How to get bluetooth headset to default to HFP Profile and mSBC codec on Ubuntu 22.04

Currently, whenever I reconnect my Bluetooth headset to Ubuntu 22.04, it defaults to the A2DP Sink profile. I then use pavucontrol to manually switch to HFP every time. How do I get this to stick so I don't have to keep changing it?

I've tried the solutions in Change Bluetooth Headphones default audio mode (A2DP Sink vs HSP/HFP) and none seem to work.

I had a similar issue. My headset supports only audio with A2DP and needs to switch to HFP in order for my mic to work.

I switched from pulse audio to pipewire. "Pipewire (WirePlumber >= 0.4.8) [...] supports automatic Bluetooth profile switching (e.g. switching from A2DP to HSP/HFP when an application needs microphone access)."

This was a great solution for my use case. My laptop no longer uses the internal mic when joining MS Teams calls but automatically switches to my headset with HFP.

I am also running Ubuntu 22.04 and installed Pipewire manually.

Install

Install codecs for LDAC (SBC is included out of the box):

$ sudo apt install libldacbt-{abr,enc}2

Install remaining PipeWire packages and WirePlumber as the session manager:

$ sudo apt install \ libspa-0.2-bluetooth \
pipewire-audio-client-libraries \ pipewire-media-session- \
wireplumber

Notice '-' at the end of 'pipewire-media-session'. This is to remove it in the same command, because 'wireplumber' will be used

instead.

Start WirePlumber for your user:

$ systemctl --user --now enable wireplumber.service

Configure ALSA

Single step. Copy the config file from the PipeWire examples into your ALSA configuration directory:

$ sudo cp /usr/share/doc/pipewire/examples/alsa.conf.d/99-pipewire-default.conf /etc/alsa/conf.d/

PulseAudio

Everything was done automatically by pipewire-pulse package, which should have been installed by wireplumber package as recommended. If not, install it yourself. Bluetooth

Just remove this package and Bluetooth will be handled by PipeWire:

$ sudo apt remove pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

Done

Reboot and check if it works by running:

$ LANG=C pactl info | grep '^Server Name'

This is only a workaround and doesn't answer your question directly.

Have the same problem. A simple command-line-workaround is to set the sink manually after the connect:

Set an alias in your ".profile" or ".bashrc" and simply use "hs" on the command-line after bluetooth-connect

alias hs='pacmd set-card-profile bluez_card.your_device handsfree_head_unit'

You can find your device with:

pacmd list

And the name will be something like this:

name: <bluez_card.AB_CD_EF_12_34_56>

After your Bluetooth headset is connected do:

hs

You can add a headphones setting easily too. For example:

    alias hp='pacmd set-card-profile bluez_card.your_device a2dp_sink'

I'm still looking for an automatic solution, too.