Arch Linux

TySpicer

Member

Registered: 2025-08-31

Posts: 163

[SOLVED] Sound setup - Cava, ncspot

I'm running through some sound setup, and I can't quite get cava to work properly. I'm using pipewire-jack, and I can hear sound from YouTube videos now. When I run cava, it pops up with the rectangles at the bottom, but then the YouTube video stops playing, and the cava rectangles don't move.

On a possibly related note, I installed ncspot (a terminal Spotify client). I can navigate it, but can't play music from it.

I assume I just need to finish setting up my audio, I just don't know where to start or what else to do. Any ideas?

Last edited by TySpicer (2025-09-15 13:17:21)

TySpicer

Member

Registered: 2025-08-31

Posts: 163

Re: [SOLVED] Sound setup - Cava, ncspot

Welp, turns out this was a pretty easy fix. I found this article: https://linuxvox.com/blog/arch-linux-pipewire/

I just ran the suggested commands:

# Install PipeWire and related packages
sudo pacman -S pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack

# Enable and start the PipeWire PulseAudio service
systemctl --user enable pipewire-pulse.service
systemctl --user start pipewire-pulse.service

cava and ncspot work perfectly now!

I think the issue was that I assumed I could do everything with just pipewire-jack. My guess is that pipewire-alsa and pipewire-pulse are also required for everything to work properly.