Making calls in car with device attatched via bluetooth: sound problem

[abkro]

• Device: Nexus 5 (hammerhead)
• Channel: Xenial 16.04 devel
• Build: 410

Steps to reproduce

Making calls: Establish bluetooth connection between device and car audio system. Using car's controls, access contact list, choose contact, make call. Wait for person to pick up. Attempt to speak with person on the other end.

Receiving calls: Acknowledge incoming call on car's display and audio system. Take call via car's controls. Attempt to speak with caller.

Expected behavior

Making calls:
Using car's controls, access contact list, choose contact, make call. Hear customary ring tone on car's speaker system. See call start when the recipient picks up (call duration timer starts on car's display) and people speak and hear each other in both ends of the call.

Receiving calls:
Hear ring tone for incoming call on car's speaker system. See incoming call on car's display. Take call using car's controls. See call start on car's display (call duration timer starts). People speak and hear each other in both ends.

Actual behavior

Making calls:
Choosing someone from the contact list and dialing results in audible tone dial sound on the car speaker system. After this, you can sometimes hear the "ring tone", but with an unpleasant "metallic" sound, sometimes you hear nothing. When the call is taken in the other end, the car display confirms this (starts counting seconds call duration), but all sound is gone. Nothing is audible in the other end either.

Receiving calls:
Incoming calls appear on the car's display and the normal ring tone is played (normal/pleasant sound). When the call is taken, display shows the call has started (counting seconds call duration), but sound goes dead in both ends.

Logfiles and additional information

UTdmesg.txt
UTlogcat.txt

I tested this on 04. May 2018 repeating the procedure for calling 4 times and for receiving calls twice. I will continue testing and add comments below, whether or not the behavior changes.

There is also an issue with recent calls not being accessible/displayable via bluetooth in car. I will file this as a separate bug, but with the same log files.

[ernesst]

FYI : With my N5 under 15.04 i was never able to make a phone call, with a N4 under 15,04 it was possible.

[abkro]

I have now tried this in a different car, different make. Same result. This time, I was on r417.

[Vinicius-Correa]

Device: Nexus 5
Channel: stable
Build: OTA-3

Same problem. I called today and noted the "metallic" sound making communication impossible.

[idekovets]

Device: Nexus 5
Channel: 16.04 RC
Build: 2018-W27

I have same problem too. I connect my Jabra Bluetooth headset, try to call and noted the "metallic" sound making communication impossible. It was a couple of weeks ago. After that, I did not try it.

[cyberpunkedu]

Device: Next 5
Channel: devel
Build: 2018-10-23

I don't get any sound at all. The call goes through presumably but there's no audio.

I recall this being possible with the Nexus 4. Not sure if Nexus 5 every worked.

[abkro]

Device: Nexus 5
Channel: devel
Build: 2019-W17

This issue is still there. I have experienced intermittent/broken audio for 1-2 seconds at a time, with breaks of similar duration, but only during the initial call after connecting to bluetooth in the car. Subsequent trials have resulted in no audio at all.

This bug is listed with the tag "needs confirmation". Is there anything else I can do that will result in the bug being confirmed?

I can also mention that automatic bluetooth reconnection when getting into the car does not work. This has to be done from the menu on the screen in the car. Interestingly, once connected, I can page through my phone contacts in the car, but I cannot see the list of recent calls. Should I report these things as separate issues?

[Thieb67k]

I cannot connect my LG Nexus 4 mako (OTA-8) Ubuntu Phone with my car as well...
Bluetooth connection is not stable at all. It is lost frequently.
Sometimes I have on my car's screen "The device asked to deconnect".
I cannot phone. I cannot pick up.

[mariogrip]

I have pushed the latest version (5.50) of bluez to xenial_-_new-bluez please try this to see if it fixes the issue :)

sudo ubports-qa install xenial_-_new-bluez

[abkro]

I have pushed the latest version (5.50) of bluez to xenial_-_new-bluez please try this to see if it fixes the issue :)

sudo ubports-qa install xenial_-_new-bluez

I have tried this a number of times over the past few days, but the installation process stops and the terminal freezes. I have issued the command from the terminal on my device (N5). the terminal app freezes, I end up closing it and trying to restart it, but this is not possible. It never opens again. The spinner just goes on forever.

I can still use the device afterwards, but not the terminal app. And if I try to re-run installation from adb shell, I get this:

W: No sandbox user '_apt' on the system, can not drop privileges E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem. ERROR:ubports-qa:Failed to run 'apt upgrade'. See the output above for details. INFO:ubports-qa:You can remove this repository by running 'sudo ubports-qa remove xenial_-_new-bluez'
When I try to run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' I get:

dpkg: error: unable to access dpkg status area: Read-only file system
Then I end up reflashing my device... :P

[Thieb67k]

@mariogrip ,
I tried the new bluez. The installation worked I guess.
The bluetooth connection with my car looks more stable but I cannot access/see my audio folder.

[t-fe]

@Thieb67k How did you do this? I tried providing write access to the system, but somehow all the sandbox has some more details to take care of.