Raspbian and Bluetooth Headset not working

Question

I know, there are already several questions about this, but none of them helped me. I have a rasbian installation and try to connect to my bluetooth headset.

When I run sudo bluetoothctl I can find the headset, I can pair it and I can trust it, but trying to connect I get an error:

$connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21
Attempting to connect to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21
Failed to connect: org.bluez.Error.Failed

In the syslog (sudo cat /var/log/syslog | grep -i protocol) I see:

....
Jan 26 22:24:29 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:24:51 raspberrypi pulseaudio[1007]: Failed to load module "module-native-protocol-unix" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Jan 26 22:24:53 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:24:55 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:24:56 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:26:07 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:26:20 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:26:21 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:26:21 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:26:23 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:32:30 raspberrypi bluetoothd[363]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:35:00 raspberrypi bluetoothd[1497]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available
Jan 26 22:39:25 raspberrypi bluetoothd[1497]: a2dp-sink profile connect failed for XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:21: Protocol not available

I already tried a couple of suggested solutions, like reinstalling pulseaudio-module-bluetooth (https://askubuntu.com/a/1228816) or module loading (https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/67665 which is based on this: https://askubuntu.com/a/689297).

I still can't load the module-bluetooth-discover:

$sudo pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover
Connection failure: Connection refused
pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you are using the Lite RPi OS (or maybe even the "medium" one), you should know that there are substantial differences in the level of Bluetooth support.

Depending upon which of the three distro versions you've installed, setting up your Bluetooth headset can be quite simple (as in Milliways comment), or it can be a complete nutroll - as documented in this "answer".

Hope that helps... in other words, this can be straightforward, or it can be difficult, depending on which distro you've installed.

EDIT, 20210127: I've learned of another "How-To Guide" for using Bluetooth on the Lite version of RPi OS. I've not tried it myself, but like mine, it also looks to be in the nutroll class of solutions; any feedback is welcomed.