No audio playing while pavucontrol showing correct device for playback

Hi, I have somehow caused an issue where my perfectly functioning audio playback has been borked.

The only thing I did that could be relevant to this was install pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa, and after reboot my audio is not playing either through browsers, Rhythmbox or VLC player. Weirdly enough, it does play through Haruna video player.

After some reboots, if I open a browser and play a YouTube video, it will work, and pavucontrol will show the playback being run through the correct output device, but then if I click another video, the audio is no longer playing, and the video starts to first buffer and then stop entirely, while pavucontrol is still showing the correct playback device being used.

The only thing I can think of is that installing the above package somehow caused issues between Pulseaudio (which is what I’m running), Pipewire and something else related to the daemon?

For Pulseaudio packages, I have pulseaudio 17.0-3, pulseaudio-alsa 1:1.2.12-3, pulseaudio-bluetooth 17.0-3 and pulseaudio-qt 1.6.1-1 installed.

For Pipewire-related packages, I have pipewire 1:1.2.6-1, pipewire-alsa 1:1.2.6-1, pipewire-audio 1:1.2.6-1 and pipewire-jack 1:1.2.6-1.

Is this a conflict between the two alsa packages? Should I remove pipewire audio and/or pipewire-jack? Could the installation of the equaliser package have borked this?

Some outputs:

inxi -Fxxxrz:

Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 31 HDMI/DP Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 03:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab30 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt Radeon High
    Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 12:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h/19h HD Audio
    vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 12:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  Device-4: Logitech C920 PRO HD Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-2.3:9
    chip-ID: 046d:08e5 class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Device-5: SteelSeries ApS Arctis 7
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 7-1.2:3 chip-ID: 1038:12ad class-ID: 0300
  API: ALSA v: k6.11.6-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.6 status: active with: 1: wireplumber
    status: active 2: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 3: pw-jack type: plugin
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin

pactl list sinks short:

1	alsa_output.pci-0000_03_00.1.hdmi-stereo	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED
2	alsa_output.pci-0000_12_00.6.analog-stereo	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED
3	alsa_output.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00.mono-chat	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 1ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED
4	alsa_output.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_7-00.stereo-game	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED

systemctl --user status pulseaudio:

● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2024-11-05 22:15:58 +04; 14min ago
 Invocation: 2761fbaab3f64742b7b291d6499ec3d8
TriggeredBy: ● pulseaudio.socket
   Main PID: 1030 (pulseaudio)
      Tasks: 12 (limit: 37299)
     Memory: 24.7M (peak: 29M)
        CPU: 200ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pulseaudio.service
             ├─1030 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=journal
             └─1056 /usr/lib/pulse/gsettings-helper

ნოე 05 22:15:58 SSD-DTP-LNX systemd[1018]: Starting Sound Service...
ნოე 05 22:15:58 SSD-DTP-LNX systemd[1018]: Started Sound Service.
ნოე 05 22:16:02 SSD-DTP-LNX pulseaudio[1030]: Failed to open connection to session manager: None of the authentication >
ნოე 05 22:16:02 SSD-DTP-LNX pulseaudio[1030]: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: "display=:1 xauthority>

This package requires pulseaudio, but pipewire prefers pipewire-pulse. Rename the following folder and reboot. If it doesn’t work, well, you know what to do next. :wink:

mv .local/state/wireplumber .local/state/wireplumber-bkp

Thank you for the reply. I renamed the directory but it had no effect. I then removed the equaliser package and rerouted pavucontrol to use the playback device, but still no effect. Are the error messages in systemctl --user status pulseaudio in the first post in any way relevant to what is happening?

P.S. Another detail - if I go to Sound settings, click on the playback device and then try to test its output, I get the “Error trying to play a test sound.
The system said: ‘Invalid state’” message.

P.P.S. One thing I just attempted that brought audio back was to try and enable wireplumber by running the following:

systemctl --user enable --now pipewire.socket pipewire-pulse.socket wireplumber.service

systemctl --user enable --now pipewire.service

and

systemctl restart --user pipewire-pulse.socket pipewire.socket wireplumber.service

Which also prompted me to remove the pulseaudio package. The audio immediately became enabled. Maybe I should try and switch to Pipewire entirely? Would I need to do something in addition to the above to make that switch, or have I already done that?

I’d say yes, unless you have a particular reason to use PulseAudio.

But what is the output of:

pacman -Q | grep -A 0 -E "(wire|pulse)"
gst-plugin-pipewire 1:1.2.6-1
--
kpipewire 6.2.2-1
--
libpipewire 1:1.2.6-1
--
libpulse 17.0-3
--
libwireplumber 0.5.6-1
--
pipewire 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-alsa 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-audio 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-jack 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-pulse 1:1.2.6-1
--
pulseaudio-alsa 1:1.2.12-3
pulseaudio-qt 1.6.1-1
--
wireplumber 0.5.6-1

Here’s my output:

You probably need some lib32s? And to maybe remove pulseaudio-alsa.

Then follow the same procedure above — rename the wireplumber folder and reboot.

gst-plugin-pipewire 1:1.2.6-1

lib32-libpipewire 1:1.2.6-1
lib32-libpulse 17.0-1
lib32-pipewire 1:1.2.6-1
libpipewire 1:1.2.6-1
libpulse 17.0-3
libwireplumber 0.5.6-1

pipewire 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-alsa 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-audio 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-jack 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-libcamera 1:1.2.6-1
pipewire-pulse 1:1.2.6-1

pulseaudio-qt 1.6.1-1
pulsemixer 1.5.1-6

wireplumber 0.5.6-1
1 Like

Thank you - I’m a bit wary about something breaking again if I start a wholesale replacement of Pulseaudio with Pipewire, but I guess it would be the correct thing to do for long-term stability, so I will follow these steps.

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