There are like 100 people in our department using Linux, on Thinkpad laptops that officially support Linux, and cannot use Bluetooth audio reliably. And the problem isn't with the headphones, cause they work with Mac and others. It's a known thing, desktop Linux and Bluetooth don't mix, you use the jack if you're on Linux.
That's funny because only my Linux laptop running pulseaudio ever seems to work reliably with bluetooth headphones. I had to go back to wired headphones on my work mac because half the time when I needed them they just couldn't connect.
What's really funny is that I'm getting a working BT connection between Debian and the headset, but there's still no audio. Presumably I'm missing some driver, but I don't know which.
I think rather pulseaudio either isn't configured correctly or you haven't authorized the connection (Bluetooth devices will pair, then connect, then you have to authorize them. In bluetoothctl you get an asynchronous yes/no prompt, I don't know what this looks like in the GUI bluetooth management tools.)
Generally drivers on Linux are all kind of shipped together. Unless you have some really niche device that's so rare your distro doesn't ship the module for it with its normal "linux" package you're not missing drivers. That's almost certainly not the case with A2DP/HFP especially if bluetooth itself already works.
