Help ! Plasma - After recent (pipewire/alsa) updates - no sound in any steam game (unless i come out of the game and switch line-out profile.)

General system Gaming, sound and video
1

Hi.

Previously everything was cool… After updates yesterday I now have no sound in any Steam game (I have tried a few)

I notice I had these updates

[2023-10-08T17:46:39+0100] [ALPM] upgraded alsa-card-profiles (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:40+0100] [ALPM] upgraded libpipewire (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:40+0100] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:40+0100] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugin-pipewire (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:41+0100] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-audio (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:41+0100] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-jack (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:42+0100] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-libpipewire (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:42+0100] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-pipewire (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:42+0100] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-pipewire-jack (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:45+0100] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-alsa (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)
[2023-10-08T17:46:45+0100] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-pulse (1:0.3.80-1 -> 1:0.3.81-1)

The only way I can get sound working is to start a game up - then alt+tab back to KDE desktop - then go to sound settings and change the profile line-out is using - i.e switch from ‘Analog Studio Duplux’ to ‘Analog Stereo output’ - then sounds works.

Note : it doesn’t matter witch profile i have enabled when i start the game, as soon as I switch profile (to any of the 2) I can then switch it back to what it was originally and sound works.

How can I fix this so sound works as normal ?

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this ?

2

Hello @morgancox and welcome to :enos: -Forum!

I have noticed the same on my system. audaciousplayed well, cantataand strawberry do not give sound.

Don’t know how to help at the moment.

EDIT: Embedded youtube vids in browser and even freetubedo not give sound as well.

Weird…

3

Bit more info:

Firefox, etc are fine also running say SuperTuxKart is ok

I have also noticed

When I launch game (then alt+tab back to plasma desktop) if I look at $ wpctl status I see a source is muted.

ipeWire 'pipewire-0' [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, cookie:641117000]
 └─ Clients:
        31. xdg-desktop-portal                  [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:659]
        32. WirePlumber                         [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:839]
        33. WirePlumber [export]                [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:839]
        48. pipewire                            [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1218]
        49. Plasma PA                           [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:720]
        51. FMOD Ex App                         [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:2123]
        53. Steam Voice Settings                [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1707]
        58. Steam                               [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1707]
        62. wpctl                               [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:2175]
        64. YAD                                 [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1422]
        65. libcanberra                         [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:720]

Audio
 ├─ Devices:
 │      39. Built-in Audio                      [alsa]
 │  
 ├─ Sinks:
 │  *   40. Built-in Audio Analog Stereo        [vol: 0.67]
 │  
 ├─ Sink endpoints:
 │  
 ├─ Sources:
 │      41. Built-in Audio Analog Stereo        [vol: 0.01 MUTED]
 │  
 ├─ Source endpoints:
 │  
 └─ Streams:
        56. FMOD Ex App                                                 
             52. output_FL       > ALC892 Analog:playback_FL    [active]
             59. output_FR       > ALC892 Analog:playback_FR    [active]

If I then go to kde audio and change line-out profile (i can just set to off, then back to what it was then sound works again) , if i use the same command I see source non-muted…

[morgan@morgan-ms7758 ~]$ wpctl status
PipeWire 'pipewire-0' [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, cookie:641117000]
 └─ Clients:
        31. xdg-desktop-portal                  [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:659]
        32. WirePlumber                         [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:839]
        33. WirePlumber [export]                [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:839]
        48. pipewire                            [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1218]
        49. Plasma PA                           [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:720]
        51. FMOD Ex App                         [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:2123]
        53. Steam Voice Settings                [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1707]
        58. Steam                               [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1707]
        60. Plasma PA                           [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:2186]
        64. YAD                                 [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:1422]
        65. libcanberra                         [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:720]
        74. wpctl                               [0.3.81, morgan@morgan-ms7758, pid:2205]

Audio
 ├─ Devices:
 │      39. Built-in Audio                      [alsa]
 │  
 ├─ Sinks:
 │  *   57. Built-in Audio Analog Stereo        [vol: 0.67]
 │  
 ├─ Sink endpoints:
 │  
 ├─ Sources:
 │      42. Built-in Audio Analog Stereo        [vol: 1.00]
 │  
 ├─ Source endpoints:
 │  
 └─ Streams:
        56. FMOD Ex App                                                 
             52. output_FL       > ALC892 Analog:playback_FL    [active]
             59. output_FR       > ALC892 Analog:playback_FR    [active]

This has only started happening yesterday - its really annoying having to do this…

4

welcome on the purtple side :enos:
you are using pro audio profile?
seems current pipewire update causes an issue in some cases.

you could try if downgrading pipewire helps:


sudo downgrade pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-audio pipewire-jack pipewire-pulse libpipewire

choosing previous versions

1 Like
5

Downgrade did the trick for me. Everything sounds as expected

1 Like
6

Thanks will try downgrading packages - and wait for another update in future to re-test

7

Might be a general problem with that last pipewire update. This user was also experiencing problems with it. Downgrading help this person as well Video streams frozen after upgrade under certain conditions - #5 by bamacellist

1 Like
8

So, I am facing this as well, never downgraded a package - so great news for me, time AND reason to learn!

2 Likes
9

Can confirm downgrading above packages fixes the issue (I rebooted after downgrade).

Is there somewhere i should report a bug ?

1 Like