Pipewire on openSUSE is not working -- no sound at all

rnturn · 05-19-2024, 07:45 PM

I've been trying to get sound on a fairly new Leap 15.6rc install (no updates as of earlier today other than some for Mesa and vlc which I declined) as well as an up-to-date Tumbleweed install to no avail. Both systems are using the ALC887 audio chip on the motherboard. The Leap system has sound but only when the motherboard audio is disabled and then the TU116 chip takes over (routing tinny sound to my monitor via HDMI -- not acceptable).

Audacious, for example, spits out error messages about the "snd_pcm_open" module not being found ("no such file or directory") when trying to use ALSA output. Sure enough... "lsmod | grep snd_pcm_open" doesn't show it's been loaded. "insmod" can't load it either.

I get a popup dialog stating: "Error opening output stream" if I try Pipewire or Pulseaudio output. On the CLI, I'm getting

Code:

$ audacious
ERROR ../src/pipewire/pipewire.cc:310 [init_core]: PipeWireOutput: unable to connect context

Clear as mud that message is.

I'm seeing a lot of references to systemctl being used to manage the pipewire software. Trouble is that I'm not seeing unit files for pipewire on either system.

What is missing in openSUSE's pipewire setup? A dependency of some sort? Frankly, I've run out if ideas.

TIA to anyone who can shed some light on what's going on (or not, as the case seems to be).

ferrari · 05-20-2024, 03:33 AM

I upgraded to openSUSE Leap 15.6RC a couple of days ago. No issues with sound here. Let's get an idea about the current sound state.

Hardware, driver(s), and sound server(s) information...

Code:

inxi -Aa

Also show output from...

Code:

systemctl --user list-units | egrep -i "wire|pulse"

rnturn · 05-20-2024, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

I upgraded to openSUSE Leap 15.6RC a couple of days ago. No issues with sound here. Let's get an idea about the current sound state.

Hardware, driver(s), and sound server(s) information...

Code:

inxi -Aa

On System 1:

Code:

Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:8c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:1aeb
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: AVerMedia Live Streamer CAM 313 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-2.2:5
    chip-ID: 07ca:313a class-ID: 0102 serial: 20200416001
  API: ALSA v: k6.4.0-150600.20-default status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.12 status: n/a (root, process) with: a2jmidid
    status: off tools: jack_control,jack_mixer,qjackctl
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: n/a (root, process) with:
    1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
    3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl

NOTE: This result was after going into the BIOS and re-enabling the onboard analog sound function (the desired situation, BTW). I have to turn this off if I don't want to go nuts with the

Code:

TU116 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
Built-in High Definition Analog Stereo

messages flashing repeatedly on whatever monitor the mouse happens to be positioned in.

Trying to configure sound via the panel's volume widget is a waste of time. The display twitches so fast you can never hope to make any changes.

For now, I'm disabling the HD audio device in the BIOS. I can easily re-enable ii if a promising solution is suggested.

On System 2:

Code:

Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 06:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:15de class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 06:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.9-1-default status: kernel-api with: 1: aoss
    type: oss-emulator 2: apulse type: pulse-emulator
    tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: N/A status: off tools: jack_control
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: off with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pamix,pamixer,pavucontrol

I've started to attempt to use this as my music player in the event that System 1 will never work. All of my music files reside on this system anyway. System 1 is/was mounting that filesystem via NFS and that worked fine. (It's the means by which the RPi connected to the big stereo in the living room has been accessing music files for some years.)

In neither system is Audacious able to connect to an audio device. TBH, I've been trying various combinations of packages -- pipewire, jack, pulseaudio -- and nothing seems to get past an "unable to connect"-type error popup message.

Quote:

Also show output from...

Code:

systemctl --user list-units | egrep -i "wire|pulse"

This output is even weirder:

System 1:

Code:

# systemctl --user list-units | egrep -i "pipe|wire"
Failed to connect to bus: No medium found

System 2:
Same error message as above. Bash returned rc = "1".

I hope some of this helps...

ferrari · 05-20-2024, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rnturn

This output is even weirder:

System 1:

Code:

# systemctl --user list-units | egrep -i "pipe|wire"
Failed to connect to bus: No medium found

System 2:
Same error message as above. Bash returned rc = "1".

I hope some of this helps...

Run the command as a regular user (not root).

ferrari · 05-20-2024, 07:51 PM

BTW, you made no mention of two systems in your opening post.

System 1 is using Jack concurrently with PipeWire. That might be ok, but I'm not sure.

Code:

Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.12 status: n/a (root, process) with: a2jmidid
    status: off tools: jack_control,jack_mixer,qjackctl
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: n/a (root, process) with:
    1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
    3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl

It might be better to use pipewire-jack (wrapper for pipewire) instead...

Code:

sudo zypper in pipewire-jack

System 2 is using PulseAudio and Jack...

Code:

Server-1: JACK v: N/A status: off tools: jack_control
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: off with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pamix,pamixer,pavucontrol

rnturn · 05-21-2024, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

Run the command as a regular user (not root).

Of course...

System 1:

Code:

$ systemctl --user list-units | egrep -i "pipe|wire"
  pipewire-pulse.service                                                                                                   loaded active running   PipeWire PulseAudio
  pipewire.service                                                                                                         loaded active running   PipeWire Multimedia Service
  wireplumber.service                                                                                                      loaded active running   Multimedia Service Session Manager
  pipewire-pulse.socket                                                                                                    loaded active running   PipeWire PulseAudio
  pipewire.socket                                                                                                          loaded active running   PipeWire Multimedia System Sockets

System 2:

Code:

$ systemctl --user list-units | egrep -i "pipe|wire"
  var-lib-nfs-rpc_pipefs.mount                                                                                               loaded active mounted   /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs

rnturn · 05-21-2024, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

BTW, you made no mention of two systems in your opening post.

System 1 is using Jack concurrently with PipeWire. That might be ok, but I'm not sure.

Code:

Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.12 status: n/a (root, process) with: a2jmidid
    status: off tools: jack_control,jack_mixer,qjackctl
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: n/a (root, process) with:
    1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
    3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl

It might be better to use pipewire-jack (wrapper for pipewire) instead...

Code:

sudo zypper in pipewire-jack

That's two different physical systems/boxes. I missed that inxi calls out "servers".
System 2 is using PulseAudio and Jack...

Code:

Server-1: JACK v: N/A status: off tools: jack_control
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: off with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pamix,pamixer,pavucontrol

Quote:

It might be better to use pipewire-jack (wrapper for pipewire) instead...

Code:

sudo zypper in pipewire-jack

What I get:

Code:

$ sudo zypper install pipewire-jack
Refreshing service 'NVIDIA'.
Refreshing service 'openSUSE'.
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
'pipewire-jack' is already installed.
No update candidate for 'pipewire-jack-1.0.5+git36.60deeb2-150600.1.2.x86_64'. The highest available version is already installed.
Resolving package dependencies...
Nothing to do.

NOTE: Sound is working on System 1 but it's using the TU116 card and routing all sound to my tinny monitor speakers via HDMI. If we want to explore solutions using the ALC887 card, please let me know as I'll need to tweak the BIOS, reboot, etc.

ferrari · 05-21-2024, 07:20 PM

Try using pavucontrol ('Configuration' tab) to set the desired card profile.

rnturn · 05-22-2024, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

Try using pavucontrol ('Configuration' tab) to set the desired card profile.

Well... that, at least, allowed the TU116 to be disabled and the built-in audio to be selected without a rapid-fire display of sound cards being displayed on the monitors. Still no actual sound output, though.

Pipewire is being used but... Jack-related utilities don't work -- at least jack_mixer doesn't so I can't confirm that there's even a connection to the system sound output like I could with jack+jack_mixer. Carla displays garbage (devices popping in and out of existence and connections to some device that don't even appear on the patch panel). Perhaps I read more into the claims about Pipewire providing all the functionality that Jack provided and it really doesn't. It's frustrating at best.

Q: How do I remove Pipewire completely as a fall-back and allow me to revert back to the Jack+Pulseaudio configuration that was successfully used in my 15.3 setup? Some may see Pipewire as the future but, IMHO, it sure seems as though it ain't ready for prime time yet. (Heck, Pulseaudio's intro was less of a hassle than Pipewire's.)

Sorry to vent but Pipewire's about to give me an ulcer.

ferrari · 05-22-2024, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rnturn

Well... that, at least, allowed the TU116 to be disabled and the built-in audio to be selected without a rapid-fire display of sound cards being displayed on the monitors. Still no actual sound output, though.

Did you set the appropriate output levels, after selecting the desired profile?

Quote:

Pipewire is being used but... Jack-related utilities don't work -- at least jack_mixer doesn't so I can't confirm that there's even a connection to the system sound output like I could with jack+jack_mixer. Carla displays garbage (devices popping in and out of existence and connections to some device that don't even appear on the patch panel). Perhaps I read more into the claims about Pipewire providing all the functionality that Jack provided and it really doesn't. It's frustrating at best.

Yes, I can understand the frustration. For most desktop users, PipeWire works without them even being aware of what is operating under the hood. I doubt if PipeWire is the cause of the issue here. I know nothing about Carla, so can't offer any direct advice. A quick search shows numerous threads discussing issues with it, mostly around configuration.

Just in case this is helpful:
https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-...ation/36219/12

Quote:

Q: How do I remove Pipewire completely as a fall-back and allow me to revert back to the Jack+Pulseaudio configuration that was successfully used in my 15.3 setup? Some may Pipewire see as the future but, IMHO, it sure seems as though it ain't ready for prime time yet. (Heck, Pulseaudio's intro was less of a hassle than Pipewire's.)

Sorry to vent but Pipewire's about to give me an ulcer.

That is an incorrect assumption...this is an issue specific to your particular environment, and I suspect the the use of Carla.

You can reinstall PulseAudio with

Code:

sudo zypper in pulseaudio

Follow the prompts given (including the removal of wireplumber and pipewire-pulseaudio).

You can remove PipeWire with

Code:

sudo zypper rm pipewire

Restart your desktop session once done.

mrmazda · 05-23-2024, 12:32 AM

FWIW, when evaluating audio setup here, in addition to inxi -az, I run a script containing the following:

Code:

echo "# alsactl info"
alsactl info
echo "# wpctl status"
wpctl status
echo "# pw-cli list-objects Device"
pw-cli list-objects Device
echo "# pw-cli list-objects Node"
pw-cli list-objects Node
echo "# aplay -lL"
aplay -lL
echo "# systemctl -l --no-pager --global --user status pipewire.{service,socket} pipewire-pulse.{service,socket} wireplumber"
systemctl -l --no-pager --global --user status pipewire.{service,socket} pipewire-pulse.{service,socket} wireplumber

In addition to that, I have couple of scripts I use to see which outputs result in sound, one for when sound should be going out with the video to a display, the other for when going out the green pin jack to speakers. For the latter it's currently (and identical to the other except that omits this one's last 3 lines):

Code:

echo "# aplay /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav"
aplay /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^" && sleep 1 
echo "# aplay -D default /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav && sleep 5"
aplay -D default /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^" && sleep 5
echo "# aplay -D hdmi /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav"
aplay -D hdmi /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^" && sleep 1 
echo "# aplay -D hdmi:0,0 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav"
aplay -D hdmi:0,0 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^" && sleep 1 
echo "# aplay -D hdmi:0,1 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav"
aplay -D hdmi:0,1 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^" && sleep 1 
echo "# aplay -D hw:0,3 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav"
aplay -D hw:0,3 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^" && sleep 1 
echo "# aplay -D hw:0,7 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav"
aplay -D hw:0,7 /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^" && sleep 1 
echo "# aplay -D plughw /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav"
aplay -D plughw /usr/local/share/sound/alsa/test.wav
echo "#^"

Those #^ lines are so when I save to disk I can readily use that space to indicate whether there was output and whether KMix was able to affect volume.

This I use to see most of what's installed that affects audio setup, and a bit extra:

Code:

# rpm -qa | egrep 'alsa|arts|audio|codec|demul|fmpeg|gstr|jack|kodi|26[45]|mix|mpv|pavu|puls|sof-f|sound|vlc|wire|xdg'|sort

Some day I hope to find out where the system hides whatever settings a DM uses to decide which device to use as default, as usually there are no less than about 6, and often more than twice that, even though most PCs have one physical analog output, and one (or two, or at most three) digital (HDMI and/or DisplayPort or both or two HDMI or two DisplayPort or two HDMI plus DisplayPort).

rnturn · 05-23-2024, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

I know nothing about Carla, so can't offer any direct advice.

Never had any problems with it back in the Jack+Pulse days. I only launched it because jack_mixer doesn't work at all now and I had no simple means of seeing what was connected to what.

Quote:

Just in case this is helpful:
https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-...ation/36219/12

Thanks. I'll take a look at that.

Quote:

You can reinstall PulseAudio with

Code:

sudo zypper in pulseaudio

Follow the prompts given (including the removal of wireplumber and pipewire-pulseaudio).

You can remove PipeWire with

Code:

sudo zypper rm pipewire

Restart your desktop session once done.

Did that. Didn't help. In fact, I'm back to the blinking card messages again. [sigh] Playing audio using Audacious is now broken in that sound is interrupted frequently as though some gating effect has been introduced. No doubt related to the dueling sound card messages. I received an email from a user who solved what may be my problem by blacklisting the TU116 card. Sadly, that doesn't look promising.

How hard can it be to get Linux to see:

Code:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7410000 irq 38
 1 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xf7080000 irq 17
 2 [L313           ]: USB-Audio - Live Streamer CAM 313
                      Sunplus IT Co Live Streamer CAM 313 at usb-0000:00:14.0-2.2, high speed

and reliably allow the used of card 0 without the sound software getting confused by the existence of card 1.

I'm off to the ALSA project page to review the basics -- something's amiss.

Any hints on how to check/verify the lowest level of sound configuration?

BTW... thanks for your feedback.

ferrari · 05-23-2024, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rnturn

Any hints on how to check/verify the lowest level of sound configuration?

BTW... thanks for your feedback.

Yes, review the following guide:

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Audio_tr...est_your_sound

rnturn · 05-26-2024, 06:58 PM

[QUOTE=mrmazda;6503245]FWIW, when evaluating audio setup here, in addition to inxi -az, I run a script containing the following:

<snip>

Thanks... I'm knee-deep debugging a systemd problem at the moment. Soon I'll cut-n-paste your script and see what output I get.

Quote:

Some day I hope to find out where the system hides whatever settings a DM uses to decide which device to use as default, as usually there are no less than about 6, and often more than twice that, even though most PCs have one physical analog output, and one (or two, or at most three) digital (HDMI and/or DisplayPort or both or two HDMI or two DisplayPort or two HDMI plus DisplayPort).

That seems like something that would require getting a whole lot of separate development teams to agree upon a solution. I wouldn't hold my breath. I agree that desktop configuration is a mess. I've lost count of the number of times I've had something get corrupted and have had to reconfigure the desktop from scratch. Being to back it up and restore as need would be great.