of audio output devices.

The problem is that whenever I play any sounds, it comes out of my laptop speakers. The only way I can get sound out of my BT headphones is by using a specific program such as Amarok or VLC and specifying my BT headset in the respective program's settings.
The other way I can make it work is by opening Kmix and choosing "playback stream" and then right clicking and choosing "move" to my BT headset.

Now my main issue is that I want to watch my youtube vidoes (and other videos) that are embedded in my Chrome browser. I don't know how I can set Chrome to send audio to my BT headset.

Besides since my BT headset is set as top priority I would assume that any sound should automatically come out of my BT headset when they are connected.



Any ideas on how I can go about fixing this?

Is your system using Pulseaudio? Based on the description you gave, I am suspecting that you probably are not.

You also mentioned that Amarok has specific output settings in it's interface - which version of Amarok are you using? If it is Amarok 2, then it is probable that you are referring to the same interface which is exposed in System Settings.

As far as I am aware I am using Pulseaudio. How do I confirm this?

I am using Amarok 2.7.

You can check the output of "pactl list" as well as look for any process named "pulseaudio" in the process list (visible in System Activity, which is accessible from KRunner).

Pulseaudio is running. It is in my process lists and pactl list provides tons of info.

Sorry Amarok didn't have any setting (or it just goes to phonon settings). It was VLC that has a menu item.

The way I get sound to my BT headset is to click kmix in the notificaiton area and rightclikc over the appropriate stream and choose move --> bt headset.

Very wierd.

Is "module-device-manager" loaded in Pulseaudio?
You can check this by running:

Code: Select all

pactl list | grep module-device-manager

If it returns nothing, then try running this command:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-device-manager "do_routing=1"

The module is loaded.

Can you please check to see that you applied the device preference settings to all categories? In particular, the music and notifications categories are the ones to be sure of here.

Note: you should apply the settings after changing each category.

All the device settings have my BT headset as top priority. I have double checked that. It's wierd because it seems that phonon (or pulseaudio) doesn't seem to respect my priority order.

This is unusual. Pulseaudio is responsible for applying the Phonon settings - and from what I can tell everything should be working.
Can you try to reproduce this behaviour under a new user?

I logged in as a new user. However my Bluetooth headset didn't even appear in the phonon priority list or hardware setup. The BT headset was however connected.

If you had it connected prior to logging in, you may need to reconnect the headset (re-pairing it should not be required) in order for it to be registered, as bluetooth devices need a bit of extra magic for them to be registered. This only happens automatically if Pulseaudio is running when the device is initially connected, and won't occur if it is already connected when it is started.

Unfortunately I can't get my BT headset to be recognized in phonon when using a new user.

It's really frustrating. I'm stumped.

Is "module-bluetooth-discover" loaded in Pulseaudio under the new user?
You can check this by examining the output of "pactl list".

I'm experiencing the same behaviour on Kubuntu 16.04. Has a solution been found?
I tried the Chrome plugin "AudioPick" but it didn't work.