Pipewire audio support

[DemiMarie]

The problem you're addressing (if any)
Fedora 34 [will be switching to PipeWire], which brings security and functionality improvements. PipeWire is API and ABI compatible with PulseAudio, but I do not believe this compatibility extends to PipeWire plugins.

Fortunately, PipeWire has a multiprocess architecture, so we may be able to implement sinks and sources out of process. PipeWire also handles video input, meaning that we may be able to implement a paravirtualized camera system.

Describe the solution you'd like
PipeWire should be supported

Where is the value to a user, and who might that user be?
Fedora 34 users will have working audio.

Describe alternatives you've considered
We can force Fedora 34 to use PulseAudio, assuming it is still supported.

Additional context

Relevant documentation you've consulted

Related, non-duplicate issues

[0spinboson]

It looks like pipewire either doesn't like my usb microphone with headphone output, or there is an issue with the usb device forwarding in fedora-35, because when I connect my usb device, firefox / youtube refuses to playback any video because it seems to have problems outputting it to the audio device. (When I disconnect the usb device, video playback instantly resumes, after giving vague error messages. Playback via VLC works fine, although the volume scaling is terrible -- even volume set to 1/100 using alsamixer is pretty loud, 5/100 is almost unbearable, distortion starts quickly.)

Using journalctl -xe-t kernel, I also see a constant stream of "usb usb1: not yet implemented" multiple times each second, and "vhci_get_frame_number: 2570 callbacks suppressed" every 5 seconds. This is not an issue in a fedora-32-based qube, so I assume this is all related to the switch to pipewire.

(Running Qubes 4.1 up to date with current-testing, qubes-vm-kernel 5.10, 5.15.x in dom0.)

[DemiMarie]

Good news: PipeWire has a stable ABI for plugins!

[DemiMarie]

Bad news: the documentation is not sufficient for me to be able to create something that works. I will be filing some issues.

[Nurmagoz]

pulseaudio-qubes package not installable inside fedora-36-minimal: (unless i use --allowrasing)

Which is what have been used in fedora-36:

---

Effected documentation section:

Audio: pulseaudio-qubes

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/minimal/#fedora

[jamke]

The release notes of R4.2 (rc3 currently) state that PipeWire is already supported in Qubes OS.
What does it mean? Why this ticket is not closed as solved then?

It is not obvious what is the current situation with pipewire and pulseaudio in the R4.2.

• Is there any documentation about the current situation?
• What should user use in dom0 and what in templates in R4.2?
• If pipewire then does it have problems with sys-audio and audio qube approach? Or should user still stick to pulseaudio manually solving the packaging conflicts as it is in R4.1?
• If pipewire should be used in dom0, than will it work with existing user’s templates (e.g. migrated from backup) that use pulseaudio?

[DemiMarie]

@jamke It means that the Qubes developers forgot to close the issue. To answer your questions:

• I am not sure what the documentation status is.
• PipeWire in dom0 is not officially supported. Audio playback and recording are known to work, but features such as sound volume save & restore don’t.
• PipeWire in sys-audio and in qubes that connect to sys-audio is fully supported, at least to the extent that sys-audio is supported at all.

[jamke]

@jamke To answer your questions

Thank you @DemiMarie , I will re-post your answers on forum, because people do no understand the situation with pipewire.

[SaswatPadhi]

Using journalctl -xe-t kernel, I also see a constant stream of "usb usb1: not yet implemented" multiple times each second, and "vhci_get_frame_number: 2570 callbacks suppressed" every 5 seconds. This is not an issue in a fedora-32-based qube, so I assume this is all related to the switch to pipewire.

I still see this issue with my USB headphones.

I am running a Fedora 40 sys-audio qube on Qubes R4.2 with kernel-latest.

@0spinboson: Was this issue ever resolved for you? Were you able to figure out any workarounds?

[andrewdavidwong]

Using journalctl -xe-t kernel, I also see a constant stream of "usb usb1: not yet implemented" multiple times each second, and "vhci_get_frame_number: 2570 callbacks suppressed" every 5 seconds. This is not an issue in a fedora-32-based qube, so I assume this is all related to the switch to pipewire.

I still see this issue with my USB headphones.

I am running a Fedora 40 sys-audio qube on Qubes R4.2 with kernel-latest.

@0spinboson: Was this issue ever resolved for you? Were you able to figure out any workarounds?

I'm not sure, but after reviewing this issue's history, it sounds like you should probably open a separate issue for this. (In particular, it sounds like this is an enhancement request that the devs believe has been implemented, whereas you're experiencing a bug. Since this issue isn't a bug report for your bug, you should probably open an actual bug report for it, unless one already exists.)