Linux and AirPod Pros
Linux and AirPod Pros
I am one of those poor bastards that had a hell of a time getting my Airpods working with Linux. Searches led me to going to /etc/bluetooth/main.conf and changing ControllerMode to “bredr”. This got the AirPods working, but then my bt keyboard and mouse wouldn’t connect.
What I wound up doing was switching ControllerMode to bredr, connecting the airpods, then switching ControllerMode back to “dual”. That kept them connected and allowed other devices to also connect.
So, now I’m sharing this for other poor bastards like me who could t get them to work with the steps that are out there.
This worked in Fedora 38 and will be testing with Ubuntu 23.04 and maybe arch today.
Both AirPods 1st gen and AirPods Max worked for me perfectly fine without any tweaks. Maybe it's an issue with your Bluetooth adapter?
In general I recommend to just get a bluetooth audio adapter. They typically just work with linux and you don't have to deal with the bluetooth part. They will simply show up as audio device and that's it. They are also fairly cheap (between €10 and €30).
I've read this can depend a lot on the bluetooth card. Personally after replacing my cheapo dongle from like 2012 that probably just didn't do a recent enough BT version I didn't have any issues connecting to them.
What card do you have? Might be useful for anyone else who has the same issue.
I haven’t had any problem on Garuda with my AirPods. I saw another guy say he had no problems with manjaro and arch. I didn’t know people were having problems on other distros or setups.
Man, I guess I’m lucky mine connected without any issues right after installing F38.
Got no issues with AirPods Pro and arch. Installed blueman and it’s dependencies and it connected just fine. Managed to configure pipewire to automatically switch between a2dp sink and hsp depending on the current usage.
I’m running Manjaro, and after installing blue man, and pairing I’ve not had any issues. Thankfully!
I do need to manually switch between a2dp and headset modes when I do video conference calls. I’m just used to doing it now. Heh made an easy keybind for my profiles so it’s not bad.
I’ve tried these on multiple Manjaro builds and have always worked. Maybe I was just lucky with Arch and Manjaro supporting this. Phew!
Other than the problem, how are you finding them? I’ve found them the best earphone investment I’ve ever made. They are awesome and so portable. Used them on the plane a bunch and they are great :)