After several hours of googling and trying various suggested fixes, I have my bluetooth speakers working and have some hints. Hopefully package maintainers et al can coax them into a more usable form
First and foremost I found the following two URLs of enormous help: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=725846 http://askubuntu.com/questions/366032/pulseaudio-not-detecting- bluetooth-headset-automatically The real issue was that module-bluetooth-discover was not loading (and still does not automatically) Test by: pactl list | grep -i module-bluetooth-discover If empty load via pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover Pulse audio will then (hopefully) recognize the device The rest is sketchier since I needed to do this the first time, but not there after First, pulse audio sees the device in the playback menu, normally where you see something like "Built-in Audio Duplex ..." But the first time I tried the instructions in the URL above for associating the device with a2dp, they did not work. Instead, I went in through the bluetooth widget, selected the device, selected audio profile and then a2dp. Then you could select the speakers from the pulse audio control panel Have no idea how to get the pactl load-module to happen automatically, except (of course) I will write a script :) I hope this helps a few ... ** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #725846 http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=725846 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to bluez in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1199059 Title: A2DP audio sink devices failed to work with "bluetoothd : Unable to select SEP" in system log. Status in “bluez” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: All my A2DP devices can't create a audio device properly... My 2 13.04 machines both have this issue(1 notebook, 2 bluetooth dongles) ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04 Package: bluez 4.101-0ubuntu8b1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-21.32-generic 3.8.8 Uname: Linux 3.8.0-21-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.1 Architecture: amd64 Date: Tue Jul 9 01:01:38 2013 InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-26 (162 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Alpha amd64 (20130126) InterestingModules: rfcomm bnep btusb bluetooth MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name MarkForUpload: True ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic root=UUID=9bce9679-da3a-44fd-84ec-b16339a84004 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 SourcePackage: bluez UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-03-01 (128 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 08/18/2010 dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc. dmi.bios.version: 1101 dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M. dmi.board.name: P7H55-M dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC. dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890 dmi.chassis.type: 3 dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1101:bd08/18/2010:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP7H55-M:rvrRevX.0x:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion: dmi.product.name: System Product Name dmi.product.version: System Version dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer hciconfig: hci0: Type: BR/EDR Bus: USB BD Address: 00:15:83:54:59:9F ACL MTU: 310:10 SCO MTU: 64:8 UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN RX bytes:29508 acl:1270 sco:0 events:461 errors:0 TX bytes:5249 acl:165 sco:0 commands:95 errors:0 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bluez/+bug/1199059/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp