Can't get service to work (on El Capitan 10.11.3)

[mafredri]

I can't compare to any previous versions of OS X, but I've tried everything I can think of and I can't seem to get BTHSControl to respond to bluetooth evens from my headphones (e.g. Play/Pause still starts iTunes). I've also tried rebooting between service installations to no avail.

Here's a sample of what my syslog output looks like:

30/01/16 19:49:56,000 kernel[0]: IOBluetoothDevice::setProperties() -- calling mHCIController->CallCreateDeviceReporter() -- this = 0x3c00 
30/01/16 19:49:56,000 kernel[0]: IOBluetoothHostController::CallCreateDeviceReporter -- calling enqueueAction() -- device = 0x3c00 
30/01/16 19:49:56,000 kernel[0]: IOBluetoothHostController::CreateDeviceReporterAction -- device = = 0x3c00 
30/01/16 19:49:56,000 kernel[0]: IOBluetoothHostController::CreateDeviceReporterAction -- calling CreateDeviceReporter() device = = 0x3c00 
30/01/16 19:49:56,000 kernel[0]: IOBluetoothHostController::CreateDeviceReporter -- device = = 0x3c00 
30/01/16 19:49:56,099 blued[87]: Device Connected with address: XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX and classOfDevice 0x240404 and connectionHandle 0x000c
30/01/16 19:49:56,000 kernel[0]: BT: returning false because owner <ptr> does not match new owner <ptr>
30/01/16 19:49:56,384 AVRCPAgent[2279]: Setting the delegate returned 0
30/01/16 19:49:56,388 blued[87]: Trigger core audio to connect to bluetoothaudiod
30/01/16 19:49:56,000 kernel[0]: Setting BTCoex Config: enable_2G:1, profile_2g:0, enable_5G:1, profile_5G:0

Trying to run AVRCPAgent manually in /Library/Services/AVRCPAgent (no other output):

./AVRCPAgent
Failed to initialize sandbox
2016-01-30 19:50:24.097 AVRCPAgent[2305:142740] BTHSControlPlugin installed
2016-01-30 19:50:24.098 AVRCPAgent[2305:142740] Setting Delegate: <BluetoothAVRCPAgent: 0x7fc982408c90>
2016-01-30 19:50:24.102 AVRCPAgent[2305:142740] Setting the delegate returned 0

[JamesFator]

Hmm... Did you run install.sh with sudo? The script shouldn't be run with sudo, so if it was, you should do a "sudo install.sh uninstall", then do "install.sh install".

I'm the most experienced with creating installation scripts, so I know it could probably be constructed better and I'll probably get to that eventually.

I'm not assuming you ran it with sudo, I just know that's a reason why it wouldn't work. I just did a fresh uninstall/install on 10.11.4 and everything is working smooth.

If you've gotten to this point and it's still not working, I would suggest:
1.) Turn your BT headset off
2.) Run "./install.sh uninstall"
3.) Reboot your computer (to possibly clear any rouge services or something)
4.) Perform a fresh install: "./install.sh install"
5.) Turn on your BT headset
6.) Test it with something like VLC or your desired music player open

And if it still doesn't work, send me the output of the "./install.sh install" and we'll see if that helps. Let me know how it goes.

[mafredri]

I haven't run the script with sudo, but I've also tried to both run the launch agent as my regular user and sudo. I've gone through the script as well and verified the steps to see what it's doing, nothing seems to be missing.

I haven't performed the steps exactly as you laid them out, but essentially I've done what you have indicated in your instructions. The only difference is that I've not done a complete reboot where the launch agent wasn't already installed and the headphones had never been connected to the computer before the launch agent got installed, to be honest if that's a problem then it would probably be a problem any time I reboot my computer or the like.

The output from the installation script is probably as expected:

❯ ./install.sh install
Installing
Building plug-in: BTHSControl
=== BUILD TARGET BTHSControl OF PROJECT BTHSControl WITH THE DEFAULT CONFIGURATION (Release) ===

Check dependencies

** BUILD SUCCEEDED **

Setting up Service: AVRCPAgent
Setting up LaunchAgent: com.bths.AVRCPAgent
Activating Service: AVRCPAgent
Installation complete!

[JamesFator]

Got it. Yeah, no, the reboot isn't required, it's just a step I like to include to possibly be thorough. You definitely don't need to unpair the device then repair.

Have you tried turning the headset off after installation, then back on again? If the agent is started while the headset is connected, it wont work.

Also, if I remember correctly, the agent should only be launched as the user, not with sudo.

I've seen a case where the play/pause doesn't work, but the forward/back does, so let me know if the forward/back is doing anything for you.

If it still doesn't work, let me know what kind of headphones you have and I'll see if I am not accounting for different types of headphones.

[mafredri]

So far I've tested with my Sennheiser Momentum Wireless headphones and a TDK TREK Max bluetooth speaker, neither works with BTHSControl. To me it looks like AVRCPAgent is not intercepting any of the bluetooth commands since it's essentially not displaying any new output after a device has been connected. I've tried to be as thorough with the logs and steps here as possible:

EDIT: I've also tried it with Gear Player, Radiant Player, VLC and Google Music for Chrome (which can all be controlled with the keyboard).

No bluetooth device connected (and make sure we have a fresh AVRCPAgent process):

❯ ps aux|grep "[A]VRCPAgent"
mafredri         4591   0.0  0.0  2497056   7004   ??  S    10:05PM   0:00.03 ./AVRCPAgent
❯ launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/com.bths.AVRCPAgent.plist
❯ launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/com.bths.AVRCPAgent.plist
❯ ps aux|grep "[A]VRCPAgent"
mafredri         5226   0.0  0.0  2498628   7000   ??  S    10:35PM   0:00.02 ./AVRCPAgent

Connect headphones:

30/01/16 22:35:37,468 Gear Player[3415]: No write key
30/01/16 22:35:42,250 blued[87]: Device Connected with address: XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX and classOfDevice 0x240404 and connectionHandle 0x000b
30/01/16 22:35:42,457 blued[87]: Trigger core audio to connect to bluetoothaudiod
30/01/16 22:35:43,873 AVRCPAgent[5226]: Setting the delegate returned 0
30/01/16 22:35:43,000 kernel[0]: BT: returning false because owner <ptr> does not match new owner <ptr>

Start playing music from Gear Player (manually) and then try all buttons:

30/01/16 22:35:46,475 AVRCPAgent[5226]: New AVRCP data: <10110e03 48000019 58310000 05010000 0000>
30/01/16 22:35:46,475 AVRCPAgent[5226]: [parseNOTIFY] registering for notification: 'Playback Status Changed'
30/01/16 22:36:01,000 kernel[0]: Setting BTCoex Config: enable_2G:1, profile_2g:0, enable_5G:1, profile_5G:0
30/01/16 22:36:10,937 Console[5300]: Failed to connect (_consoleX) outlet from (NSApplication) to (ConsoleX): missing setter or instance variable
30/01/16 22:36:22,469 Gear Player[3415]: No write key
30/01/16 22:37:07,471 Gear Player[3415]: No write key
30/01/16 22:37:15,000 kernel[0]: Setting BTCoex Config: enable_2G:1, profile_2g:0, enable_5G:1, profile_5G:0

No buttons worked, pause / play, forward track, backward track, rewind, forward. Disconnect headphones:

30/01/16 22:37:26,636 AVRCPAgent[5302]: BTHSControlPlugin installed
30/01/16 22:37:26,637 AVRCPAgent[5302]: Setting Delegate: <BluetoothAVRCPAgent: 0x7fb059511070>

❯ ps aux|grep "[A]VRCPAgent"
mafredri         5302   0.0  0.0  2490436   7124   ??  U    10:37PM   0:00.02 ./AVRCPAgent

Disconnecting also caused the AVRPCAgent to get killed and start with a new PID.

I'd be happy to help debug this issue if you've got any ideas where to start, but I'm quite sure I'm doing nothing wrong with the installation and timing part. I've also tried to build BTHSControl with -configuration Debug but that didn't give me any new output at all :).