Arch Linux

Dragin

Member

Registered: 2024-06-15

Posts: 35

[SOLVED] pactl: pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

I reinstalled Arch today, and audio appears not to be working. I don't have pulseaudio installed on my system, and I can't install it. Trying to tells me that "pulseaudio-17.0-3 and pipewire-pulse-1:1.0.7-2 are in conflict."

(Edit: Original title was "PulseAudio cannot install" but I realized that wasn't my actual issue.)

Last edited by Dragin (2024-06-23 18:53:12)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,952

Re: [SOLVED] pactl: pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

You're using pipewire instead of pulse. Why do you want to use pulse?

Dragin

Member

Registered: 2024-06-15

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] pactl: pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

Oh, I thought pipewire was just for screensharing.
The issue is that I can't change my volume, and it's stuck at 0. Trying to change it using pactl gives the error "pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused." (I thought that the pulseaudio package was required to use pactl, and that pipewire only interfaced it.)

Last edited by Dragin (2024-06-22 00:38:48)

adr77

Member

From: Israel

Registered: 2023-10-28

Posts: 147

Re: [SOLVED] pactl: pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

Try uninstalling pipewire and swap it for pulseaudio, or re-install (that is my go-to, but there might be a way elsehow)

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Dragin

Member

Registered: 2024-06-15

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] pactl: pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

I think the PulseAudio server is just not starting automatically. Starting it in a terminal window and using AlsaMixer works (when I download pipewire-alsa) but pactl now gives a different error. The new error is "Failed to get source information: No such entity." I think it's not detecting my output device, because "@DEFAULT_SINK@" (speakers) doesn't work but "@DEFAULT_SOURCE@" (mic) does work.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 22,844

Re: [SOLVED] pactl: pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

If pulseaudio is not starting automatically you're probably starting a degraded session, what kind of session are you starting and how are you starting it? if startx, make sure you follow the notes in: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xinit#xinitrc

Also to make sure you're not running an incompatible hodgepodge now, what output do you get from

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
systemctl --user status pipewire{,-pulse} wireplumber pulseaudio
pacman -Qs 'wire|pulse'

Dragin

Member

Registered: 2024-06-15

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] pactl: pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

Solved by doing systemctl --user enable pipewire pipewire-pulse and rebooting, and using wpctl instead of pactl. (Didn't know there was a user mode for systemctl because I'm me, and they didn't show up as root.)
Not entirely sure why it wasn't detecting the device before, maybe it's because I had started it manually, but it's fixed regardless.

Last edited by Dragin (2024-06-23 18:58:25)