#1109670 bluetooth: Impossible to re-enable bluetooth, and headphone mode not available

#1109670#5
Date:
2025-07-21 15:15:47 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,
Since I installed Debian Trixie, I have difficulties to connect to my Bluetooth
headset, and with audio quality. It was working well with Debian Bookworm.

What led up to the situation :
I did a fresh install of Debian Trixie RC2 with Gnome desktop. After reboot,
when I first tried to pair and connect my Sony WH-1000XM4 headset, it worked
well. In the Gnome sound settings, I had the choice between Bluetooth headphone
mode, with high quality audio codecs, and Bluetooth headset mode, with low-
quality codecs for live audio broadcast.
Then I disabled Bluetooth via the Gnome interface button. When I re-enabled
Bluetooth via the Gnome button, the button stayed gray, instead of activate
Bluetooth. If I go in Bluetooth settings in Gnome panel, when I try to enable
Bluetooth it doesn't work, Bluetooth keeps off. This problem is permanent,
until I reboot the machine.

When I reboot the machine, Bluetooth is now on, and sometimes I can connect to
my headset, but I have no longer the choice to choose headphones mode with
high-quality codecs ; the only choice is headset with HSP/HFP codecs, wich are
not good enough for listening music.
But sometimes it won't even connect with my headset at all. Then if I go to
Gnome Bluetooth settings, I can see my headset in the list. If I click on it it
shows that it is paired, that it is an audio headset and has an address with 12
caracters. But if I click the button "Connect", it fails to connect.
If I turn bluetooth off, it can't be turned on again, until reboot.

I noticed that when I can't re-activate Bluetooth, the "hcitool dev" shell
command only shows "Devices:". But when Bluetooth is working, it shows an
address instead.

I use a ThinkPad X230 with a Broadcom BCM20702 Bluetooth 4.0 internal device.

I expected to have the choice to put my Bluetooth device in Headphones mode, in
order to benefit from high-quality codecs, like it was in Debian 12.
And I expected to be able to re-enable Bluetooth when it is turned off.

Kindly