[Bug 1438510] [NEW] [regression] Bluetooth audio no longer supports A2DP (stuck in HSP/HFP mode)

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[Impact]
Bluetooth audio seemingly refuses to support A2DP (stuck in HSP/HFP mode). A2DP is the high quality profile used for Bluetooth speakers and music in general.

[Test Case]
1. Pair a Bluetooth audio device with Ubuntu.
2. Go to Sound settings and check the device's current "Mode".
3. If the current Mode is not yet A2DP then try to set it to A2DP
Expected: The mode is either A2DP by default or can be set to it.

[Regression Potential]
Low. The SRU focuses on Bluetooth logic in pulseaudio, so that is the main area affected. A combination of related A2DP bugs in pulseaudio in xenial means it is difficult to get working at all without this patch. So highly unlikely Bluetooth audio support could get worse. Since pulseaudio itself is being modified there is always a regression potential in support for other audio devices, but several audio devices have been tested and all continue to work well with the patch.

[Other notes]
Related to bug 1283003 and bug 1582213. Possibly others too. The debdiff which fixes this is attached to bug 1582213.

Please note that Bluetooth and Bluetooth audio support in xenial is
still not perfect. This SRU only aims to address a few of the most
troublesome issues. Please consider the fact that this is an incremental
improvement and some people are still likely to experience some bugs
related to pulseaudio and Bluetooth, even after this SRU.

The patch was authored by Luke Yelavich with help from Konrad
Zapałowicz. And it has received further testing over the past two months
by Konrad, Jim Hodapp and Daniel van Vugt. The debdiff proposed here
only changes the changelog wording from Luke's original PPA.

[Original Description]
Just installed 15.04 fresh from the latest ISO (beta2).

I'm bummed to see my bluetooth headset (Bose Soundlink overear) seems to
have regressed in functionality.

In 14.10, I was able to set the output profile either to a2dp or hsp/hfp
(telephony duplex).

In 15.04, it only works in telephony duplex mode.  I can't get high
fidelity sound playback to work at all.

This thread seems to be related, though the workaround within did not solve the problem for me:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=194006

The bug is still present in 16.04 LTS and 16.10.

** Affects: pulseaudio
     Importance: Medium
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: bluez (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
         Status: Invalid

** Affects: pulseaudio (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: bluez (Ubuntu Vivid)
     Importance: High
         Status: Won't Fix

** Affects: pulseaudio (Ubuntu Vivid)
     Importance: High
         Status: Won't Fix

** Affects: pulseaudio (Ubuntu Xenial)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)
         Status: In Progress


** Tags: a2dp papercuts2017 regression-release xenial yakkety
-- 
[regression] Bluetooth audio no longer supports A2DP (stuck in HSP/HFP mode)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1438510
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