Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

pbcrunch · 2024-08-27 00:08:17

I've had Arch installed on this machine for a couple of years. It has been reliable until the last couple days. The machine is an X99 system with a Xeon E5-2699v3 (18-core Broadwell 2.3 GHz), 128 GB of registered DDR4 memory, and a Radeon RX 550. There is no iGPU. I have Steam installed, and for some reason this means that I also have some Nvidia packages installed on the system. I believe the Nvidia packages have been updated recently (). I think the problems started around the time the Nvidia packages were updated, but I could be wrong.

:: removing nvidia-utils breaks dependency 'nvidia-utils=560.35.03' required by lib32-nvidia-utils
:: removing nvidia-utils breaks dependency 'vulkan-driver' required by steam

I did not actually remove any of these packages. I include this just for the version info.

Over the last couple days, when I try to restart or shut down the machine it hangs up with messages like (some paraphrasing, this is transcribed from a photo):

Failed unmounting Temporary Directory /tmp
systemd-shutdown[1]: Waiting for process: 1090 (gnome-shell), 1558 (pipewire), 5427 (brave)
systemd-shutdown[1]: Waiting for process: 1558 (pipewire), 5427 (brave), 1090 (gnome-shell)
watchdog: watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!
systemd-shutdown[1]: Waiting for process: 5427 (brave), 1090 (gnome-shell), 1558 (pipewire)
systemd-shutdown[1]: Waiting for process: 5427 (brave), 1090 (gnome-shell), 1558 (pipewire)
(sd-remou[10484]: Failed to remount '/run/shutdown/mounts/GIBBERISH' read-only: Device or resource busy
(sd-remou[10484]: Failed to unmount /run/shutdown/mounts/GIBBERISH read-only: Device or resource busy
watchdog: watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!
shutdown[1]: Unable to finalize remaining file systems, ignoring.

The machine just sits like this for hours or until I unplug it.

I am also having problems that seem to involve GPU acceleration in browsers. Firefox crashes when I go to Youtube or try to look at my Home Assistant dashboard (it has embedded security camera feeds). Brave can open my Home Assistant dashboard and can go to Youtube, but the videos never load. I use OnShape (online CAD) quite a bit, and it still seems to work fine.

V1del · 2024-08-27 09:18:07

there should be no reason for these nvidia packages to be installed if you have no nvidia card. But something needs to satisfy the vulkan-driver dependency of steam, which in your case should and would be lib32-vulkan-radeon. Install that and vulkan-radeon then do a

pacman -Rns nvidia-utils lib32-nvidia-utils

maybe also throw in a printenv on whether you override any critical envs with soemthing bogus.

FWIW videos not loading could also be issues with the audio subsystem, what do you get from

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
systemctl --user status pipewire{,-pulse} wireplumber pulseaudio

Last edited by V1del (2024-08-27 09:31:52)

pbcrunch · 2024-08-27 14:31:56

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I installed vulkan-radeon and lib32-vulkan-radeon and then removed the nvidia packages as you described. Here is the output from the pipewire-related commands:

[09:27 AM]-[wayne@BlueRoomPC]-[~]-
$ sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  wayne      1572 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC1:  wayne      1572 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC2:  wayne      1572 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p:   wayne      1571 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/seq:        wayne      1571 F.... pipewire

[09:27 AM]-[wayne@BlueRoomPC]-[~]-
$ systemctl --user status pipewire{,-pulse} wireplumber pulseaudio
Unit pulseaudio.service could not be found.
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2024-08-27 09:25:28 CDT; 2min 6s ago
 Invocation: 40989227e0cc42478d781df88fe4041f
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
   Main PID: 1571 (pipewire)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 154344)
     Memory: 6.9M (peak: 8.3M)
        CPU: 388ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
             └─1571 /usr/bin/pipewire

Aug 27 09:25:28 BlueRoomPC systemd[1015]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.

● pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2024-08-27 09:25:28 CDT; 2min 6s ago
 Invocation: 1521c2a5ba6b493280c197ab9d7731a4
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire-pulse.socket
   Main PID: 1573 (pipewire-pulse)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 154344)
     Memory: 13.4M (peak: 14.4M)
        CPU: 913ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire-pulse.service
             └─1573 /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse

Aug 27 09:25:28 BlueRoomPC systemd[1015]: Started PipeWire PulseAudio.

● wireplumber.service - Multimedia Service Session Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/wireplumber.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2024-08-27 09:25:28 CDT; 2min 6s ago
 Invocation: 7e6de935ec014223b74abab1feda037e
   Main PID: 1572 (wireplumber)
      Tasks: 6 (limit: 154344)
     Memory: 25.8M (peak: 26.8M)
        CPU: 810ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/wireplumber.service
             └─1572 /usr/bin/wireplumber

Aug 27 09:25:28 BlueRoomPC systemd[1015]: Started Multimedia Service Session Manager.
Aug 27 09:25:29 BlueRoomPC wireplumber[1572]: wp-device: SPA handle 'api.libcamera.enum.manager' could not be loaded; is it installed?
Aug 27 09:25:29 BlueRoomPC wireplumber[1572]: s-monitors-libcamera: PipeWire's libcamera SPA plugin is missing or broken. Some camera types may not be supported.

I ran these commands immediately after powering up the computer.

I can play Youtube Music in the browser and hear the output fwiw.

V1del · 2024-08-27 14:44:17

That looks correct, do you still have any remaining issues?

pbcrunch · 2024-08-27 15:06:26

Hmm. I spoke too soon. A couple minutes later the computer froze. I could move the mouse and see the cursor move, but I could not click the mouse or use the keyboard. I SSH'd in from my phone to reboot the machine.

I turned it back on and let the computer sit for a couple minutes. Youtube Music and regular Youtube don't work. Eternal loading circles.

I also tried loading Steam and that did not work. I ran those fuser and systemctl commands and the output didn't look any different.

Edit:
Graphics card temperatures seem OK (40 C). Computer GUI-locked again. This time I could SSH in and ask for a reboot. My SSH session ended immediately, but the computer did not actually reboot.

Last edited by pbcrunch (2024-08-27 15:16:01)

seth · 2024-08-27 19:50:04

I could move the mouse and see the cursor move

Graphics stack isn't frozen, this is a userspace problem (compositor, grab,…)

This time I could SSH in and ask for a reboot

Please post your complete system journal for the frozen boot, eg:

sudo journalctl -b -3 | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

will upload the 3rd to last boot (if you don't pipe to curl you can inspect the journal ahead to see whether you've selected the correct boot)

pbcrunch · 2024-08-27 22:31:14

Update: I had a couple of USB devices with sound functionality:
* GeneralPlus USB sound card (1b3f:2008)
* MacroSilicon USB 3.0 HDMI capture device (534d:2109)

I unplugged both and my computer has been much better behaved. Youtube and Youtube Music both work, no weird browser behavior.

Both devices have been plugged in for months. I have had a similar USB sound dongle go bad before, so I think maybe that device is the real troublemaker.

seth · 2024-08-28 06:09:29

They should show up w/ IO or probing errors in the journal and you can cross-test this by first waiting a bit, see whether the system freezes and if not, try to cause the freeze by re-attaching them.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-08-27 00:08:17

Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

#2 2024-08-27 09:18:07

Re: Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

#3 2024-08-27 14:31:56

Re: Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

#4 2024-08-27 14:44:17

Re: Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

#5 2024-08-27 15:06:26

Re: Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

#6 2024-08-27 19:50:04

Re: Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

#7 2024-08-27 22:31:14

Re: Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

#8 2024-08-28 06:09:29

Re: Recent problems with Pipewire and video in browsers

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