How to prevent bluetooth audio skipping with the A2DP profile on Arch Linux?

Question

I am experiencing quite heavy audio skipping when streaming audio to my bluetooth speaker (Sony SRS-X3) using pulseaudio and Arch Linux on a T430. I think it is related to a known bug [1]. The speaker works flawlessly with Android.

$ sudo lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net  
> Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 [8086:4238] (rev 3e)
> Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 3x3 AGN [8086:1111]
> Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

$ sudo lsusb | grep Blue
> 0a5c:21e6 Broadcom Corp. BCM20702 Bluetooth 4.0 [ThinkPad]

Does anyone have an idea on how to reduce/prevent the skipping? Information that helps me understand the problem is also appreciated.

---

I suspect it is related to interference with WiFi. There is less skipping with WiFi off or deep at night (less traffic). How does Android handle this? My research turned up the Linux Frequency Broker [2]. Is it implemented?

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/405294

[2] https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/frequencybroker

Solution

It may help to disable the bluetooth coexistance parameter of the iwlwifi module to see if conditions improve. Open a terminal window and enter

echo "options iwlwifi bt_coex_active=0" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

Reboot

Comments

[Jeremy31]

Does it still skip with wifi off? rfkill block wifi

[sedot]

Much less skipping then. I'd rather use the box with music and video streaming though.

[Jeremy31]

What wireless card do you have? lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net in terminal will provide the info

[sedot]

I added more info

[1k5]

I have the same bluetooth module in an X230 running Arch and have the same issue. Did you ever find a proper solution?

[sedot]

No. I learned to live with it for a while and then I switched to cable #oldschool. According to [1] (the bug report), it was finally fixed in June '18, so it took only nine years. Except that you are still having problems...

[sedot]

At the beginning I thought it made things worse but now it seems better. Maybe there is no change at all? It is so hard to quantify.

[Jeremy31]

I haven't looked at the iwlwifi source code to know enough about how well it works with a external bluetooth device as it might be intended for a wifi card with built in bluetooth

[sedot]

Now after quite a while of testing I think this definitely helped. I am still having problems sometimes but it is better then before. Thanks! More info here: wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/…

[RyanNerd]

Solution appears to work on Debian as well. If you don't want to reboot these commands should do the trick: sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi && sudo modprobe iwlwifi # This will disrupt your wifi but it should reconnect automatically.

[AldoZumaran]

it works!! great!!