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Troubleshooting BlueALSA

This document presents solutions to some of the most commonly encountered errors when using BlueALSA.

1. Couldn't acquire D-Bus name: org.bluealsa

The BlueALSA server registers a unique "well-known service name" with D-Bus, which is used by client applications to identify the correct service instance. By default it uses the name "org.bluealsa". There are three reasons why starting the service may fail with the "Couldn't acquire D-Bus name: org.bluealsa" error message:

  • The BlueALSA D-Bus policy file is not installed, or is in the wrong location.
    In a default install, the file should be /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/org.bluealsa.conf; but if BlueALSA was installed from a distribution package then the distribution may have moved it to /etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.bluealsa.conf. Check with your distribution documentation in case D-Bus uses a different location on your system. Older versions of BlueALSA used /etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.bluealsa.conf, so you may find you have versions of the file in both locations. In that case D-Bus will attempt to apply the policy from both files, with the /etc file taking precedence in case of conflict. Re-install BlueALSA if the file is missing.

  • The user account that the BlueALSA service is started under is not permitted to do so by the D-Bus policy.
    The BlueALSA D-Bus policy file must contain a rule that permits the BlueALSA service account to register names with the prefix org.bluealsa. The default BlueALSA D-Bus policy file permits only root to register the prefix org.bluealsa. To permit some other user account the D-Bus policy must be updated. For example to permit the BlueALSA service to run under the account name bluealsa in addition to being able to run as root:

    <busconfig>

  <policy user="bluealsa">
    <allow own_prefix="org.bluealsa"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.bluealsa"/>
  </policy>

  <policy user="root">
    <allow own_prefix="org.bluealsa"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.bluealsa"/>
  </policy>

  <policy group="audio">
    <allow send_destination="org.bluealsa"/>
  </policy>

</busconfig>

  • Another instance of the BlueALSA service is already running.
    To run a second instance of the BlueALSA service, it must use a different well-known service name. This will also require updating the BlueALSA D-Bus policy file. See the manual page bluealsad(8) for more information and an example of running multiple bluealsad instances.

If the D-Bus policy file is edited, then it is necessary to refresh the D-Bus service for the change to take effect. On most systems this can be achieved with (as root) :

systemctl reload dbus.service

2. Couldn't get BlueALSA PCM: PCM not found

In contrast to standard ALSA sound cards, BlueALSA does not expose all PCMs right away. In the first place it is required to connect remote Bluetooth device with desired Bluetooth profile - run bluealsad --help for the list of available profiles. For querying currently connected audio profiles (and connected devices), run bluealsa-aplay --list-devices. The common misconception is an attempt to use A2DP playback device as a capture one in case where A2DP is not listed in the "List of CAPTURE Bluetooth Devices" section.

Additionally, the cause of the "PCM not found" error might be an incorrect ALSA PCM name. Run bluealsa-aplay --list-pcms for the list of currently available ALSA PCM names - it might give you a hint what is wrong with your .asoundrc entry. Also, take a look at the bluealsa-plugins manual page.

3. Couldn't get BlueALSA PCM: Rejected send message

This error message indicates that the user does not have permission to use the BlueALSA service. BlueALSA client applications require permission from D-Bus to communicate with the BlueALSA service. This permission is granted by a D-Bus policy configuration file. A default BlueALSA installation will grant permission only to members of the audio group and root (this is in line with normal practice on ALSA systems whereby membership of the audio group is required to use sound card devices).

There are several reasons why this permission is not granted:

  • The D-Bus service has not been refreshed after installing BlueALSA.
    Try sudo systemctl reload dbus.service. If that does not work, try rebooting.

  • The user is not a member of the audio group.

  • The user session was created before the user was added to the audio group.
    Log out, then log in again.

  • The BlueALSA D-Bus policy file is not installed, or is in the wrong location.
    In a default install, the file should be /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/org.bluealsa.conf. Check with your distribution documentation in case D-Bus uses a different location on your system. Re-install BlueALSA if the file is missing.

4. Couldn't open PCM: Device or resource busy

BlueALSA supports only one client connection to each PCM. This error occurs when an application tries to set the hardware parameters for a PCM that is already in use. Note that bluealsa-aplay opens each PCM (of the appropriate profile) as soon as it connects, and therefore attempting to use an application such as arecord to capture from BlueALSA while bluealsa-aplay is running will result in this error.

5. Using BlueALSA alongside PulseAudio or PipeWire

It is not advisable to run BlueALSA if either PulseAudio or PipeWire are also running with their own Bluetooth modules enabled. If one would like to have a deterministic setup, it is first necessary to disable Bluetooth in those applications.

On startup, the BlueALSA service will issue warnings if some other application has already registered the Bluetooth Audio profiles:

bluealsad: W: UUID already registered in BlueZ [hci0]: 0000110a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
bluealsad: W: UUID already registered in BlueZ [hci0]: 0000110b-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
bluealsad: W: UUID already registered in BlueZ: 0000111f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb

However, as it is normal practice to start BlueALSA at boot and to start PulseAudio only when the user logs in, these warnings may not appear in the logs.

In the unlikely event that one should need to run BlueALSA at the same time as PulseAudio, there are some hints on how to disable the PulseAudio Bluetooth modules in the wiki: PulseAudio integration

6. ALSA thread-safe API (alsa-lib >= 1.1.2, <= 1.1.3)

ALSA library versions 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 had a bug in their thread-safe API functions. This bug does not affect hardware audio devices, but it affects many software plug-ins. Random deadlocks are inevitable. The best advice is to use a more recent alsa-lib release, or if that is not possible then disable the thread locking code via an environment variable, as follows:

export LIBASOUND_THREAD_SAFE=0