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# PipeWire

From ArchWiki

Related articles

- PipeWire/Examples
- WirePlumber

PipeWire is a new low-level multimedia framework. It aims to offer capture and playback for both audio and video with minimal latency and support for PulseAudio, JACK, ALSA and GStreamer-based applications.

The daemon based on the framework can be configured to be both an audio server (with PulseAudio and JACK features) and a video capture server.

PipeWire also supports containers like Flatpak and does not rely on the `audio` and `video` user groups. Instead, it uses a Polkit-like security model, asking Flatpak or Wayland for permission to record screen or audio.

## Installation

Install the pipewire package from the official repositories. There is also lib32-pipewire for multilib support.

Pipewire uses systemd/User for management of the server and automatic socket activation.

Optionally, install pipewire-docs to review the documentation.

Pipewire can work as drop-in replacement for others audio servers. See #Audio for details.

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: Describe what gst-plugin-pipewire does exactly. (Discuss in Talk:PipeWire)

### Session manager

Like JACK, PipeWire implements no connection logic internally. The burden of watching for new streams and connect them to the appropriate output device or application is left to an external component known as a session manager.

There are currently two session managers available:

- PipeWire Media Session — A very simple session manager that caters to some basic desktop use cases. It was mostly implemented for testing and as an example for building new session managers.

  https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/media-session || pipewire-media-session

- WirePlumber — A more powerful manager and the current recommendation. It is based on a modular design, with Lua plugins that implement the actual management functionality.

  https://pipewire.pages.freedesktop.org/wireplumber/ || wireplumber

When installing PipeWire, you will be asked to opt between one of them. You can switch between them later by installing the appropriate package, which will conflict with and replace the other option.

### GUI

- Helvum — GTK-based patchbay for PipeWire, inspired by the JACK tool catia.

  https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/helvum || helvum

- qpwgraph — Qt-based Graph/Patchbay for PipeWire, inspired by the JACK tool QjackCtl.

  https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/rncbc/qpwgraph || qpwgraph

## Configuration

The PipeWire package provides an initial set of configuration files in `/usr/share/pipewire`. You should not edit these files directly, as package updates will overwrite your changes. To configure PipeWire, you can copy files from `/usr/share/pipewire` to the alternate system-wide location `/etc/pipewire`, or to the user location `~/.config/pipewire`. [1]

### Profiles

Pipewire brings a custom "Pro Audio" profile in addition to the PulseAudio profiles, selectable through pavucontrol. The effect of which is described here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/FAQ#what-is-the-pro-audio-profile

## Usage

### Audio

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: What happens when none of the following is configured/installed and an application sends audio directly to pipewire? The pipewire package contains many audio-related files, e.g. `/etc/alsa/conf.d/50-pipewire.conf`. (Discuss in Talk:PipeWire)

PipeWire can be used as an audio server, similar to PulseAudio and JACK. It aims to replace both PulseAudio and JACK, by providing a PulseAudio-compatible server implementation and ABI-compatible libraries for JACK clients. See the blog post PipeWire Late Summer Update 2020 for more information.

#### ALSA clients

Install pipewire-alsa (and remove pulseaudio-alsa if it was installed) to route all application using the ALSA API through PipeWire.

#### PulseAudio clients

Install pipewire-pulse. It will replace pulseaudio and pulseaudio-bluetooth. Reboot, re-login or start the `pipewire-pulse.service` user unit to see the effect.

Normally, no further action is needed, as the user service `pipewire-pulse.socket` should be enabled automatically by the package. To check if the replacement is working, run the following command and see the output:

    $ pactl info

    ...
    Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.32)
    ...

#### JACK clients

Install pipewire-jack for JACK support. There is also lib32-pipewire-jack for multilib support.

pw-jack(1) may be used to start JACK clients, but it is technically not required, as it only serves as a wrapper around the `PIPEWIRE_REMOTE`, `PIPEWIRE_DEBUG` and `PIPEWIRE_LATENCY` environment variables.

It is possible to request a custom buffer size by setting a quotient of buffersize/samplerate (which equals the block latency in seconds):

    PIPEWIRE_LATENCY="128/48000" application

#### Bluetooth devices

PipeWire handles Bluetooth audio devices if the pipewire-pulse package is installed. The package includes the `/etc/pipewire/media-session.d/with-pulseaudio` file, whose existence prompts the media session daemon to enable the `bluez5` module.

##### Automatic profile selection

Both pipewire-media-session and WirePlumber can automatically switch between HSP/HFP and A2DP profiles whenever an input stream is detected.

pipewire-media-session has it disabled by default. You can set `bluez5.autoswitch-profile` property to `true` to enable it:

    /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/bluez-monitor.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/bluez-monitor.conf)

    ...
    rules = [
        {
            ...
            actions = {
                update-props = {
                    ...
                    bluez5.autoswitch-profile = true
    ...

WirePlumber has profile auto-switching enabled by default. You can disable it with:

    /etc/wireplumber/policy.lua.d/11-bluetooth-policy.lua (or ~/.config/wireplumber/policy.lua.d/11-bluetooth-policy.lua)

    bluetooth_policy.policy["media-role.use-headset-profile"] = false

#### PipeWire native patch sets

We have Helvum for graphical visualization and creation of connections, but the rest is not in yet. The following are bash scripts which save wiresets, load wiresets, and dewire all connections. For saving and loading, use a command-line parameter for the filename.

    pw-savewires

    #!/bin/bash

    if [[ "$#" -ne 1 ]]; then
    	echo
    	echo 'usage: pw-savewires filename'
    	echo
    	exit 0
    fi

    rm $1 &> /dev/null
    while IFS= read -r line; do
    	link_on=`echo $line | cut -f 4 -d '"'`
    	link_op=`echo $line | cut -f 6 -d '"'`
    	link_in=`echo $line | cut -f 8 -d '"'`
    	link_ip=`echo $line | cut -f 10 -d '"'`
    	echo "Saving: " "'"$link_on:$link_op"','"$link_in:$link_ip"'"
    	echo "'"$link_on:$link_op"','"$link_in:$link_ip"'" >> $1
    done < <(pw-cli dump short link)

    pw-loadwires

    #!/bin/python

    import sys
    import csv
    import os

    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    	print('\n usage: pw-loadwires filename\n')
    	quit()

    with open(sys.argv[1], newline='') as csvfile:
    	pwwreader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',', quotechar='"')
    	for row in pwwreader:
    		print('Loading:  ' + row[0] + ' --> ' + row[1])
    		process = os.popen('pw-link ' + row[0] + ' ' + row[1])

    pw-dewire

    #!/bin/bash
    while read -r line; do
    	echo 'Dewiring: ' $line '...'
    	pw-link -d $line
    done < <(pw-cli dump short link {{!}} grep -Eo '^[0-9]+')

#### Sharing audio devices with computers on the network

While PipeWire itself is not network transparent, its pulse implementation supports network streaming. An easy way to share audio between computers on the network is to use the Avahi daemon for discovery. Make sure that the `avahi-daemon.service` is running on all computers that will be sharing audio.

To share the local audio devices load the appropriate modules on the host (make sure to use the local IP address):

    $ pactl load-module module-native-protocol-tcp listen=192.168.1.10
    $ pactl load-module module-zeroconf-publish

Then load the discovery module on the clients:

    $ pactl load-module module-zeroconf-discover

#### Run PipeWire on top of native JACK

PipeWire can also run as a JACK client on top of the native JACK daemon if desired. See JACK and PipeWire for more information.

### WebRTC screen sharing

Most applications used to rely on X11 for capturing the desktop (or individual applications), for example when using WebRTC in web browsers (e.g. on Google Hangouts). On Wayland, the sharing mechanism is handled differently for security reasons. PipeWire enables sharing content under Wayland with fine-grained access controls.

This requires xdg-desktop-portal and one of its backends to be installed. The available backends are:

- xdg-desktop-portal-gnome for GNOME.
- xdg-desktop-portal-kde for KDE.
- xdg-desktop-portal-wlr for wlroots-based Wayland compositors (e.g. Sway, dwl)

Note: xdg-desktop-portal 1.10.0 fixed a mismatch between specification and implementation of its D-Bus interface. [2] Hence, some clients may not work with xdg-desktop-portal 1.10.0 or newer.

Firefox (84+) supports this method by default, while on Chromium (73+) one needs to enable WebRTC PipeWire support by setting the corresponding (experimental) flag at the URL `chrome://flags/#enable-webrtc-pipewire-capturer`.

obs-studio (27+) supports this method by using the new PipeWire capture source.

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

Reason: Since this pull request was merged, the following note about specific app/window sharing may be not correct anymore for xdg-desktop-portal-gtk. Also see the ticket tracking the discussion at [3]. (Discuss in Talk:PipeWire)

Note that the only supported feature is sharing the entire desktop and not a specific app/window [4][5].

#### xdg-desktop-portal-wlr

For `xdg-desktop-portal-wlr` to work, the `XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP` and `WAYLAND_DISPLAY` environment variables have to be set in the systemd user session. `XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP` has to be set to the name of your compositor, e.g. `XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway`. `WAYLAND_DISPLAY` is set automatically by the compositor. The recommended way to bring these environment variables over to the systemd user session is to run `systemctl --user import-environment WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP` after launching the compositor, e.g. with the compositors configuration file. See [6] and [7] for more details.

Tip: To select shared monitor with `xdg-desktop-portal-wlr` if you have more than one, install slurp and add the following configuration (see xdg-desktop-portal-wlr(5) § SCREENCAST OPTIONS):

    ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr/config

    chooser_type = simple
    chooser_cmd = slurp -f %o -ro

When sharing a screen is requested, `slurp` will present you with a crosshair cursor and you'll need to click the screen you want to share. After the selection, `xdg-desktop-portal-wlr` will allow sharing that screen.

### Video

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: pipewire-v4l2 (Discuss in Talk:PipeWire)

Although the software is not yet production-ready, it is safe to play around with. Most applications that rely on GStreamer to handle e.g. video streams should work out-of-the-box using the PipeWire GStreamer plugin, see GStreamer#PipeWire. Applications like e.g. cheese are therefore already able to share video input using it.

Using pipewire-v4l2, it should also be possible to use the `pw-v4l2` script to preload a library (`/lib/pipewire-0.3/v4l2/libpw-v4l2.so`) that intercepts v4l2 calls and routes video through pipewire.

## Audio post-processing

### EasyEffects

EasyEffects (former PulseEffects) is a GTK utility which provides a large array of audio effects and filters to individual application output streams and microphone input streams. Notable effects include an input/output equalizer, output loudness equalization and bass enhancement, input de-esser and noise reduction plug-in. See the GitHub page for a full list of effects.

In order to use EasyEffects, install easyeffects. See Community Presets for a collection of preset configurations. See AutoEq for collection of AI generated EQ presets for headphones.

Note: For PulseEffects legacy version, see PulseAudio#PulseEffects.

### NoiseTorch

Warning: NoiseTorch is considered potentially compromised by its author, check the ongoing community "audit" for more information.

NoiseTorch is an alternative way for noise suppression, packaged with noisetorchAUR. There also exists noisetorch-gitAUR.

After starting it the module can be loaded for the selected microphone. It is possible to adjust the voice activation threshold, which should be set to the highest level, not filtering out any actual voice.

You can start audio processing with systemd automatically, see [8]. Note that the noisetorch binary path is different if installed from AUR.

### Noise suppression for voice

Install noise-suppression-for-voiceAUR and use one of the following options:

- Add the following line in the `context.exec` section:

    /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf)

    ...
    context.exec = [
        ...
        { path = "/usr/bin/pipewire" args = "-c /usr/share/pipewire/filter-chain/source-rnnoise.conf" }
        ...

- Follow https://github.com/werman/noise-suppression-for-voice#pipewire.

Then, set the noise cancelled source as default in your audio settings. You might need to restart your application prior being able to use it.

### JamesDSP

JamesDSP for Linux (available as jamesdspAUR) provides open-source sound effects for PipeWire and PulseAudio. It uses its own effects engine and without depending on LADSPA, Calf, etc. JamesDSP was initially published as an audio effects processor for Android devices.

### LADSPA, LV2 and VST plugins

If you want to choose between the full list of available LADSPA, LV2 and VST plugins, you can apply them using a custom Pulseaudio null sink and Carla Jack host. Install pipewire-pulse, pipewire-jack and carla. At the begin, create a new PulseAudio null sink named `default_null_sink`.

    pactl load-module module-null-sink object.linger=1 media.class=Audio/Sink sink_name=default_null_sink channel_map=FL,FR

Start Carla through Pipewire, `pw-jack carla-rack`. In Rack tab add whichever plugin you want. Make sure they are stereo type. You can change their order, the one on top of the list will be the first to receive the audio stream, just like in EasyEffects. Afterwards move to Patchbay tab and connect the `default_null_sink` L/R monitors to Carla inputs, then Carla outputs to the playbacks of your desired device (speakers, earphones, HDMI, etc). Save the configuration to a local folder, i.e. `~/Documents/carla_sink_effects.carxp`.

You can test the effects while a multimedia application is reproducing audio, i.e. watching a video on a website through Firefox. There are two methods to do it. The first one, inside Carla Patchbay tab, disconnecting all Firefox connections and linking its L/R outputs to `default_null_sink` playbacks. The second through pavucontrol, locating Firefox audio stream and redirecting it to `default_null_sink` (this should remember the connection to automatically redirect the application to the same sink on the next instance).

To apply these settings at startup, create two systemd user service units:

    ~/.config/systemd/user/jack-carla-rack.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Load Carla Rack JACK host

    [Service]
    PassEnvironment="PIPEWIRE_LINK_PASSIVE=true"
    Type=exec
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/pw-jack carla-rack -n

    [Install]
    WantedBy=default.target

    ~/.config/systemd/user/pulseaudio-null-sink@.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Load %i Pulseaudio null sink
    Before=jack-carla-rack.service
    After=pipewire-pulse.service

    [Service]
    Type=oneshot
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-null-sink object.linger=1 media.class=Audio/Sink sink_name=%i channel_map=FL,FR
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/pactl unload-module module-null-sink
    RemainAfterExit=yes

    [Install]
    WantedBy=default.target

Then override jack-carla-rack service specifying the full path of your Carla configuration at Environment directive:

    ~/.config/systemd/user/jack-carla-rack.service.d/override.conf

    [Service]
    Environment="CARLA_CONFIG_FILE=/home/username/Documents/carla_sink_effects.carxp"
    ExecStart=
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/pw-jack carla-rack -n $CARLA_CONFIG_FILE

At last, enable the `pulseaudio-null-sink@default_null_sink.service` and `jack-carla-rack.service` user units.

Note that if you set the `default_null_sink` as the default device in system settings, all applications will be redirected to it and the volume keys will change its level, not the one on the speakers. If you want to control volume speakers, leave them as the default in system settings and redirect your desired application to `default_null_sink` inside pavucontrol (Pipewire compatibility layer will remember the connection on the next instance of the same application).

## Troubleshooting

### Audio

#### Microphone is not detected by PipeWire

PipeWire's `alsa-monitor` module uses alsa-card-profiles to detect devices by default. If this is not working for you, try to turn off `api.alsa.use-acp`, or optionally turn on `api.alsa.use-ucm`.

If using pipewire-media-session:

    /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf)

    ...
    rules = [
        {
            ...
            actions = {
            update-props = {
                ...
                api.alsa.use-acp = false
    ...

Otherwise, if using wireplumber:

    /etc/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua (or ~/.config/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua)

    ...
    alsa_monitor.rules = {
        {
            ...
            apply_properties = {
                -- Use ALSA-Card-Profile devices. They use UCM or the profile
                -- configuration to configure the device and mixer settings.
                -- ["api.alsa.use-acp"] = true,

                -- Use UCM instead of profile when available. Can be
                -- disabled to skip trying to use the UCM profile.
                ["api.alsa.use-ucm"] = true,
    ...

Then, restart pipewire and check available devices:

    $ pw-record --list-targets

    Available targets ("*" denotes default): 62
    	58: description="Built-in Audio" prio=1872
    	60: description="Built-in Audio" prio=2000
    *	62: description="Built-in Audio (Loopback PCM)" prio=1984

#### Sound does not automatically switch to Bluetooth headphones

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

Reason: The linked upstream issue is specific to the xfce pulseaudio panel plugin. (Discuss in Talk:PipeWire)

Run `pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect` and configure your desktop environment to automatically run that command on login. You might need to execute `wpctl set-default <id>`. The `<id>` may be found using output of `wpctl status`. See wireplumber issue #89 for more details.

#### No sound after connecting to Bluetooth device

As of 2020-12-07, if there is no sound after connecting a Bluetooth device, you might need to switch the default sink and/or move a sink input to the correct sink. Use `pactl list sinks` to list the available sinks and `pactl set-default-sink` to switch the default sink to the Bluetooth device. This can be automated via udev using a script similar to this one.

See this Reddit thread for a discussion of the issue. According to author of the script, the headset profile (HSP) might still have problems.

#### Low volume

After replacing PulseAudio with Pipewire, sound may work fine, but after a reboot, the volume becomes intolerably low.

Open `alsamixer`, use `F6` to select the proper soundcard, and make sure the ALSA volumes are at 100%. `alsactl` should maintain this setting after reboot.

#### Increasing RLIMIT_MEMLOCK

    Dec 13 11:11:11 HOST pipewire-pulse[99999]: Failed to mlock memory 0x7f4f659d8000 32832: This is not a problem but for best performance, consider increasing RLIMIT_MEMLOCK

Install realtime-privileges and add your own user to the `realtime` group.

Alternatively, increasing memlock from 64kB to 128kB seems enough to fix this. If you are running `pipewire-pulse` under systemd/User, add:

    username	soft	memlock	64
    username	hard	memlock	128

to `/etc/security/limits.d/username.conf`

#### Changing the default sample rate

By default PipeWire sets a fixed global sample rate of 48kHz. If you need to change it (e.g. you own a DAC supporting a higher value), you can set a new default:

    /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf)

    ...
    context.properties = {
        ...
        default.clock.rate          = sample_rate
        ...

#### Changing the allowed sample rate(s)

PipeWire can also change dynamically the output sample rates supported by your DAC. The sample rate follows the sample rate of the audio stream being played.

    /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf)

    ...
    context.properties = {
        ...
        default.clock.allowed-rates = [ sample_rate_1 sample_rate_2 sample_rate_3 ... ]
        ...

for example, `[ 44100 48000 88200 96000 ]`. Consult your hardware manual for supported values of your DAC.

According to the developer here，PipeWire allows up to 16 different sample rate and switch when possible. That means, with configuration above, no resampling is done when supported.

To check out which output sample rate and sample format are the data sent to DAC (probably you need to change digits):

    $ cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params

To check out which input sample rate is used, change `pcm0p` to `pcm0c` (`c` is short for "capture", `p` is for "playback").

#### Sound quality (resampling quality)

If you used PulseAudio with `resample-method = speex-float-10` or `soxr-vhq`, then you might consider uncommenting and changing `resample.quality = 4` to `10` or the maximum `15` in `stream.properties` block in both `/etc/pipewire/client.conf` and `/etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf` (copy them from `/usr/share/pipewire/` if they do not exist). Do not forget to restart the `pipewire.service` and `pipewire-pulse.socket` user units (never forget `pipewire-pulse.socket` if you want your configuration changes to be applied).

There is a very little quality difference between `10` and `15`, but the CPU load difference is 2-3x. And the latency difference between `4`, `10`, `15` is yet to be investigated by anybody. `resample.quality = 15` on 44100→48000 Hz on Ryzen 2600 causes `pipewire` or `pipewire-pulse` processes to cause 4.0% one CPU core load.

You can compare resamplers here: https://src.infinitewave.ca/ (do not pay attention to anything above 18 KHz and over 120 dB). speex is listed as "Xiph.org Speex".

PipeWire uses its own resampling algorithm called Spa. Like with SoX's `sox`, Speex's `speexenc`, PipeWire includes its standalone version: `spa-resample`. Usage:

    $ spa-resample -q 15 -f s24 -r 48000 input16bit44100orAnythingElse.wav output24bit48000hz.wav

It is probably somehow possible to use other resamplers by creating your own sink. Or just use a plugin in your music player (e.g., Qmmp has SoX plugin).

#### External sound card not activated after reconnect

Check `~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/default-profile` if there is any entry with default profile "off" and remove it. If that does not help, remove all files from `~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/` and restart the `pipewire.service` user unit.

#### No Sound or pactl info shows Failure: Connection refused

It means applications are unable to connect to the PipeWire-Pulse service, confirm that `/etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf` exists and is not empty and restart the `pipewire-pulse.service` user unit.

If that does not fix it, run `strace -f -o /tmp/pipe.txt pactl info` and pastebin `/tmp/pipe.txt` while seeking help on IRC (#pipewire on OFTC) or the mailing-lists.

#### Low audio quality on Bluetooth

In case Bluetooth playback stutters, check the unit status of the `pipewire.service` user unit for errors similar as below:

    Feb 17 18:23:01 HOST pipewire[249297]: (bluez_input.18:54:CF:04:00:56.a2dp-sink-60) client too slow! rate:512/48000 pos:370688 status:triggered

If they appear, check the currently selected codec using `pactl list sinks` and try changing it by setting `bluez5.codecs` to one of `sbc aac ldac aptx aptx_hd`. You can also try mSBC support (fixes mic on Sony 1000XM3, i.e. Headphones WH-1000XM3 and Earbuds WF-1000XM3), and the SBC-XQ codec.

With pipewire-media-session:

    /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/bluez-monitor.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/bluez-monitor.conf)

    ...
    properties = {
      ...
      bluez5.enable-msbc = true
      bluez5.enable-sbc-xq = true
      bluez5.codecs = [sbc sbc_xq]
    ...

With wireplumber:

    /etc/wireplumber/bluetooth.lua.d/51-bluez-config.lua (or ~/.config/wireplumber/bluetooth.lua.d/51-bluez-config.lua)

    bluez_monitor.properties = {
      ["bluez5.enable-sbc-xq"] = true,
      ["bluez5.enable-msbc"] = true,
      ["bluez5.codecs"] = "[sbc sbc_xq]",
    }

Restart PipeWire by restarting the `pipewire.service` user unit for the changes to take effect.

#### Noticeable audio delay or audible pop/crack when starting playback

This is caused by node suspension when inactive. If you are using `pipewire-media-session`, you can disable this by editing `/etc/pipewire/media-session.d/*-monitor.conf` depending on where the delay occurs and changing property `session.suspend-timeout-seconds` to 0 to disable or to experiment with other values and see what works. Alternatively you can comment out the line `suspend-node` in `/etc/pipewire/media-session.d/media-session.conf`. Restart both the `pipewire` and `pipewire-pulse` systemd services to apply these changes, or alternatively reboot.

If you are using `wireplumber` instead of `pipewire-media-session`, then you can copy the example configuration file located at `/usr/share/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua` to `/etc/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua` or `~/.config/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua` and add the line `["session.suspend-timeout-seconds"] = 0` to section `apply_properties` at the end of the file. Instead of disabling suspension entirely, you can change the timeout value by copying the file `/usr/share/wireplumber/scripts/suspend-node.lua` to `/etc/wireplumber/scripts/suspend-node.lua` or `~/.config/wireplumber/scripts/suspend-node.lua` and changing the `5` in `tonumber(node.properties["session.suspend-timeout-seconds"]) or 5` to the desired number of seconds to delay before source suspension.

#### Audio cutting out when multiple streams start playing

This problem can typically be diagnosed by reading the journal of the `pipewire-pulse.service` user unit and finding lines similar to:

    pipewire-pulse[21740]: pulse-server 0x56009b9d5de0: [Nightly] UNDERFLOW channel:0 offset:370676 underrun:940

According to the official PipeWire troubleshooting guide, to solve this problem edit `/etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf`, uncomment the line saying `api.alsa.headroom = 0` and change its value to `1024`.

If you are using `wireplumber` instead of `pipewire-media-session`, then you can copy the example configuration file located at `/usr/share/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua` to `/etc/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua` and at the end of the file, under section `apply_properties`, change `--["api.alsa.headroom"] = 0` to `["api.alsa.headroom"] = 1024`

#### Audio is distorted

- For microphones, try navigating to the card that is having issues after running `alsamixer` and use the arrow keys to reduce any "Mic Boost" or "Internal Mic Boost" options.
- Follow #Changing the sample rate, reducing the sample rate to to `44100` (44.1 kHz).

#### Audio problems after standby

If the sound is missing or otherwise garbled after waking the machine up from sleep, it might help to reinitialize ALSA:

    # alsactl init

#### High latency with USB DACs (e.g. Schiit DACs)

Changing sample rates or formats might help reduce latency with some DACs such as Schiit Hel 2.[9] Using matching rules in pipewire-media-session we can set properties for devices.[10]

Copy the default configuration of `alsa-monitor.conf` for pipewire-media-session into either `/etc/pipewire/media-session.d` or `~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d`. Then append a new rule-block similar to the following one:

    /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf)

    ...
    rules = {
        ...
        {
            matches = [
                {
                    node.name = "alsa_output.<name of node>"
                }
            ]
            actions = {
                update-props = {
                    audio.format = "S24_3LE"
                    audio.rate = 96000
                    # Following value should be doubled until audio doesn't cut out or other issues stop occurring
                    api.alsa.period-size = 128
    ...

`alsa_output.<name of node>` node can be obtained using `pw-top`.

Your DAC might support a different format or sample rate. You can check what your DAC supports by querying ALSA:

First get the card number of your DAC:

    $ aplay -l

    ...
    card 3: S2 [Schiit Hel 2], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
      Subdevices: 0/1
      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    ...

So in this example it would be card 3. Get all supported sample rates and formats:

    $ cat /proc/asound/cardX/streamX

    ...
    Playback:
      ...
      Interface 1
        Altset 1
        Format: S16_LE
        Channels: 2
        Endpoint: 0x05 (5 OUT) (ASYNC)
        Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000
        Data packet interval: 125 us
        Bits: 16
        ...
      Interface 1
        Altset 2
        Format: S24_3LE
        Channels: 2
        Endpoint: 0x05 (5 OUT) (ASYNC)
        Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000
        Data packet interval: 125 us
        Bits: 24
        ...
      Interface 1
        Altset 3
        Format: S32_LE
        Channels: 2
        Endpoint: 0x05 (5 OUT) (ASYNC)
        Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000
        Data packet interval: 125 us
        Bits: 32
        ...
    ...

In this case `S16_LE, S24_3LE, S32_LE` are the supported formats and `44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000` are the supported sample rates across all formats.

#### Realtime audio does not work

If `RTKit error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied` shows up in the status of the `pipewire.service` user unit, then the priority of the pipewire daemon was not changed to realtime. See [11] for this issue.

#### Simultaneous output to multiple sinks on the same sound card

Create a copy of `/usr/share/alsa-card-profile/mixer/profile-sets/default.conf` so that changes persist across updates. Here we define a profile joining the two default mappings for Analog and HDMI.

    /usr/share/alsa-card-profile/mixer/profile-sets/multiple.conf

    [General]
    auto-profiles = no

    [Mapping analog-stereo]
    device-strings = front:%f
    channel-map = left,right
    paths-output = analog-output analog-output-lineout analog-output-speaker analog-output-headphones analog-output-headphones-2
    paths-input = analog-input-front-mic analog-input-rear-mic analog-input-internal-mic analog-input-dock-mic analog-input analog-input-mic analog-input-linein analog-input-aux analog-input-video analog-input-tvtuner analog-input-fm analog-input-mic-line analog-input-headphone-mic analog-input-headset-mic
    priority = 15

    [Mapping hdmi-stereo]
    description = Digital Stereo (HDMI)
    device-strings = hdmi:%f
    paths-output = hdmi-output-0
    channel-map = left,right
    priority = 9
    direction = output

    [Profile multiple]
    description = Analog Stereo Duplex + Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output
    output-mappings = analog-stereo hdmi-stereo
    input-mappings = analog-stereo

Now we configure PipeWire's media-session to use the new card-profile for matching devices. Identifying information can be found using `$ pw-cli dump device`.

    /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf

    rules = [
        {
            matches = [ { alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH" } ]
            actions = {
                update-props = {
                    api.alsa.use-acp = true
                    device.profile-set = "multiple.conf"
                    device.profile = "multiple"
                    api.acp.auto-profile = false
                    api.acp.auto-port = false
                }
            }
        }
    ]

#### No notification sounds from Discord

This might cause by having the min.quantum too low, try setting it to more than 700. You can make an override for Discord specifically by appending the following rule to the pulse.rules section of pipewire-pulse.conf.

    /etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf (or ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf)

    ...
    pulse.rules = [
      ...
        {
            # Discord notification sounds fix
            matches = [ { application.process.binary = "Discord" } ]
            actions = {
                update-props = {
                    pulse.min.quantum      = 1024/48000     # 21ms
                }
            }
        }
    ...

### Video

#### OBS (etc.) display nothing, even if they ask for a window/screen

If you are sure that you have xdg-desktop-portal installed as well as either xdg-desktop-portal-gtk or xdg-desktop-portal-kde, check the running state of the daemons.

In OBS, if everything is working, you should see this in `stdout`:

    ...
    info: [pipewire] desktop selected, setting up screencast
    info: [pipewire] created stream 0x5632d7456850
    info: [pipewire] playing stream…

For multi-monitor setups the slurp package will allow to capture of all the screens.

## See also

- Wiki — PipeWire Wiki on Freedesktop GitLab
- Pipewire Update Blog Post — Blog post from January 2018 outlining the state of PipeWire at the time
- PipeWire Late Summer Update 2020 — Blog post from September 2020

Category:

- Multimedia

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