Arch Linux

warpoverload

Member

Registered: 2026-07-22

Posts: 1

Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

Howdy-ho,

A couple days ago, I loaded up the latest version of Minecraft to find that the audio had quit working. I checked the kernel buffer, journal, and Minecraft logs. I found the following error in the Minecraft logs (nothing in the rest):

[20:29:17] [Render thread/ERROR]: Error starting SoundSystem. Turning off sounds & music
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to open OpenAL device
	at com.mojang.blaze3d.audio.Library.openDeviceOrFallback(Library.java:275)
	at com.mojang.blaze3d.audio.Library.init(Library.java:150)
	at net.minecraft.client.sounds.SoundEngine.loadLibrary(SoundEngine.java:120)
	at net.minecraft.client.sounds.SoundEngine.reload(SoundEngine.java:109)
	at net.minecraft.client.sounds.SoundManager.apply(SoundManager.java:122)
	at net.minecraft.client.sounds.SoundManager.apply(SoundManager.java:41)
	at net.minecraft.server.packs.resources.SimplePreparableReloadListener.lambda$reload$1(SimplePreparableReloadListener.java:15)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$UniAccept.tryFire(CompletableFuture.java:739)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$Completion.run(CompletableFuture.java:503)
	at net.minecraft.server.packs.resources.SimpleReloadInstance.lambda$prepareTasks$3(SimpleReloadInstance.java:59)
	at net.minecraft.util.thread.BlockableEventLoop.doRunTask(BlockableEventLoop.java:173)
	at net.minecraft.util.thread.ReentrantBlockableEventLoop.doRunTask(ReentrantBlockableEventLoop.java:23)
	at net.minecraft.util.thread.BlockableEventLoop.pollTask(BlockableEventLoop.java:147)
	at net.minecraft.util.thread.BlockableEventLoop.runAllTasks(BlockableEventLoop.java:127)
	at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.runTick(Minecraft.java:1235)
	at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.run(Minecraft.java:959)
	at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main(Main.java:292)
	at org.prismlauncher.launcher.impl.StandardLauncher.launch(StandardLauncher.java:115)
	at org.prismlauncher.EntryPoint.listen(EntryPoint.java:129)
	at org.prismlauncher.EntryPoint.main(EntryPoint.java:70)

I have OpenAL installed, and this recently just started happening on my machine despite over 1 and a half years of spotless service. As is protocol, I did everything under the Arch Wiki that pertains to audio issues in Minecraft to no avail. FYI, I use Pipewire. If you need more context, please let me know and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance

Last edited by warpoverload (2026-07-22 03:13:21)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,388

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

I'm assuming it tries to default to jack and you not having pipewire-jack installed or so... FWIW to prevent surprises here, I suggest you configure openal to default to the pulse backend: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 1#p2126721

However modern OpenAL should™ have direct pipewire support and maybe even default to that, do you not have any other message other than this stack which might show the actual error openal produces?

Last edited by V1del (2026-07-27 18:21:12)

globoplox

Member

Registered: 2026-07-24

Posts: 1

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

I have a similar issue, since this evening minecraft (through curseforge) has either no sound or has sound exclusively (when started while nothing else is playing).
I did a full system upgrade yesterday. I had not played minecraft in a while before today, so the upgrade may be unrelated.

If something is playing when starting minecraft, I get the same log as you:

Error starting SoundSystem. Turning off sounds & music

If nothing is playing, I get a

[22:05:55] [Render thread/INFO]:OpenAL initialized on device ALSA Default

then, if I start playing something else on the side, it stays silent and

systemctl --user status pipewire

show:

juil. 24 22:08:52 Glob-O-Matic pipewire[99913]: spa.alsa: 'front:0': playback open failed: Device or resource busy
juil. 24 22:08:52 Glob-O-Matic pipewire[99913]: spa.alsa: 'front:0': playback open failed: Device or resource busy
juil. 24 22:08:52 Glob-O-Matic pipewire[99913]: spa.alsa: 'front:0': playback open failed: Device or resource busy
juil. 24 22:08:52 Glob-O-Matic pipewire[99913]: pw.node: (alsa_output.usb-SteelSeries_Arctis_7P_-00.analog-stereo-58) suspended -> error (Start error: Device or resource busy)
juil. 24 22:08:53 Glob-O-Matic pipewire[99913]: spa.alsa: 'front:0': playback open failed: Device or resource busy
juil. 24 22:08:53 Glob-O-Matic pipewire[99913]: mod.adapter: 0x5646113b2e20: can't get format: Device or resource busy

Edit:

I found out a speaker-test from alsa-utils has the same issue.

And more importantly, creating ~/.asoundrc with

pcm.!default {
    type pipewire
}

ctl.!default {
    type pipewire
}

fixed the issue.

Last edited by globoplox (2026-07-25 11:07:03)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,388

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

if you have any custom asoundrc or /etc/asound.conf you probably want to replace those with the defaults from pipewire-alsa, but your file should lead to the same logical end goal

Last edited by V1del (2026-07-27 10:27:57)

gr1moire

Member

Registered: 2024-10-07

Posts: 6

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

Previously, to fix the audio on minecraft you might have needed to create a .alsoftrc file in your home directory. This is seemingly no longer needed, and will cause the error shown in your log. If you still have it, delete it and .asoundrc if you created it. The audio should then work again.

Last edited by gr1moire (2026-07-28 18:57:41)

Bachsau

Member

Registered: 2016-12-09

Posts: 18

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

Forcing people to use pipewire can't be called a solution. To me, pipewire is just bloatware.

I have a system-wide configuration file in place that clearly tells OpenAL to use PulseAudio, but for some reason it fails to load libpulse.so.0, even though it definitely exists in my /usr/lib. Strangely, older versions such as 1.8.9 are not affected. I don't know why this happens, but preloading the library fixes the problem.

I created a small wrapper script "/usr/local/bin/minecraft-launcher":

#!/usr/bin/sh -eu
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libpulse.so.0
exec /usr/bin/minecraft-launcher

Now the launcher and everything run by it has that thing already loaded and ready for use.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,388

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

having pulseaudio-alsa instead would fix this as well, no one forces anyone to pipewire, what's weird here is that some logistics seems to load something completely wrong that OpenAL falls back to ALSA in the first place, it should try pulse by default anyway. But might be an official launcher snafu? I stopped using that when it didn't let me log in

Ruhanilinks

Member

Registered: 2026-09-11

Posts: 6

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

That OpenAL error makes it sound like Minecraft itself may not be the real problem, but rather that it can no longer access an audio device through your current audio setup.

Since the issue appeared after updating Minecraft, I'd first check whether audio works normally in other OpenAL applications. It might also be worth checking your PipeWire/PulseAudio setup and confirming that the default output device is still available to the user running Prism Launcher.

The fact that there is nothing useful in the kernel buffer or journal makes this seem more like an application-level device detection problem. Hopefully someone familiar with Arch and the current Minecraft/OpenAL setup can point out whether a recent package update changed something.

Bachsau

Member

Registered: 2016-12-09

Posts: 18

Re: Audio in Minecraft suddenly quit working

having pulseaudio-alsa instead would fix this as well, no one forces anyone to pipewire, what's weird here is that some logistics seems to load something completely wrong that OpenAL falls back to ALSA in the first place, it should try pulse by default anyway. But might be an official launcher snafu? I stopped using that when it didn't let me log in

That would mean a round-trip through ALSA's input layer for no purpose. Like I said, it does try and use Pulse, but is somehow unable to find the library it needs for that. Searching the net, there are some more reports of this problem, not all Minecraft related, so I'd guess it's not the launcher but some versions of OpenAL being fucked up, with the only connection being that the launcher ships it's own distinct libraries (stored in "~/.minecraft/bin/some-hash/"), including OpenAL, depending on Minecraft version. Those libraries got updated recently, even for older versions. It worked before but didn't work after, which, in my eyes, makes it a certainty. Not bothering with a bug report though, as Mojang's bug team is crap. They'd just ask for more (and more) information, then close it as "not enough information".

That OpenAL error makes it sound like Minecraft itself may not be the real problem, but rather that it can no longer access an audio device through your current audio setup.

It is not. I ran it with the environment variables "ALSOFT_LOGLEVEL" and "ALSOFT_LOGFILE" set, and it clearly said that it is unable to find "libpulse.so.0". Placing that in "LD_PRELOAD" fixed it, so it's definitely a problem with locating or accessing the library file.

It might also be worth checking your PipeWire/PulseAudio setup and confirming that the default output device is still available to the user running Prism Launcher.

Definitely not going to trust any third-party launcher with my login credentials.

Last edited by Bachsau (2026-09-14 18:57:15)