I was previously using a Sony HWS-BTA2W bluetooth adapter from 2007 to get sound wirelessly from my computer or phone to a set of non-bluetooth speakers. It had a problem that only happened with my linux computer. I was annoyed with this device because as the workload would increase/decrease on my computer, the audio would speed up and slow down. You could hear the pitch rise and fall if you were listening to music. This is probably by design – as part of the base level Bluetooth SBC codec that everything supports. It makes sense that if you’re talking on the phone you’d want to hear everything someone said, even if it had to be sped up or slowed down for continuity.

The pitch bend happened on all of my linux laptops: 2008 Dell Studio 17 and my 2014 ThinkPad T440s, and my 2019 Developer Edition XPS 13. I wasn’t sure about the problem being in the linux bluetooth stack or the Sony device itself. I knew there was a better solution available – and it happened to be a combination of hardware and software.

After reading all about Bluetooth codecs and wanting another way to tap into my audio interface, I decided to try another, more modern, bluetooth interface. I went with a 1Mii B06S Bluetooth 5.2 Receiver. It supports several aptX profiles, which provide higher fidelity than the base BT codecs.

Interestingly, aptX originated as a PhD thesis, then later became incarnate in a DSP chip. Then the tech changed hands though several companies (including Solid State Logic which makes my audio interface). Before finally becoming part of Qualcomm. AptX was first used in the Bluetooth stack with some Sennheiser headphones from 2009. My 2007 Sony hardware was definitely not using this tech.

AptX on Ubuntu 22.04

To make sure my computer supported these extra codecs, I had to install some extras. Partly because aptX has some patent issues (although it’s been reverse engineered), and partly because I upgraded my system to use pipewire. The best source I found was this gist:

Enable PipeWire on Ubuntu 22.04

This guide is only for original Ubuntu out-of-the-box packages. If you have added a custom PPA like pipewire-debian, you might get into conflicts.

Ubuntu 22.04 has PipeWire partially installed and enabled as it’s used by browsers (WebRTC) for recoding the screeen under Wayland. We can enable remaining parts and use PipeWire for audio and Bluetooth instead of PulseAudio.

Starting from WirePlumber version 0.4.8 automatic Bluetooth profile switching (e.g. switching from A2DP to HSP/HFP when an application needs microphone access) is supported. Jammy (22.04) repos provide exactly version 0.4.8. So, we’re good.

Based on Debian Wiki, but simplified for Ubuntu 22.04.

Install

Install WirePlumber as the session manager:

$ sudo apt install 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

Install the ALSA plug-in:

$ sudo apt install pipewire-audio-client-libraries

And copy the config file from PipeWire docs (provided by the plug-in) into the ALSA configuration directory:

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

Check if you have other (like Pulse) configs in the /etc/alsa/conf.d/ installed by something else. You might want to remove them.

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

Install the codecs and remove Bluetooth from PulseAudio, so it would be handled directly by PipeWire:

$ sudo apt install libldacbt-{abr,enc}2 libspa-0.2-bluetooth pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-

The supported codecs are SBC and LDAC.

Unfortunately, aptX and AAC are not supported because of patents and other technical reasons. aptX is available starting from 22.10 via libfreeaptx0 installed by default there (22.10 uses PipeWire by default as well). If you really need these codecs in 22.04 you may use this PPA from @aglasgall which is based on universe, but rebuilds pipewire with additional packages for aptX and AAC from multiverse. Read the discussion here.

Done

Reboot and check if it works by running:

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

view raw pipewire.md hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The important part in there is actually the link to the pipewire-extra-bt-codecs PPA for Ubuntu 22.04. I installed/removed the packages as expected and when I connected to the 1Mii B06S I can choose from all of the supported codecs in my sound settings:

I’m going to keep it on aptX HD for now and see how it sounds, but so far I’ve experienced zero pitch changes while listening to music.

Coming soon..

Next I’ll go through how I have everything hooked up in my home audio studio.

← Summary Only

In 2018 I bought a gaming computer to replace my aging Dell 17″ laptop. The game I wanted to play was VRC – which didn’t require a lot of horsepower, but I wanted to potentially play other games. I found an Alienware Alpha with decent specs and bought it. One thing that interested me about all Alienware systems was the ability to connect them to the Alienware Graphics Amplifier (AGA).

Continue reading →

Dude… you’re getting a Dell(?)!

The last 4 laptops I’ve owned went like this:

2004 – ThinkPad
2009 – Dell
2014 – ThinkPad
2019 – Dell

Whenever I had the Dells I would tell my wife: “Remind me to get a ThinkPad next time.” I wish I listened to my own advice. They’re well thought out – ThinkPads just get a little more love when it comes to design and build. While they’re not without fault, they are generally better than your average laptop.

The Dell laptops I’ve owned have felt cheap and both have gone in for repairs. The good news is, Dell support is pretty good about fixing things. But I wish I didn’t have to send them in for repairs. Sidenote: my old ThinkPads have made for excellent loaners during repair periods. Dell really should be cheap and cheerful, but the whole experience leaves me feeling a bit “meh.”

Continue reading →

The latest issue on my 2019 XPS 13 is that the keyboard appeared to be getting out of whack. I noticed the control and function keys were sitting at different angles.

Then I realized: my battery is puffed. I confirmed it when the lid wouldn’t close fully.

After reflecting on the situation, I realized my laptop has spent the better part of 1.5 years (since COVID started) operating on AC power. Normally on my ThinkPad I’d use TLP to keep my normal battery charge at around 60-80%. But those features aren’t available on my XPS:

$ sudo tlp-stat
...
+++ Battery Features: Charge Thresholds and Recalibrate
natacpi    = inactive (laptop not supported)
tpacpi-bat = inactive (laptop not supported)
tp-smapi   = inactive (laptop not supported)
...

Other TLP features (like disabling wifi when plugged into the wired network) do work on my XPS, so I leave it installed & enabled. For battery management, you must use Dell’s own Command Configure tool: cctk

There’s a great write-up on the XPS 7390 over in the Arch Linux wiki.

So I set up cctk to keep my (new, now replaced) battery at 80%.
sudo crontab -l

...
@reboot /opt/dell/dcc/cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Custom:75-80

And I have a shell script that I can run to bring the charge up to 100%:
vi ~/bin/full_charge.sh

#!/bin/sh
sudo /opt/dell/dcc/cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Standard

Do yourself a favor – next time get a ThinkPad.

← Summary Only

Here are the other miscellaneous settings I’ve done with my new XPS13 Developer Edition. It doesn’t cover all the settings I like, just the ones that seem to be particular to this laptop.

My favorite feature by far is the built-in firmware update functionality:

Continue reading →

The light at the bottom/front of the case isn’t well explained. It turns solid white during charging. It blinks white occasionally and what that means still remains a mystery ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It for sure goes amber when there’s 10% or less battery life remaining.

Settings Reference

Here are other settings in detail that I did in other posts:

HiDPI with Wayland and a non-HiDPI external monitor.
Using the ~~Windows~~ Linux-X/C/V key combinations for Cut/Copy/Paste.
Chaining Dnsmasq and resolveconf for the best DNS setup.
USB-C adapters – go big or go home.

Boot time

The boot time on this laptop is strangely long – consistently 2 mins 20 seconds before I would see the login screen. I changed the grub configuration so I could see what the hold-up was by pressing escape on the splash screen. I also used systemd-analyze blame to confirm what I saw: the network.service was taking too damn long. Turns out it was my fault. Ubuntu 18.04 introduces a service called netplan to handle network adapter configuration. I had added a loopback alias like I normally do the old way. Netplan didn’t like that, so I removed my lo:0 entries from /etc/network/interfaces and added the following netplan configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/netplan/02-loopback-alias.yaml

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    lo:
      addresses: [ 127.0.0.1/8, "::1/128", 10.254.254.254/32 ]

Update: I had to add the “normal” localhost addresses for lo as well. Without them in Ubuntu 20.04 when I would resume after suspend/sleep lo would come back online with only 10.254.254.254. Then DNS wouldn’t work because connections to 127.0.x.x for resolved & dnsmasq would not work.

Then I applied the change with sudo netplan apply. Boot time went from over two minutes to under 20 seconds.

It’s not immediately apparent that the loopback alias is available from looking at ifconfig. Instead use ip address to confirm it’s there:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet 10.254.254.254/32 scope global lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

X Applications that Require Root (sudo)

Because I’m running Wayland, apps that you can normally start with sudo (like synaptic) will give this response on the command line:

Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused (synaptic:29383): Gtk-WARNING **: 13:31:07.736: cannot open display: :0

Here’s one solution, but I instead put the file in ~/.config/autostart/xhost.desktop.

Bluetooth Mouse

My Microsoft Mouse 3600 seemed slow at first, so I turned the mousepoll up to maximum velocity. I’m not sure if it’s 100%, but I do think it feels better.

Deep Sleep

I’ve always been envious of MacBook owners being able to close the lid of their laptop and come back to it days later without losing any charge. I made these changes to better the battery savings, but I still manage about 8% charge loss per day that it’s not fully off.

Are there any configuration changes I missed? This thing is still pretty new, so I’m also still getting used to it. Let me know in the comments if you have any other tip/tricks.

← Summary Only

I’ve seen the future of mobile computing and it (unfortunately) is dongles

Continue reading →

Dongles in Theory

I purchased a Lenovo C109 6-in-1 USB-C hub from Amazon, and here’s its normal state of connection. Clockwise from the top it’s complete with HDMI (adapted to DVI), USB, USB-C Power-in from the Dell power adapter, and Ethernet.

The more I thought about my dislike of dongles, I thought about the alternatives. Laptops are getting so small and that they can no longer fit a standard size Ethernet port on them. So do we get docking stations instead? That sounds decidedly worse. I do like the fact that I can plug the USB-C power input on either side of the laptop (although Dell recommends the upper left port). So, dongles it is.

Remember what the laughing guy said about bringing a bag of dongles everywhere you go? Lenovo must have watched the video as well because they included a nice felt bag 😂

A nice thing is about most USB-C multi-function dongles is they have a USB-C port for power delivery, sometimes labeled “PD”. So you plug your power adapter into that, and the multi-function adapter relays power to your laptop. That way there’s only one thing plugged into the laptop – everything else plugs into the dongle.

Dongles in Practice

Here’s where it goes south…. the multiple functions of the adapters don’t always work. I thought it was just my adapter, but after combing through at least 20 different multi-function USB-C adapters on Amazon, I realized all of them suffer from a collection of these issues:

Overheating
Unable to deliver full power from charger
External monitor doesn’t re-initialize when awoken from sleep
Wired Ethernet doesn’t work reliably
Wired Ethernet floods network if dongle has power but it not plugged into computer

My issues are with power delivery, wired ethernet, and the external screen coming back after sleep. 😞

I first noticed the issue when I encountered was this BIOS message after rebooting with the dongle plugged in.

The Lenovo 6-in-1 (and/or the accessories I’ve elected to use) are using enough power to get the BIOS to complain at boot that the power supply is down 10 watts. Thankfully they let you know that this warning can be disabled in the BIOS.

Here’s where you can find the setting in this abomination of a graphical BIOS:

SRSLY – what ever happened to a good old text interface where I could navigate without using the trackpad?!?

Another power issue I had with the Lenovo dongle is it apparently cannot deliver enough power for my particular USB DVD drive. I have a LG Slim Portable DVD Writer and when it’s plugged into the dongle with a disc inserted it keeps spinning up and then acting like it was disconnected. Then it reconnects and spins up again and disconnects ad nauseum. But if I plug it “directly” into the laptop using the included Dell USB to USB-C adapter, it works fine.

After talking with some co-workers, one solution is to get a monster USB-C adapter like the CalDigit T3 Plus:

So I guess a docking station-esque adapter it is… at least this one is universal and should connect to any laptop with USB-C.

Have you had any luck with multi-function USB-C adapters? Let us know in the comments what you like and what you don’t.

← Summary Only

Justin Foell

Technology, Bicycling, Hobbies, Kids, Life.

Tag Archives: Dell

Ubuntu 22.04 & aptX Bluetooth codec

AptX on Ubuntu 22.04

Enable PipeWire on Ubuntu 22.04

Install

Configure

ALSA

PulseAudio

Bluetooth

Done

Coming soon..

NVidia RTX for Alienware Alpha

4000-series RTX in the AGA

3000-series RTX

Dell XPS Developer Edition Battery Puffed

XPS 13 Developer Edition Settings

Settings Reference

Boot time

X Applications that Require Root (sudo)

Bluetooth Mouse

Deep Sleep

XPS Developer Edition – USB-C Dongles

Dongles in Theory

Dongles in Practice