Bluetooth

So I got a new computer, a Dell Studio 15, and of course immediately loaded Ubuntu on it. The most exciting thing for me though was getting the bluetooth working.

First let me recommend blueman as the connection manager as it is far more advanced (and easy) than gnome's default. Add the PPA to your sources and 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install blueman' .

Then to get it working, in your home directory create (or add to) '.asoundrc' :

pcm.bluetooth {
type bluetooth
device "XX:XX:XX:XX:XX" #optional, connects to specific device instead the default one
profile "hifi" #optional, supported profiles are: auto, hifi and voice
}

this for the hifi sound on the bluetooth headset.

then run 'pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=bluetooth' to add the device to PulseAudio

Then 'sudo apt-get install padevchooser' and run it from the sound & video menu and then in the Volume Control section make the bluetooth device default

Now when you run a program (say VLC for example) the sound will come through the headphones.

Hope this helps someone out there, it works for me. :)