PulseAudio 17 released with improved ALSA UCM configuration and enhanced Bluetooth support

PulseAudio, the sound server system for POSIX operating systems, has launched its 17.0 version, introducing a broad array of changes, particularly to how ALSA UCM configuration aligns with PulseAudio profiles and ports. In this version, PulseAudio no longer generates combined ports for non-conflicting devices, but creates a unique profile for each group of non-conflicting devices. This shift means that instead of various inputs/outputs being presented as ports on a source/sink, they will be displayed as separate sources/sinks.

Another key feature of PulseAudio 17.0 is the capability to relay the battery level of a PulseAudio host to a Bluetooth device. The new version also supports the Bluetooth FastStream codec and includes an update to the webrtc-audio-processing dependency.

The module-role-cork in PulseAudio 17.0 now accepts groups of roles (separated by /) as triggers. Additionally, it adheres to the XDG base directory specification for ALSA profile set loading.

For developers, it's important to note that the maximum supported sample rate has been increased to 768kHz in PulseAudio 17.0.