Implementing Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast on Linux Systems

(collabora.com)

147 points by losgehts74 days ago

4 comments

  • xzjis70 days ago
    I commend Collabora's tremendous work on Bluetooth LE audio on Linux and their work in general, but I can't help being frustrated that it's volunteer contributors handling the implementation, while the Bluetooth Special Interest Group makes a ton of profit by licensing Bluetooth yet contributes nothing to implementing the standard on Linux. It's really typical of the "open source" spirit: volunteers are exploited, and the fruits of their labor are harvested as profit.
    • lunar-whitey70 days ago
      It would help if BlueZ had any hope of being commercially relevant. The Linux Wi-Fi stack, in contrast, is quite usable.
      • ocrete70 days ago
        You'd be surprised who many products ship with BlueZ, it's everywhere in all kinds of embedded systems, much like the Linux Wi-Fi stack.
        • lunar-whitey70 days ago
          If BlueZ was compelling enough, Android would tolerate it for the same reasons it tolerates the kernel. Nobody really wants to be in the business of writing a BT stack, and yet Android has replaced theirs at least twice. I ask, why?
  • charcircuit70 days ago
    &gt;On Linux, LE Audio support is implemented through BlueZ for the Bluetooth® host stack and PipeWire for audio routing.<p>Most Linux systems support Bluetooth LEA via Gabeldorsche. Google shipped LEA support in Android 14 and BSP providers offered the drivers needed for it in their Android 14 BSPs.
    • ocrete70 days ago
      This Gabeldorsche is really only for Android. BlueZ is used almost everywhere else.
      • charcircuit70 days ago
        Most Linux installs that use Bluetooth with Linux are Android installs.
        • estimator729270 days ago
          Apart from basically every laptop sold in the last 20 years, yeah
          • ocrete70 days ago
            Android is really its own platform that happens to use the Linux kernel as a shortcut.<p>What we&#x27;re talking about here is really what used to be called GNU&#x2F;Linux, so the whole platform that is based on the software developed by the various communities.
            • preisschild70 days ago
              I think this is needless gatekeeping. Does it matter if someone uses KDE or GNOME? Systemd or openrc? Musl or glibc? They are all part of the Linux community.<p>I use GrapheneOS for my smartphone and Fedora for my workstation and I consider both to be linux distributions
          • charcircuit69 days ago
            Most Linux laptops are Chromebooks which ship with Android&#x27;s previous Bluetooth stack (still not BlueZ).
  • ensocode70 days ago
    This is a big pain point for wireless headsets. Thanks for the post and linux overview of the progress.
  • unwind70 days ago
    This:<p><i>If you&#x27;ve ever wondered why your music quality drops dramatically when you answer a call on your Bluetooth® headset, you&#x27;ve experienced one of A2DP&#x27;s key limitations firsthand.</i><p>Made me feel old ... how are people listening to music while taking a call?