No, there's nothing plugged in the headphone jack - though I did unmute the headphone buttons in alsamixer.

Also disabled the Auto-Mute - is that relevant.

Now, if the pavucontrol screen is the one that shows when hit the sound settings - the one that reads "Volume Control" at the top? When I click Playback, it shows only "System sounds".

Recording tab - no applicationis currently recording audio;

Output devices - Built-in analog stereo. And the Port reveals only Speakers, and beneath that, "Headphones (unplugged)." I think the Bose Soundlink had shown earlier, but seems to have disappeared, even though the light on the Bose indicates that it is connected.

Input devices - Port - Internal microphone. And beneath that, under Advanced - latency offset, set to 0.00.

Configuration tab - reveals only Built-in Audio - and the Profile is set to Analog Stereo Duplex.

So, it seems the Bose Soundlink, which was visible on the netbook earlier has disappeared altogether.

Frustrating isn't the half of it!

(Thanks for bearing with me.)

OK - at least your Built-In audio profile is active.

Have you checked that nothing is muted in the Output Devices and Playback tabs ?

... let's wait before getting back to the bluetooth problem ... We have to make sure your internal audio is at least functioning normally.

By the way, Auto-Mute just makes sure that when you plug something into the headphone jack, that the netbook speakers stop playing. I would leave that enabled unless you prefer that specific behaviour.

Also, in the Output Devices and Playback tabs in pavucontrol (yes that is what you are describing as volume control), see if moving the volume sliders affects sound output.

No, Rickkkk - there's nothing plugged into the headphone jack. Nothing muted in the OUtput Devices and Playbak tabs.

And moving the sliders in the Output Devices tab makes no difference, because there is now so sound emerging from the netbook speakers anyway!

Hmmm. OK, under the Output Devices tab, what Port is specified under Built-In Audio Analog Stereo ?

... And also - should have thought of this earlier - check to make sure there isn't some hardware audio mute button on your netbook or function key sequence that might be hard-muting your speakers ... I have rarely seen that this is not integrated into the soft controls for audio, but just in case ...

Other question ... If you plug headphones into your audio jack, can you hear sound output ?

OK, now that the internet is back, I am, too! (I realize that my profile gives no indication of where I am - in non-metropolitan India! - so the internet is intermittent.)

So, under Output Devices, the only Port specified is "Speakers". When I click on the options, it shows up "Headphones (not connected)".

When I do connect headphones to the audio jack, I CAN hear sound output.

And, while there is an audio mute button on F10, I have checked to see that that is not the cause of the problem.

Hi Alok - I don't remember if you're dual-booting Windows on that computer, can you confirm ? The reason I ask is that if yes, it would be interesting to see if the speaker works under Windows.

On the machine I am currently using to write this (Microsoft Surface Pro 3), the issue you're experiencing (speakers don't emit sound but earphones do) occurs intermittently. I rarely have any desire to listen to anything through the speakers, so I tend not even to notice it anymore. However, since I dual-boot Windows 10 on this machine, I have noticed that sometimes after switching back to linux (which I use more often), the speakers function normally again.

So, long story short, if you have Windows, try booting into it and testing the speaker, and then back into linux and test again ... If you DON'T have Windows, just try shutting down (all the way to power off) and restarting a few times to see if anything changes.

Then, depending on how much you care or not that the netbook speakers function normally or not, we could get back to your original objective of troubleshooting your bluetooth audio.

Cheers :-)

Hi Rickkkk - OK, many "experiments" tried. One, no dual-boot - so, no Windows trial possible.

However, the upgraded installation seems to be behaving oddly in other respects - i.e. it does not give me the shut down options the first time around. When I try and do that, it goes into what seems like suspend/hibernation mode, and presents me with a login screen - except on the top right hand corner, there is the shut down button again, and when I click on that, it gives me another screen, and asks me to confirm if I want to shut down. It shuts down after confirmation. All this rigmarole may well be due to some silly options set by me in the power management setting.

However, I thought there might be something the matter with my installation - and not only with the power management - so after I had shut down and rebooted several times, as suggested by you - no effect, behaviour identical each time - I thought I would reboot once with the original bootable USB - in the hope that if there was something the matter with my installation, this would bypass that. Alas, the speakers continue to be entirely silent. Even as the headphones have sound when inserted into the headphone jack. So?

Still, I am prepared to live with silent netbook speakers, so long as I can get the netbook to communicate to the Bose. So, back to the original problem!

Thanks!

OK.

I'm not sure what is causing your odd shutdown behaviour, this may be something to troubleshoot eventually.

For bluetooth audio, now. We have confirmed that you have pulseaudio installed, including the bluetooth module.

From rereading previous posts, you are saying that the bluetooth device is connected but audio is not functional, correct ? How are you determining that the bluetooth device is indeed connected ?

Erratic behaviour from the Bluetooth manager on the netbook! There is a white light on the Bose which blinks while the speaker is being connected, and then becomes a steady light when it is connected. And that is what happens on the Bose.

However, on the netbook, I have in the past, sometimes got to a screen that says the Bose is "disconnected". And sometimes to a screen that says it is connected. And sometimes, on the Sound settings screen, I have seen that the Bose is recognized, and shows up as one of the Playback options - but right now, the netbook bluetooth screen has been "searching for devices" for the past hour- and still not found anything. So it seems that there's something the matter with the Bluetooth manager on the netbook.

Because we haven't even got the the pulseaudio state yet, right?

And, by the way, even the searching for devices screen, which has in the past had that rotating thing indicating that something is going on - is frozen.

Over to you!

Hey Alok,

I was reading up on this a bit this morning (morning here in Montreal, that is ;-) ...), and there is mention of potential conflicts between Bluetooth communication and WiFi when these are handled on a single chip in a given system. Your mention of erratic behaviour makes me wonder whether this is at least part of the reason for the problems you're having ... There's nothing worse than something that works intermittently ...

I know this is a bit of a technical question, but do you know if this is the case on your netbook (single adapter for both WiFi and Bluetooth ?

Even if you don't, could you kill the WiFi and test Bluetooth to see if the erratic behaviour disappears ?

Worst case - I could give you a command to list the devices on your netbook, but I'll wait until you get back to me.

More!

I fear that my installation of Bluetooth Manager might be corrupted. Because when I couldn't get any joy of the one that was sitting ineffectually on my computer, I went to Software Manager and called up Blueman. And it showed up as "Not installed." So I installed it. And got some response from it - the Devices circle is at least rotating, and the Bose SLIII is noted in the panel below it, but it still shows as "Disconnected". And when I click on that panel, it gives me a screen headed "Bose SLIII" and a choice to set the connection to "On". But when I try and set that switch to "On", it seems to try for a bit, but then it goes to "Off" on its own. But there is a line below the Connection switch that says "Paired", and indicates a "Yes" after it.

So could it be that I have TWO Bluetooth managers installed, and one is slightly less ineffectual than the other - but that neither actually does the job?

Hey Rickkkk!

I just tried what you told me in your last post - about switching off the wi-fi and then giving it a go - and, presto, it works!

This is great - and saying "thank you" seems barely sufficient - but Montreal is a long way away!

Meanwhile, in the light of my last post - two Bluetooth managers, possibly? - I will await your suggestion a propos.

Cheers!