Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

magillos · 2025-03-11 14:01:50

Let me share my PYQT 6 app to control some aspects of Pipewire and Wireplumber with simple side-by-side connections manager. Screenshot will likely explain what it does best:

App is available on AUR.

Project website:
https://github.com/magillos/Cable

Last edited by magillos (2025-03-11 14:07:58)

mahen · 2025-03-18 11:28:53

Hi ! That's great, exactly what I was looking for ! Thank you !

Last edited by mahen (2025-03-18 11:30:18)

magillos · 2025-03-18 11:34:14

cable --minimized

That's how app is started with auto-start on.

mahen · 2025-03-22 10:28:46

Thanks !

BTW, noticed a possible minor bug !
I set a default quantum of 64, which is saved & restored at startup.
After restarting, the value of 64 is displayed but the latency value underneath still correspond to a value of 1024 (21.33 ms instead of 1.33 ms).
When checking with pw-top, I see the actual value is actually correct, 64 buffers.

Thanks a lot

Also, sometimes, my saved value is reverted to 1024. (maybe when switching devices)
BTW, may I ask you a question ? What is the difference between setting "force-quantum" and "quantum" ?

Cheers !

Last edited by mahen (2025-03-23 09:43:54)

magillos · 2025-03-22 18:08:08

mahen wrote:

What is the difference between setting "force-quantum" and "quantum" ?

I'm guessing you're asking about how the app checks active values. It just uses pw-metadata underneath, so it has to check if the values are default (quantum) or custom (force-quantum), as shown with:

pw-metadata -n settings
Found "settings" metadata 31
update: id:0 key:'log.level' value:'2' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.rate' value:'48000' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.allowed-rates' value:'[ 48000 ]' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.quantum' value:'1024' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.min-quantum' value:'32' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.max-quantum' value:'2048' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.force-quantum' value:'0' type:''
update: id:0 key:'clock.force-rate' value:'0' type:''

And because it just uses pw-metada to set parameters, they can be over-written or not kept when devices are switched, services (wireplumber/pipewire) restarted, or they are amended with different app. Perhaps it all could be done more properly with API instead, but I haven't yet looked into that. And I definitely don't want to write into config files for permanent changes, as it could break things too easily.

I'll try to reproduce that bug you found, and if I'm able to, it should be fixed in the next version.

magillos · 2025-03-22 21:48:24

I think I fixed the bug. App wasn't refreshing values when started from tray. Updated version is now in AUR. Thanks for reporting it.

mahen · 2025-03-23 09:48:41

Thank you ! Much appreciated <3

Regarding the difference between "quantum" and "force-quantum" I was actually wondering which one it was more relevant to modify to set a custom value. My own interpretation (from a user perspective) was that a given app would use its own value or the default one depending on its behaviour if no "force-quantum" was set, but would be forced to use the "force-quantum" in the other case. So I was wondering if, in some cases, altering the default would not be safer ?

I am just making assumptions based on the name of the parameters ;-) I do appreciate the fact the Cable does not make permanent changes indeed.

Thanks for the fix ! Built !

Edit : oh, my assumption is incorrect. Even when a force-quantum is set, an app can ask for an arbitrary quantum within the limits. Firefox for instance at the very moment uses a 1764 quantum while I force a value of 64. So that's all good !

Last edited by mahen (2025-03-23 10:07:24)

magillos · 2025-03-23 10:18:24

Piepewire wiki suggests to change parameters with:

pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-quantum

so this is how I would do it. I honestly don't know if there would be any practical difference if quantum was set with:

pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.quantum

Possibly the latter is a softer setting and easier over-written by apps?

mahen · 2025-03-27 07:53:05

Yep, I kinda assume the same

Oh, BTW, any idea why the quantum is frequently, but not systematically, reverted to 1024 in Cable ? I have ticked both "save buffer and sample rate" and "autostart".

Thanks a lot !

magillos · 2025-03-27 10:19:03

I'll try to run Cable with "Save buffer" toggle on, to see if this occurs for me. So far it hasn't; custom setting survives restart, sleep cycle, plugging-in/out USB device and wireplumber service restart. Pipewire service restart would expectedly bring it back to default values so maybe monitoring it with 'journalctl -f | grep pipewire' would tell you something. Maybe pipewire is crashing for you at some point?
If it's some app changing the settings, 'pw-metadata -m' should help catching it.

But if this happens to you just at system start, maybe I could add some delay for applying custom values. There is a chance that Cable tries to apply custom buffer before pipewire is ready.

mahen · 2025-03-28 10:33:36

Hi !

Well... I'm not sure. Haven't figured out yet what triggered this yet. Will look up the journal next time it occurs.

What I can tell is that, for instance, a couple of minutes back, it reverted to 1024 just when doing the following in a loop :

- turn on the computer
- login into KDE session
- only app autostarting : Cable
- starting Arturia Piano V3 (WineASIO)

I did that a couple of times because I was testing something else. After a last restart, I noticed the sound of Piano V was all trashed because the buffer setting of the instrument did not correspond to the Pipewire value anymore.

Alternatively, would it be possible to manually save the settings or to save them only when they are manually modified ?

Thanks a lot !

magillos · 2025-03-28 12:34:41

You caught another bug. App was not refreshing to correct values of quantum and sample rate with 'Save' toggle on. It's should be fixed with 0.7.2 version (in AUR now).
I am not sure if this is going to help with your issue though. Wineasio has its own settings (you can run them with wineasio-settings), and it does not respect buffer set by Pipewire. It can be seen in pw-top. There is an option to set fixed buffer in wineasio-settings, or it can be changed in the app if it has setting for that (I don't know if Arturia allows that but most Windows apps do).

Alternatively, would it be possible to manually save the settings or to save them only when they are manually modified ?

Custom settings are only saved (written to ~/home/.config/cable/config.ini file) when 'Save' toggle is on and 'Apply' button is hit. Unchecking 'Save' toggle or hitting reset buttons clears them.

Thanks again for testing!

mahen · 2025-03-28 14:20:16

Thanks for the fix !

No issues, my problem is fixed, as I am now sure my wineasio & PW settings are not altered. Thanks !

Last edited by mahen (2025-03-28 16:27:30)

mahen · 2025-04-01 08:33:02

Oh, you are bringing very cool new features to Cables ! (latency test just now) Thanks !

Still seeing my quantum being reverted to 1024, hmm... Maybe it also occurs after updates ? I have to investigate some more.

magillos · 2025-04-01 16:59:57

You are right. There was an issues with the app that I hopefully fixed. (It was the "save" toggle that was was triggering writing to config file at start). I have no idea why I didn't catch it. I also removed saving values on app window close. I don't even remember why I added it in the first place, as it didn't make much sense.

I'm also trying to add some small features to connections manager, so not sure yet when will I push it to GitHub. If I struggle too much with this, I'll just upload bug fix release.

Thanks for testing it!

Edit: I pushed 0.9.1 version to AUR. Let me know if you still have issues with it.

Last edited by magillos (2025-04-01 17:21:28)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-03-11 14:01:50

Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#2 2025-03-18 11:28:53

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#3 2025-03-18 11:34:14

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#4 2025-03-22 10:28:46

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#5 2025-03-22 18:08:08

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#6 2025-03-22 21:48:24

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#7 2025-03-23 09:48:41

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#8 2025-03-23 10:18:24

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#9 2025-03-27 07:53:05

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#10 2025-03-27 10:19:03

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#11 2025-03-28 10:33:36

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#12 2025-03-28 12:34:41

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#13 2025-03-28 14:20:16

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#14 2025-04-01 08:33:02

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

#15 2025-04-01 16:59:57

Re: Cable, an app to change some of Pipewire and Wireplumber settings

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