Losing audio on applications

Kardell · 2024-05-15 16:50:20

Hi All,
I hope you are well.
Since I moved to pipewire I think I am exceeding some limit on how many applications (that use audio) I can have open at a time.
If I exceed this limit the application won't start e.g. vlc or freezes.
Is my reasoning correct or is this unrelated to pipewire?
Thank you

xerxes_ · 2024-05-16 19:47:10

If you "exceed this limit" and start some audio application from terminal, does it print some errors, something interesting? Did you see something interesting in logs (sudo journalctl -b) ? Post output of 'pactl info'.

Kardell · 2024-05-16 21:54:08

xerxes_ wrote:

If you "exceed this limit" and start some audio application from terminal, does it print some errors, something interesting? Did you see something interesting in logs (sudo journalctl -b) ? Post output of 'pactl info'.

pactl info
Server String: /run/user/1000/pulse/native
Library Protocol Version: 35
Server Protocol Version: 35
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 31575
Tile Size: 65472
User Name: xx
Host Name: xxxx
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 1.0.5)
Server Version: 15.0.0
Default Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_0d_00.4.analog-stereo
Default Source: alsa_input.usb-PC-LM1E_PC-LM1E_PC-LM1E-02.analog-stereo
Cookie: 3f21:25b7

When I start multiple instances of VLC eventually I cannot start another instance. This is what I see in the journal:

May 16 22:46:37 hostname kioworker[3344902]: qt.qpa.plugin: From 6.5.0, xcb-cursor0 or libxcb-cursor0 is needed to load the Qt xcb platform plugin.
May 16 22:46:37 hostname kioworker[3344902]: qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found.
May 16 22:46:37 hostname kioworker[3344902]: This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
                                                
                                                Available platform plugins are: eglfs, minimal, wayland-egl, minimalegl, wayland, linuxfb, vnc, offscreen, xcb, vkkhrdisplay.
May 16 22:46:37 hostname systemd-coredump[3344907]: [?] Process 3344902 (kioworker) of user 1000 dumped core.
                                                       
                                                       Stack trace of thread 3344902:
                                                       #0  0x00007d9f4c8ab32c n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x8d32c)
                                                       #1  0x00007d9f4c85a6c8 raise (libc.so.6 + 0x3c6c8)
                                                       #2  0x00007d9f4c8424b8 abort (libc.so.6 + 0x244b8)
                                                       #3  0x00007d9f4ca8c6ac n/a (libQt6Core.so.6 + 0x8c6ac)
                                                       #4  0x00007d9f4ca8cebd _ZNK14QMessageLogger5fatalEPKcz (libQt6Core.so.6 + 0x8cebd)
                                                       #5  0x00007d9f4a6dabd5 n/a (libQt6Gui.so.6 + 0xdabd5)
                                                       #6  0x00007d9f4a7771d8 _ZN22QGuiApplicationPrivate21createEventDispatcherEv (libQt6Gui.so.6 + 0x1771d8)
                                                       #7  0x00007d9f4cb41135 _ZN23QCoreApplicationPrivate4initEv (libQt6Core.so.6 + 0x141135)
                                                       #8  0x00007d9f4a777281 _ZN22QGuiApplicationPrivate4initEv (libQt6Gui.so.6 + 0x177281)
                                                       #9  0x00007d9f470f752e _ZN19QApplicationPrivate4initEv (libQt6Widgets.so.6 + 0xf752e)
                                                       #10 0x00007d9f4d302810 kdemain (thumbnail.so + 0xb810)
                                                       #11 0x000055b4f2e06220 n/a (kioworker + 0x1220)

I keep an eye on it and report back. I reckon I just guessed it relates to PipeWire, but I remember experiencing it after I moved to Pipewire definitely experienced it once before I upgraded to a new video driver.

xerxes_ · 2024-05-17 10:07:11

Next time if you couldn't start application experiment like this:
1) start terminal and write: 'export QT.QPA.PLUGIN=minimal' (you can choose from the list: eglfs, minimal, wayland-egl, minimalegl, wayland, linuxfb, vnc, offscreen, xcb, vkkhrdisplay)
2) then start your application and see if it starts and how behaves (and if not then whether error changed). If it failed to start you can choose other options from upper list.

Kardell · 2024-07-10 12:03:46

xerxes_ wrote:

Next time if you couldn't start application experiment like this:
1) start terminal and write: 'export QT.QPA.PLUGIN=minimal' (you can choose from the list: eglfs, minimal, wayland-egl, minimalegl, wayland, linuxfb, vnc, offscreen, xcb, vkkhrdisplay)
2) then start your application and see if it starts and how behaves (and if not then whether error changed). If it failed to start you can choose other options from upper list.

Hi again,
After some time and a full system update VLC does not freeze anymore however I have some applications e.g. a browser losing audio capabilities (microphone, speaker).
I am more than certain that it's to do with me having too much stuff left open e.g. browser tabs with Youtube video and a bunch of VLC instances.
Once I kill those the browser I was not able to get audio is fine.

Apart from some systemd-coredumps (totem-video-thu) I see in the journal I come across this:

Jul 10 11:48:20 systemx systemd-coredump[3350894]: [?] Process 3350864 (totem-video-thu) of user 1000 dumped core.
                                                       
                                                       Module libintlc.so.5 without build-id.
                                                       Module libimf.so without build-id.
                                                       Module libirng.so without build-id.
                                                       Module libsvml.so without build-id.
                                                       Module libOpenCL.so.1 without build-id.
                                                       Stack trace of thread 3350871:
                                                       #0  0x0000769c01bfbad8 g_log_structured_array (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x61ad8)
                                                       #1  0x0000769c01bfbdd7 g_log_default_handler (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x61dd7)
                                                       #2  0x0000769c01bfc05c g_logv (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x6205c)
                                                       #3  0x0000769c01bfc3d4 g_log (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x623d4)
                                                       #4  0x0000769c01bfc5c6 g_malloc (libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x625c6)
                                                       #5  0x0000769c01a4302b n/a (libgstreamer-1.0.so.0 + 0x3702b)
                                                       #6  0x0000769c01a501cf gst_buffer_new_allocate (libgstreamer-1.0.so.0 + 0x441cf)
                                                       #7  0x0000769bfe7788a1 n/a (libgstvideo-1.0.so.0 + 0x468a1)
                                                       #8  0x0000769c01a4e3b6 n/a (libgstreamer-1.0.so.0 + 0x423b6)
                                                       #9  0x0000769c01a53094 n/a (libgstreamer-1.0.so.0 + 0x47094)
                                                       #10 0x0000769c01a53ba5 gst_buffer_pool_acquire_buffer (libgstreamer-1.0.so.0 + 0x47ba5)
                                                       #11 0x0000769bfe7697b3 gst_video_decoder_allocate_output_frame_with_params (libgstvideo-1.0.so.0 + 0x377b3)
                                                       #12 0x0000769bfde71787 n/a (libgstlibav.so + 0x1c787)
                                                       #13 0x0000769bfde72515 n/a (libgstlibav.so + 0x1d515)
                                                       #14 0x0000769bfde73f00 n/a (libgstlibav.so + 0x1ef00)
                                                       #15 0x0000769bfe76cf60 n/a (libgstvideo-1.0.so.0 + 0x3af60)
                                                       #16 0x0000769bfe76fa44 n/a (libgstvideo-1.0.so.0 + 0x3da44)
                                                       #17 0x0000769bfe76ff2a n/a (libgstvideo-1.0.so.0 + 0x3df2a)
Jul 10 11:48:42 systemx pipewire-pulse[1737]: mod.protocol-pulse: server 0x631918d17990: failed to create client: Connection refused
Jul 10 11:48:48 systemx pipewire-pulse[1737]: mod.protocol-pulse: server 0x631918d17990: failed to create client: Connection refused
Jul 10 11:49:34 systemx pipewire-pulse[1737]: mod.protocol-pulse: server 0x631918d17990: failed to create client: Connection refused
Jul 10 11:53:23 systemx pipewire-pulse[1737]: mod.protocol-pulse: server 0x631918d17990: failed to create client: Connection refused
Jul 10 11:54:07 systemx pipewire-pulse[1737]: mod.protocol-pulse: server 0x631918d17990: failed to create client: Connection refused

The coredumps don't happen in the exact same time as the pipewire Connection refused but it could be related.

Last edited by Kardell (2024-07-10 12:14:52)

Kardell · 2024-07-12 13:03:04

Is this correct client config for pulse?

; default-sink =
; default-source =
; default-server =
; default-dbus-server =

autospawn = no
; autospawn = yes
; daemon-binary = /usr/bin/pulseaudio
; extra-arguments = --log-target=syslog

; cookie-file =

; enable-shm = yes
; shm-size-bytes = 0 # setting this 0 will use the system-default, usually 64 MiB

; auto-connect-localhost = no
; auto-connect-display = no

I think this autospawn = no should be yes

V1del · 2024-07-12 13:14:04

That autospawn is irrelevant, the general logistics of it are handled with systemd user sessions since pulse has the relevant integration.

This file in general is irrelevant since you are not using pulseaudio directly but pipewire-pulse.

Do you have any custom pipewire configuration? What outputs do you get for

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
journalctl --user -b  -u pipewire -u pipewire-pulse -u wireplumber

how much RAM? Is rtkit installed?

Kardell · 2024-07-12 14:06:54

Thank you

fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  michael    1736 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC1:  michael    1736 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC2:  michael    1736 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC3:  michael    1736 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/pcmC2D0c:   michael    1734 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/pcmC2D0p:   michael    1734 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/pcmC3D0c:   michael    1734 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/seq:        michael    1734 F.... pipewire
                     user  298073 F.... audacity

journalctl --user -b  -u pipewire -u pipewire-pulse -u wireplumber
-- No entries --

This box has plenty of RAM, 128Gigs

free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           125Gi        62Gi        38Gi       945Mi        27Gi        62Gi
Swap:          128Gi        16Gi       112Gi

pacman -Qs rtkit
local/rtkit 0.13-2
    Realtime Policy and Watchdog Daemon

Kardell · 2024-07-12 17:23:17

I have looked into pipewire directory in ETC and this is what I see:

ls -l /etc/pipewire/
total 36
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28  2023 client.conf.d
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28  2023 client-rt.conf.d
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28  2023 minimal.conf.d
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28  2023 pipewire.conf.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8224 Sep 28  2023 pipewire.conf.pacnew
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  875 Sep 28  2023 pipewire.conf.pacsave
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28  2023 pipewire-pulse.conf.d

The only files are pipewire.conf.pacnew and pipewire.conf.pacsave but these are not in use, right?
I have not been adding anything specifically. I would only expect some legacy stuff from older sound servers.

Last edited by Kardell (2024-07-12 17:30:43)

Kardell · 2024-07-15 13:31:42

Should I be using Pulse Audio Volume Control or switch to something else?
I have noticed that not all audio streams are listed in it like there is a limit how many streams can be listed there.

funkmuscle · 2024-07-15 18:25:58

At Linuxmusicians.com, they say it's pipewire versions 1.1.*as one guy using openSuse said he was having the exact same issue but I think they are more cutting edge than this platform here or this distro because they are at 1.2 and he said since that version no problems at all. So I think we have to just wait until we are updated to 1.2. I hope not because my band is actually waiting for me to finish mixing something and I cannot with the latest version from here because as soon as I go to export something from either Ardour or Mixbus The results are completely unbearable to listen to. I don't know if what I'm telling you directly relates to your issue but I still think it's something to do with the version because the guy on the different distro experienced exactly my issue and he said it was fixed once 1.2 came out.

I have no issue playing back in those DAWs but only Reaper I can render or export in real time without getting the snack crackle pop as a result.

Kardell · 2024-07-15 18:54:21

funkmuscle wrote:

At Linuxmusicians.com, they say it's pipewire versions 1.1.*as one guy using openSuse said he was having the exact same issue but I think they are more cutting edge than this platform here or this distro because they are at 1.2 and he said since that version no problems at all. So I think we have to just wait until we are updated to 1.2. I hope not because my band is actually waiting for me to finish mixing something and I cannot with the latest version from here because as soon as I go to export something from either Ardour or Mixbus The results are completely unbearable to listen to. I don't know if what I'm telling you directly relates to your issue but I still think it's something to do with the version because the guy on the different distro experienced exactly my issue and he said it was fixed once 1.2 came out.
I have no issue playing back in those DAWs but only Reaper I can render or export in real time without getting the snack crackle pop as a result.

Thank you for letting me know.

funkmuscle · 2024-07-15 20:02:23

Actually we're at pipewire 1:1.2.1-1 so we are up to date.. This sucks as I really need this.. I wish there was a way to go back to using just alsa and jack as I use this for pro audio.. We have phones and other devices with Bluetooth for listening to music. No offense to anyone using laptops or PCs to listen to music, I'm just going by what my daughter uses and every single one of my friends also. I COULD BE WRONG SO DON'T SHOOT! lol

Maybe this question I'm about to ask should be another thread or topic but does anyone know if I can just go back to Jack without pipewire?

funkmuscle · 2024-07-16 01:42:27

This must be an issue with the version that we have for Arch because as I said it's the same version that Buddy told me he's using on openSuse.
One thing I know with the people behind Arch is that stuff gets resolved quickly. I think I've tried almost every distro out there and this one is by far the best in my personal opinion. Just wanted to say that part because I don't want to come across as if we are complaining about the fine folks doing all the hard work so we could be happy. Basically I'm apologizing if I offended anyone by saying this sucks. I thought about it and I said you know what that ain't the right thing to say.

Kardell · 2024-07-16 13:12:36

funkmuscle wrote:

Actually we're at pipewire 1:1.2.1-1 so we are up to date.. This sucks as I really need this.. I wish there was a way to go back to using just alsa and jack as I use this for pro audio.. We have phones and other devices with Bluetooth for listening to music. No offense to anyone using laptops or PCs to listen to music, I'm just going by what my daughter uses and every single one of my friends also. I COULD BE WRONG SO DON'T SHOOT! lol
Maybe this question I'm about to ask should be another thread or topic but does anyone know if I can just go back to Jack without pipewire?

Mine is still 1:1.0.7-2. I have not yet updated to 1:1.2.1-1 but I reckon I should soon.
Do you see any improvement in 1:1.2.1-1?

funkmuscle · 2024-07-16 15:20:27

No no no stay away from the latest version. That is the one that's causing the big problem. If you have a working version stay there. The thing is downgrading doesn't help. At least for me it didn't help.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-05-15 16:50:20

Losing audio on applications

#2 2024-05-16 19:47:10

Re: Losing audio on applications

#3 2024-05-16 21:54:08

Re: Losing audio on applications

#4 2024-05-17 10:07:11

Re: Losing audio on applications

#5 2024-07-10 12:03:46

Re: Losing audio on applications

#6 2024-07-12 13:03:04

Re: Losing audio on applications

#7 2024-07-12 13:14:04

Re: Losing audio on applications

#8 2024-07-12 14:06:54

Re: Losing audio on applications

#9 2024-07-12 17:23:17

Re: Losing audio on applications

#10 2024-07-15 13:31:42

Re: Losing audio on applications

#11 2024-07-15 18:25:58

Re: Losing audio on applications

#12 2024-07-15 18:54:21

Re: Losing audio on applications

#13 2024-07-15 20:02:23

Re: Losing audio on applications

#14 2024-07-16 01:42:27

Re: Losing audio on applications

#15 2024-07-16 13:12:36

Re: Losing audio on applications

#16 2024-07-16 15:20:27

Re: Losing audio on applications

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