MX-17.1/MX-18.1 package request: "bluez-alsa" (also known as BlueALSA)

[MX-16_fan]

bluez-alsa (https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa) is a Bluetooth audio ALSA backend.


From the project's self-description:

This project is a rebirth of a direct integration between BlueZ and ALSA. (...)

The current status quo is, that in order to stream audio from/to a Bluetooth device, one has to install PulseAudio, or use BlueZ < 5. However, BlueZ version 4 is considered to be deprecated (...).

With this application (later named as BlueALSA), one can achieve the same goal as with PulseAudio, but with less dependencies and more bare-metal-like. BlueALSA registers all known Bluetooth audio profiles in BlueZ, so in theory every Bluetooth device (with audio capabilities) can be connected. (...)


(https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa)

bluez-alsa is available for a couple of distributions, but currently not yet for MX Linux.

I would be more than happy to see it in the MX Test Repo, and to test it (cf. viewtopic.php?p=518985#p518985 for possible test scenario).



Greetings, and thanks a lot in advance for looking into this , Joe

[MX-16_fan]

Just noted that https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa gives a special hint about how to package this for Debian-based distributions:

If you are using Debian-based distribution, take a look at the .travis.yml file (https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa/blob ... travis.yml), it might give you a hint about required packages.

Hope that helps.


Greetings, Joe

[Stevo]

It says there's two suggested ways to configure it during the build...which do you think would fit MX?

$ ../configure --enable-aac --enable-ofono --enable-debug

or if you intend to stream audio from a Linux distribution using PulseAudio (see this issue)

$ ../configure --enable-aac --enable-ofono --enable-debug --disable-payloadcheck

[MX-16_fan]

@Stevo:

It says there's two suggested ways to configure it during the build...which do you think would fit MX?

$ ../configure --enable-aac --enable-ofono --enable-debug

or if you intend to stream audio from a Linux distribution using PulseAudio (see this issue)

$ ../configure --enable-aac --enable-ofono --enable-debug --disable-payloadcheck

The primary use case for this ALSA backend is being able to "stream audio from/to a Bluetooth device" (https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa), as you can do "with PulseAudio, but with less dependencies and more bare-metal-like" (l.c.), using ALSA only.

Hence I'd guess that the first variant

$ ../configure --enable-aac --enable-ofono --enable-debug

would be most appropriate.

The second variant, streaming "audio from a Linux distribution using PulseAudio" (https://github.com/Arkq/bluez-alsa) appears rather exotic to me, as in that case one could use PulseAudio and BlueZ without any real need for bluez-alsa that I would know of.


Greetings, Joe

[MX-16_fan]

UPDATE:

@Stevo:

Some additional information on this topic:

• I noticed that https://pkgs.org/download/bluez-alsa lists a number of Linux distributions where bluez-alsa is available, three of which are current (OpenMandriva Lx 4.0, OpenMandriva Cooker, Slackware 14.2). There's also a debianized binary listed there, as provided by an older Ubuntu version.
• Plus I found instructions regarding installation and usage in the official Arch Linux wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bl ... bluez-alsa).
• The Raspberry people seem to use this package on a regular basis.

Hope that's of some help !


Greetings, Joe

[jeffreyC]

It has been 'Debianized' here by the RaspberryPi people:

https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ ... /bluealsa/

[MX-16_fan]

@jeffreyC:

It has been 'Debianized' here by the RaspberryPi people:

https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ ... /bluealsa/

Thanks for the link!


@Stevo:

Maybe you repo guys see a chance of providing us with a Christmas present by compiling a test package for MX-17.1/MX-18.1 ?


Greetings, and thanks in advance for looking into this, Joe

[MX-16_fan]

@Stevo:

Since another year has passed rapidly, may I kindly ask whether you repo guys see a chance of providing us with a year 2020 Christmas present by compiling a bluez-alsa test package for MX-17.1/MX-18.1 this year ?


Greetings, and thanks in advance for looking into this, Joe