Bluetooth HSP/HFP not working in Raspberry PI 3

Start by reproducing the reported HSP/HFP failure on the Raspberry Pi 3 internal hci0 controller with bluez, PulseAudio, and the headset_head_unit profile. Compare it with the external USB Bluetooth controller and inspect the provided hciconfig, pactl, and service-status output. Done means HSP/HFP audio works through the internal controller while A2DP continues to work.

Trying to use a bluetooth mic/speaker in a raspberry pi 3 (headless).

Hardware is Raspberry pi 3, firmware updated today, running raspbian also dist-upgraded today. Using bluez and pulseaudio (system service start mode).

• The device is trusted, paired and connects/disconnects without problems.
• When device is initially connected, "pactl list" shows the device is using the profile named "headset_head_unit: Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 20, available: yes)". With this profile, no sound (trying to play with aplay command).
• When profile is changed to "a2dp_sink: High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 10, available: yes)" (using command pactl set-card-profile), the sound is played correctly.

No error messages seen in any log file.

Moreover, if I "down" ("hciadmin hci0 down") the internal raspberry bluetooth controller and use instead an external bluetooth controller connected in an usb port, both modes works correctly. Thus, problem seems related with the bluetooth device in raspberry card.

These are result from some related commands.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 4.9.56-v7+ #1044 SMP Fri Oct 13 15:23:13 BST 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ hciconfig -a
hci0:   Type: Primary  Bus: UART
    BD Address: B8:27:EB:7E:DA:2A  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 64:1
    UP RUNNING 
    RX bytes:14641 acl:101 sco:0 events:1341 errors:0
    TX bytes:2208546 acl:2358 sco:7 commands:97 errors:0
    Features: 0xbf 0xfe 0xcf 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87
    Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 
    Link policy: RSWITCH SNIFF 
    Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 
    Name: 'raspberrypi'
    Class: 0x0c0000
    Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing
    Device Class: Miscellaneous, 
    HCI Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Revision: 0x145
    LMP Version: 4.1 (0x7)  Subversion: 0x2209
    Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ pactl list
...
Card #3
    Name: bluez_card.E8_07_BF_11_10_A0
    Driver: module-bluez5-device.c
    Owner Module: 15
    Properties:
        device.description = "SPUBT710"
        device.string = "E8:07:BF:11:10:A0"
        device.api = "bluez"
        device.class = "sound"
        device.bus = "bluetooth"
        device.form_factor = "speaker"
        bluez.path = "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_E8_07_BF_11_10_A0"
        bluez.class = "0x240414"
        bluez.alias = "SPUBT710"
        device.icon_name = "audio-speakers-bluetooth"
    Profiles:
        headset_head_unit: Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 20, available: yes)
        a2dp_sink: High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 10, available: yes)
        off: Off (sinks: 0, sources: 0, priority: 0, available: yes)
    Active Profile: headset_head_unit
    Ports:
        speaker-output: Speaker (priority: 0, latency offset: 0 usec)
            Part of profile(s): headset_head_unit, a2dp_sink
        speaker-input: Bluetooth Input (priority: 0, latency offset: 0 usec)
            Part of profile(s): headset_head_unit 

# systemctl status bluetooth
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-10-14 15:49:16 UTC; 36min ago
     Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
 Main PID: 461 (bluetoothd)
   Status: "Running"
   CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
           └─461 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Bluetooth daemon 5.43
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Starting SDP server
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Bluetooth management interface 1.14 initialized
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Failed to obtain handles for "Service Changed" characteristic
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Sap driver initialization failed.
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.3 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.3 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Oct 14 15:55:04 raspberrypi bluetoothd[461]: /org/bluez/hci0/dev_E8_07_BF_11_10_A0/fd0: fd(24) ready

systemctl status pulseaudio

● pulseaudio.service - Pulse Audio
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/pulseaudio.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-10-14 15:49:12 UTC; 36min ago
 Main PID: 343 (pulseaudio)
   CGroup: /system.slice/pulseaudio.service
           └─343 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --system --disallow-exit --disable-shm --exit-idle-time=-1

Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] main.c: OK, so you are running PA in system mode. Please make sure that you actually do want to do that.
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] main.c: Please read http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/WhatIsWrongWithSystemWide/ for an explanation why system mode is usually a bad idea.
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/var/run/pulse/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authentication key '/var/run/pulse/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/var/run/pulse/.pulse-cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:12 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authentication key '/var/run/pulse/.pulse-cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: E: [pulseaudio] bluez5-util.c: Found duplicated D-Bus path for adapter /org/bluez/hci0
Oct 14 15:49:16 raspberrypi pulseaudio[343]: E: [pulseaudio] bluez5-util.c: Found duplicated D-Bus path for device /org/bluez/hci0/dev_E8_07_BF_11_10_A0