Hey, I finally made some progress!
It isn't by all means ideal, but at least it works.
Like I said, first, by putting a file called .asoundrc in ~/ containing the following...
pcm.bluetooth {
type bluetooth
device "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx"
profile "auto"
}
..you get a ALSA device "bluetooth" that you can let certain players use e.g. VLC by commandline switch "vlc --alsa-audio-device bluetooth" but this is for VLC and I believe the problem lies in that the device is created first when you hook it up to Auda sink through blueman-applet and the device list in e.g. Audacious ALSA config does not automatically get repopulated. VLC allows one to chose device by CLI (entering it's name) rather than a GUI pulldown-menu like in Audacious.
Now, first I was happy, I thought that the moments I wish to use my Bluetooth headphones I might as well use VLC. But today I kept on experimenting with configuration. So, I tried another approach. I changed "pcm.bluetooth" -> "pcm.!default" in the .asoundrc file. Didn't even reboot or reinitialize ALSA afterwards, I just opened Audacious, and voila, sound suddenly came from my bluetooth headphones. In fact, all media playing apps now sends sound to my Bluetooth headphones. Games do too, everything do.
Now, since audio works fine on my laptop, playing from internal speakers or jack, both fully functional through ALSA Mixer without further config, I concluded that when I want audio through my Bluetooth headphones, I need that file, else not.
So, I'm no scripter but I assume that it would be a simple thing to write some BASH/SH lines that simply "name-toggles" back and forth .asoundrc <-> .asoundrc.disabled whereas needed.
Just though you could give this a try, since it's probably the same approach in your Debian system as in my Slackware. Of course, xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx shall be the address of your Bluetooth headphones. All your need for preparation is your headphones connected through blueman-applet, afterwards right-click your headphones to make sure "Audio sink" is enabled. I have a cheap BT dongle that I got off eBay, sometimes it fails to attach the Audio sink and I get error messages, then I just try again, sometimes I need to do it a couple of times before it actually connects, not really sure why. However, most of the times, it just connects and everything is in check.
So, simply (TL;DR) told:
If you're willing to give it a last try, just create ~/.asoundrc with the following (where xx:xx.. is your BD_ADDR) text inside, and launch Audacious. No need for Pulse audio whatsoever. I'm fairly convinced that it will work!
Code:
pcm.!default {
type bluetooth
device "00:02:5B:01:CF:F5"
profile "auto"
}
Hope this will help someone else out there. I actually snatched this from
Debian Wiki.
