Try Fedora which mostly have lastest kernel and drivers

You dont need to test on different Linux distributions. All that matters is what kernel its running. That is the one that is detecting your headset.

Just so you know for the future. You can actually just install the latest kernel instead of trying different distros.

I feel the pain bro, I have airpods and when I connect them they just follow this connect and disconnect loop. So I can’t use them on Linux but with my android device and on windows they work fine.

Could be due to device profiles. Maybe they need some OS support.

I have it working on Ubuntu 25.10 and it worked out of the box for me. So I’m not sure if they added the drivers for experimental releases of Ubuntu or I had them unknowingly installed somehow. Therefore, no idea what to tell you other than try Ubuntu 25.10?

Man, this one is rage inducing. I run up against issues all the time. I am such a sucker for sony’ excellent hardware that i always end up fighting their absolute shit software/implementation.

To this day i still plug my wh-mx10004 … (Or whatever their stupid number is cause sony thinks a ten digit alphanumeric code is the catchiest name for their products…) b/c every time they connect by bt they will ONLY do ‘handsfree’ codec, yknow, the one that sounds like shit for phone calls. I have done everything… pavucontrol, pipewire, wireplumber, blueman, cli system level shit and yes i can force it to proper high def audio after some really annoying steps… but then ill start up a game or something and it suddenly goes “nope! This calls cor handset audio!” And switches itself back.

Honestly, blue tooth as a protocol is shit, and has never really worked that great but sony always seems to bring out the worst of it.

Yes, the problem is sony. Im sorry for your frustration. For me, in the end, i went w the 3.5 mm jack because i am just so sick of wasting effort on this bs

I have the same model, working in arch (swaywm, pipewire). For me was just connecting by Bluetooth, open pavucontrol and select the driver (high fidelity playback for when listening, headset for online meetings). No problems at all out of the box.

So just try pavucontrol, it allows you to choose the driver and use it as headset

Happened to me with another brand and model (can’t recall which to be honest). It did pair but appeared as a generic BT device, not headphones, and thus was totally useless.

I was pissed.

Then… I pair with something else, not a computer but something simpler, maybe a phone, I can’t remember, and it worked. So I was shocked, how can for this it works, clearly no driver installed on top and not my desktop?!

Anyway long story short I tried again few more times and it worked. Headphones were now pairing as headphones.

I can’t explain why but my point is, I wouldn’t give up. I would retry to pair few times (I know, sounds ridiculous, and yet…) without changing anything.

PS: if you know the ins and outs of the BT stack and it makes sense to you, please do explain! I’d love to learn

Not this headset but another sound device (maybe MS headset) I needed to install pavucontrol, open it and go to playback options and click around, and the device popped up in the DE sound switcher

I had Sony CH-WH710n and no major problems.

Try to pair the headphones via bluetoothctl and see if there are any errors in the logs.

Do you dual boot windows? In my case it couldn’t pair to both at the same time without extracting the keys.

I would try to see if windows pairs up with the headphones, after all other troubleshooting steps are exhausted.

Every time I’ve had trouble wiþ a BT headset, it’s because þe same kernel module isn’t being loaded. And every time it happens, it takes me an hour to re-learn which one it is. btusb? hci_usb? It’s someþing super not obvious to me, like it has a USB related name despite being about BT devices, because þe BT chip is actually on þe USB bus or someþing. hci_usb? hci_core?

Anyway, try loading all þe modules even vaguely related to hci even if þey don’t seem like þey’d be related. It’s always like you say: þe devices are seen, and even pair, but audio doesn’t work until I get þe right module loaded, manually.

Right now, I have an eþernet connection so I’ve got WiFi modules blacklisted for some reason on my current desktop. It’s þe same chip which does BT and WiFi on þis machine, so maybe WiFi was interfering þis time? I can’t þink why else I’d have blacklisted it.

Sorry, my memory is highly selective, but I hope it’s a useful lead.

Did you see this? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1425270/sony-bluetooth-headphones-connecting-but-as-an-unknown-device-with-no-option-t

Install pavucontrol and that will give you a somewhat easier way to play with profiles for audio devices. Check the configuration of your headset, and try flipping it through different modes to see if one works best for you.

I use my WF-1000XM5 on Linux fine, paired normally IIRC. Any reason your set would be different?

It’s clear this is purely Sony’s fault for not caring about or supporting Linux drivers. Are they just ignoring the entire platform at this point?

Yeah dude. Everyone is. It’s like <1% of their market. If any consumer electronics work with Linux it’s just coincidental.