ASHA for Linux Systems

Scholarly Articles, News, and Other Resources
#1

There’s ongoing work to enable ASHA protocol [which is used by anything but Phonak] and connectivity for hearing devices under Linux.
Meaning that you could stream directly [without any accessories] from anything that has Linux in it, laptop, PC, a gaming device and so on.

There are various devices nowadays with flavor of Linux preinstalled, laptops, tablets, gaming devices [like SteamDeck which I own too].
Of course you can install it yourself as it’s free, but might be too much for non-techy people.

The sad thing is that it’s done by unpaid volunteers in their free time and definitively could have been done by manufacturers for Windows. But as we all know it would cut into profits from their overpriced accessories.

Status updates:
[06.06.2024]
There are now two ongoing projects to have ASHA on Linux.
One is at the point where I can listen to music and watch full movie connected directly to my laptop, it’s a little unstable still but it’s being worked on.

These projects uncovered some interesting stuff already, mainly, some manufacturers have really shitty implementations of ASHA, leading to poor connections, or poor controls [like controlling volume].

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Please help select a model for a first-time user with sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus
#2

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#3

I’m a developer, so my main is Gentoo, the secondary is Arch.
It won’t matter though since it’s using bluez/pipewire which is common to all popular distros nowadays.
Don’t be in a rush to test it out though, it cannot really stream, just play some test sounds.
It’s in early stages of developement [doesn’t look like it needs much to get to the usable state though].

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#4

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#5

Audio LE is already supported and it works with earbuds that have it. Auracast is already being worked on.
Auracast/LE Audio are a bigger priority since they’re posed for mass adoption.

p.s. it has nothing to do with Torvalds :smiley: he mostly reviews code for the kernel nowadays. This stuff comes from bluez/pipewire folks.
Pipewire is developed indirectly by IBM weirdly enough.

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#6

I don’t understand the hype.
I have been streaming bluetooth from my Linux for many years ??

#7

You have Phonak devices, don’t you? They use classical univeral BT [also very power hungry]. ASHA is different beast, used by all other manufacturers.

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#8

Yes Phonak, I was under the impression that that was ASHA … and all the others used the made for Iphone … which is Bluetooth LE.

#9

MFi and ASHA are variants of the same thing. Low energy BT protocols, one is for Apple’s devices, the other for Android’s [and now Linux too]

#10

ASHA is the equivalent of mfi for android, and used by all the HAs with BT except the sonova brands. The sonova brands use classic BT.

WH

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#11

So is mfi a subset of the ASHA BT or is it the other way around ?
Is mfi patented protocol ?

#12

They’re parallel to each other. MFi is a closed protocol [proprietary], with custom codec. ASHA is fully open.
They’re both being superseded by LE Audio/Auracast [which is also open], but even some of the very recently released devices opted to not support it yet [like Widex’s SmartRIC]. So it will take some time for everything to switch.

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#13

I have a question, the operation of Auracast is a bit unclear to me.
If the PC in this case Linux will have support for Auracast, will Linux have the option to scan channels and send sound to hearing aids? Or will it only be done by a smartphone that will be some kind of interface for Auracast?

#14

I don’t know where they are at currently but last time I’ve checked [like 9 moths ago], the plan was to have Linux act both as broadcast server and also a receiver with list of channels. So the plan is to support everything basically.

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#15

Will the current computer hardware (sound cards) be able to work with auracast ?
Will it be integrated in the kernel or require a driver install ?

#16

Soundcards are of no consequence, what matters is the Bluetooth card [which nowadays usually is a part of a wi-fi card], with BT 5+. The driver is already in the kernel [this one is obvious in a hindsight because the same kernel is used by Android] and everything will be integrated into the system. There’s ongoing work on bluetooth/audio stacks and user interfaces.

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#17

I have a small update, there are now two ongoing projects to have ASHA on Linux.
One is at the point where I can listen to music and watch full movie connected directly to my laptop, it’s a little unstable still but it’s being worked on.

These projects uncovered some interesting stuff already, mainly, some manufacturers have really shitty implementations of ASHA, leading to poor connections, or poor controls [like controlling volume].
WS Audiology [the maker of Signia, Rexton and Widex amongst others] seems to be the best so far.
The other devices being tested are a cochlear implant from MED-EL and Oticons.

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#18

Hi Reginald,

Thanks for the updates, much appreciated.

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#19

Interesting! Where can I find the code to try this myself?

#20

The one that I’m using and is in the best shape atm is here:
GitHub - thewierdnut/asha_pipewire_sink: Asha audio protocol implementation for linux.

The other one will integrate everything into the system, but the main dev is currently on a break.

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