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LoLei

Member

Registered: 2015-08-02

Posts: 18

[Solved] Plugging in webcam stops headset from showing up in pulse

So I finally caved and bought a webcam (WANSVIEW 1080P, USB 2.0 'usb-Ingenic_Semiconductor_CO.__LTD._HD_Web_Camera_Ucamera001-02').

Booting with it plugged in today for the first time caused my headset to stop being visible for pulseaudio / pavucontrol / skypeforlinux etc.

I always used the Steelseries Arctis 5 headset, which showed up as a separate entry in pavucontrol before, as an output device and an input device.

Now, even after removing the webcam again, the headset remains invisible for pulseaudio.
It is still visible for alsa, as I can navigate to the card in alsamixer, and aplay -l and arecord -l work.

arecord -l:

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: ALC887-VD Alt Analog [ALC887-VD Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: S5 [SteelSeries Arctis 5], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

aplay -l:

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 11: HDMI 5 [HDMI 5]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 12: HDMI 6 [HDMI 6]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: S5 [SteelSeries Arctis 5], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: S5 [SteelSeries Arctis 5], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

(It shows up twice here because the headset has two output devices - one for chat, one for gaming.)

I can even do the speaker-test with it, and it works in the headset:

$ speaker-test -Dhw:2,0 -c2
speaker-test 1.2.3
Playback device is hw:2,0
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 96 to 262144
Period size range from 48 to 131072
Using max buffer size 262144
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 65536
was set buffer_size = 262144
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
^CTime per period = 3.525465

Now I don't know if this was the case before I plugged in the webcam that one time, but starting pulseaudio manually now causes a suspicious error:

$ pulseaudio -k; pulseaudio
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to kill daemon: No such process
E: [pulseaudio] module-alsa-card.c: Failed to find a working profile.
E: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to load module "module-alsa-card" (argument: "device_id="2" name="usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_5_00000000-00" card_name="alsa_card.usb-SteelSeries_SteelSeries_Arctis_5_00000000-00" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1""): initialization failed.

As you can see this is exactly about the same device, my headset.
This same error shows up though when I plug in the webcam:

E: [pulseaudio] udev-util.c: Failed to get card object.
E: [pulseaudio] module-alsa-card.c: Failed to find a working profile.
E: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to load module "module-alsa-card" (argument: "device_id="3" name="usb-Ingenic_Semiconductor_CO.__LTD._HD_Web_Camera_Ucamera001-02" card_name="alsa_card.usb-Ingenic_Semiconductor_CO.__LTD._HD_Web_Camera_Ucamera001-02" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1""): initialization failed.

But the cam then works plug'n'play and shows up in pavucontrol.

Again, all of this is happening now even after I have unplugged the webcam with the webcam being unplugged the entire time and having rebooted/shut down and restarted manually many times. Also, on Windows, the webcam worked fine together with the headset, and the headset is also still working fine on Windows with the unplugged webcam.

At this point I'd be glad to get my headset working on Linux again, with or without webcam. Ideally though, both should of course work at the same time.

I'd be happy to post any additional output anyone might need in order to help me.

Last edited by LoLei (2020-08-19 15:17:18)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,372

Re: [Solved] Plugging in webcam stops headset from showing up in pulse

Your webcam is innocent, pipewire is the likely problem here, and due to the exact reason it was an issue on my system. Downgrade pipewire to 0.3.7 and reboot/replug the headset.

See: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/67626 and https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 7#p1921337

Last edited by V1del (2020-08-19 15:06:18)

LoLei

Member

Registered: 2015-08-02

Posts: 18

Re: [Solved] Plugging in webcam stops headset from showing up in pulse

Thank you V1del I will try that out and report back!

LoLei

Member

Registered: 2015-08-02

Posts: 18

Re: [Solved] Plugging in webcam stops headset from showing up in pulse

It worked. Thanks so much!

Of course this pipewire issue happens on the same day I get my webcam, so naturally I assumed it's the culprit.