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darose

Member

Registered: 2004-04-13

Posts: 161

Pipewire/wireplumber autoswitching broken with laptop usb c dock

On my brand new HP laptop, auto-switching works fine between speaker and 3.5mm headphones when the laptop is stand-alone.  I plug the headphones into the jack, PW/WP recognizes it, removes the speaker sink, adds the headphone sink, and all is well.  (I don't know why PW/WP removes the sinks, rather than just disabling or muting them, but whatever.)

However, when I connect the laptop to my usb-c dock, the auto-switching stops working correctly.  When I unplug the headphones, the speaker sink doesn't get added, and the laptop switches the audio to HDMI 1.  I've tried a million different things (remove the pipewire state dir, disabling WP automatic suspensions, etc.) but nothing seems to fix it.  So when docked, I wind up having to manually switch the WP profile in order to switch from speaker to headphone and back, which is becoming a real nuisance

The only thing that does fix it is when I blacklist the hdmi sound kernel module.  But that's not a proper long-term fix, as I occasionally need to use hdmi sound.  (I.e., when I connect the laptop to an HDMI tv.)

I'd really like to get this fixed, as about 80% of the time I use the laptop is with the dock.

Additional details:
* Relevant audio modules in use are snd_sof_pci_intel_mtl, snd_hda_codec_alc269, and snd_hda_scodec_cs35l56.  (I.e., ALC269 and cirrus CS35L56)
* All relevant firmware packages are installed.  (sof-firmware, linux-firmware-intel, linux-firmware-cirrus, etc.)
* USB Dock is an Anker USB C 5-in-1 (https://www.anker.com/products/a8338)
* Connected to the dock is a Logitech USB WebCam, and an HDMI monitor (without speakers).

Any suggestions for a fix much appreciated!

Last edited by darose (2025-10-15 22:01:01)

lylid

Member

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 1

Re: Pipewire/wireplumber autoswitching broken with laptop usb c dock

Solution found:

~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/50-alsa-config.conf

monitor.alsa.rules = [
  {
    matches = [
      { device.name = "~alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3*" }
    ]
    actions = {
      update-props = {
        api.alsa.use-acp = true
        api.acp.auto-profile = false
        api.acp.auto-port = false
      }
    }
  }
]

Then: systemctl --user restart wireplumber

This disables auto-switching and shows all sinks (Speaker + HDMI) in pavucontrol.
Tested on ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen9 with USB-C dock.

NOTE:

To find your device name:

pactl list cards | grep "device.name"

Or more detailed:

wpctl status
wpctl inspect <device_id>

Last edited by lylid (Yesterday 13:12:19)