[rascas]

I implemented your suggestions for ALSA and got ALSA working with my up-to-date Raspbian (Debian 9.xx stretch armhf) including Kodi 18.0 Leia. I checked my Bluetooth headphones connecting it with my Raspberry Pi and playing some sounds on them. Bluetooth seemed to work flawlessly with the ALSA and bluealsa solution. As i adjusted the advancedsettings.xml file according to https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=340860 to play over ALSA:bluealsa the previously available option for choosing ALSA:default/HDMI/Analog/Both as playback device vanished from the System->Audio settings menu. Also making the Bluetooth headset the default ALSA playback device did not direct the Kodi output to the ALSA driver it seems.

If you change advancedsettings.xml to force the ALSA bluetooth plugin, you cannot go to Audio settings in Kodi, otherwise you will loose the plugin and the sound will redirected to PI:HDMI or normal ALSA, don't remember which. That's because the lack of support of ALSA plugins in Kodi. This could only be solved by adding proper support for ALSA plugins in Kodi code, but I don't have the skills for that. That's the drawback of forcing bluetooth via ALSA in Kodi.
 

I also tried your advice of starting kodi as "KODI_AE_SINK=PULSE kodi" to use PulseAudio instead of ALSA, but still the menu entry for System->Audio ALSA:default/HDMI/Analog/Both neither Bluetooth was working with Kodi 18.0 Leia. Switching on and off my Bluetooth headphones clearly reported that it got connected and disconnected to my Raspberry pi with Kodi 18.0 Leia installed on and running, but Kodi 18.0 Leia did not make use of it. I tried also to make the menu entry reappear by undoing my changes to advancedsettings.xml, but still it did not bring back the menu entries. Looks like by changing advanced settings or putting bluetooth to be default ALSA playback device i triggered something in Kodi 18.0 Leia to switch that menu entries off.

Looks like something is not good on your system, maybe PulseAudio not installed correctly ? You then should have something like this: https://imgur.com/a/JprMZRw. And if using PulseAudio, you have to remove the alsa entry from advancedsettings.xml, don't forget to restart Kodi everytime you change advancedsettings.xml for changes to take effect.
 

As you mentioned that Kodi 18.0 Leia (now also included in Raspbian) is same like OpenELEC/LibreELEC Kodi, so why should one have Bluetooth on LibreELEC and not on Raspberry Pi (armhf)/on any other platform? Looks like Kodi 18.1 can be extrapolated to be closed-source and commercial again (just suppress that it is released under the GPL!! who cares anyway?).

No. LibreELEC has bluetooth working fine, because it has PulseAudio installed and uses it by default. And they also patch some system files to integrate it better. All that is available on their github page. As Raspbian comes with ALSA by default (without PulseAudio installed) and bluetooth devices works good in most of its programs I believe, I cannot force Kodi packages to install PulseAudio, it can disrupt the rest of the system. I also cannot patch PulseAudio conf files and modules, some would find it too intrusive.

[Thomas Korimort]

rascas: I don't think that your advice is honest and true. Just above it is mentioned, that Bluetooth does not even work on OpenELEC/LibreELEC anymore. The simple fact is, that the code base of Kodi 18.0 and even earlier versions of Kodi was changed to remove support for Bluetooth and according to the release regulations for the GPL, this implies a violation of the terms of the GPL. Whoever did it or was deciding to do it, the burden of the violation will be with him/her. Any further violations of the GPL will cry even more to heaven and increase the burden.

[Klojum]

Could the people in this thread please stop the frivolous use of the Report button for their comments?
if you don't want to communicate with each other, then simply stop typing.

[rascas]

I never hited the report button, and I won't bother to help or post anything more in this post as I feel this is on verge of trolling.

[asavah]

@Klojum 
Sorry for bothering your majesty by using a button which is supposed to be used to point moderators' attention towards given post/thread/user.
I get it now: if the moderators fail to do their job and let the trolls who spread wrong information about this project slip us, normal users, should STFU and do nothing about it.

[Karellen]

@asavah @rascas

The member has been given a 3 day Ban from the forum for the repeated use of the Report button even after multiple warnings.

Let's see if he behaves himself when the ban is lifted.

@Thomas Korimort Consider this a more forceful second warning. A third warning and it becomes a permanent ban, so please behave yourself and stop abusing the Report button.

[Karellen]

Thread Closed

[jjd-uk]

implies a violation of the terms of the GPL. Whoever did it or was deciding to do it, the burden of the violation will be with him/her. Any further violations of the GPL will cry even more to heaven and increase the burden.

You quite plainly have no idea what you are talking about. I do hope you are not accusing Team Kodi devs of violating GPL, if so where is your proof?