Arch Linux

yggdrasil673

Member

Registered: 2019-09-14

Posts: 9

Pulseaudio fails even within a session

Pulseaudio is stopping mid-session (i.e., not after a reboot or logout).  Sometimes it loads on reboot, other times it doesn't.  It's actually such a tremendous piece of shit these days, I am considering giving up on Arch after 20+ years. 

When i try:

 systemctl --user enable pulseaudio 

sometimes it works silently, other times it returns

 Failed to connect to bus: No medium found 

Still other times pulseaudio returns no error message and simply fails to produce any sounds.  It should not be this hard to get sound working on a Linux laptop. 
I've tried uninstalling, re-installing, removing the ./config/pulse directory, changing its permissions, starting with

pulseaudio --start

, starting using systemctl. Nothing works.

Here is my pactl info:

Server String: /tmp/pulse-PKdhtXMmr18n/native
Library Protocol Version: 35
Server Protocol Version: 35
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 3
Tile Size: 65472
User Name: bch
Host Name: slim7x
Server Name: pulseaudio
Server Version: 17.0
Default Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_04_00.6.HiFi__Speaker__sink
Default Source: alsa_input.pci-0000_04_00.6.HiFi__Mic1__source
Cookie: d638:c1cf

I'm using pulseaudio 17.0 and a generic (non-customized) 6.9.3 linux kernel.  Any help much appreciated.

Last edited by yggdrasil673 (2024-06-07 20:17:51)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,430

Re: Pulseaudio fails even within a session

How do you start your session? systemctl --user shouldn't "randomly fail" under normal circumstances. And make sure you don't have a conflict with e.g. wireplumber or so, post

printenv
sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
systemctl --user status pulseaudio wireplumber pipewire

yggdrasil673

Member

Registered: 2019-09-14

Posts: 9

Re: Pulseaudio fails even within a session

thanks! I removed pulseaudio (which has always caused me problems) in favor of pipewire. So here is my fuser -v /dev/snd/* output (bch is the user):

                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  bch        3463 F.... pipewire
                     bch        3464 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC1:  bch        3463 F.... pipewire
                     bch        3464 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC2:  bch        3463 F.... pipewire
                     bch        3464 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/seq:        bch        3463 F.... pipewire

For the status, both show enabled and running, but then i get this output at the end:

Jun 14 13:04:41 slim7x systemd[806]: Started Multimedia Service Session Manager.
Jun 14 13:04:41 slim7x wireplumber[3464]: wp-device: SPA handle 'api.alsa.acp.device' could not be loaded; is it instal
led?
Jun 14 13:04:41 slim7x wireplumber[3464]: s-monitors: Failed to create 'api.alsa.acp.device' device
Jun 14 13:04:41 slim7x wireplumber[3464]: [0:27:32.960031710] [3464] ERROR IPAModule ipa_module.cpp:172 Symbol ipaModuleInfo not found
Jun 14 13:04:41 slim7x wireplumber[3464]: [0:27:32.960047380] [3464] ERROR IPAModule ipa_module.cpp:292 v4l2-compat.so: IPA module has no valid
 info
Jun 14 13:04:41 slim7x wireplumber[3464]: [0:27:32.960073462] [3464]  INFO Camera camera_manager.cpp:313 libcamera v0.3.0

What's happening that it's failing "to create 'api.alsa.acp.device' ?

Last edited by yggdrasil673 (2024-06-14 20:26:13)

yggdrasil673

Member

Registered: 2019-09-14

Posts: 9

Re: Pulseaudio fails even within a session

Don't worry about responding....I'm quitting Archlinux after 22 years.  I have a PhD and I have no desire to get one in Arch sound configuration.
Thanks all, and farewell.