New pipewire-pulseaudio dependency.

English Multimedia
#1

I’ve been running pipewire for months now without any related journal errors. But after today’s update, the new version of pipewire-pulseaudio, 0.3.47-1.1, now calls pactl. This utility is provided by pulseaudio-utils, which was removed from my system when I switched to pipewire. Here’s the new configuration file entry that calls it:


me@My-PC:/usr/share/pipewire> grep -m 1 -C 3 pactl pipewire-pulse.conf

# Extra modules can be loaded here. Setup in default.pa can be moved here
context.exec = 
    { path = "pactl"        args = "load-module module-always-sink" }
    #{ path = "pactl"        args = "load-module module-switch-on-connect" }
    #{ path = "/usr/bin/sh"  args = "~/.config/pipewire/default.pw" }
]


> sudo zypper se --provides /usr/bin/pactl
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S  | Name             | Summary              | Type
---+------------------+----------------------+--------
i+ | pulseaudio-utils | PulseAudio utilities | package

That package was removed back in August, 2021, when I switched from pulseaudio to pipewire. But as you can see, it is needed by the new configuration file for pipewire. So if you are seeing this error:


> journalctl --no-pager -b -1 -p err
Mar 03 09:51:53 Mobile-PC kernel: iommu ivhd0: AMD-Vi: Event logged [INVALID_DEVICE_REQUEST device=00:00.0 pasid=0x00000 address=0xfffffffdf8000000 flags=0x0a00]
Mar 03 09:52:07 Mobile-PC lightdm[1540]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
**Mar 03 09:52:08 Mobile-PC pipewire-pulse[2005]: pw.conf: execvp error 'pactl': No such file or directory**

you should install pulseaudio-utils.

Regards,
Gene

#2

Would you file a bug on bugzilla.opensuse.org? It’s way more useful than posting on forums.

I see it is a recommended package, so you get it if you running on plasma with recommends ON. Maybe not your case?

$ zypper se --recommends-pkg pulseaudio-utils
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name                         | Summary                                          | Type
--+------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+--------
  | enlightenment                | The window manager                               | package
  | libpulse0-32bit              | Client interface to PulseAudio                   | package
  | patterns-deepin-deepin_basis | Deepin Base System                               | package
i | patterns-kde-kde_plasma      | KDE Plasma 5 Desktop Base                        | package
  | patterns-lxqt-lxqt           | LXQt Desktop Environment                         | package
  | patterns-mate-mate_basis     | MATE Base System                                 | package
  | patterns-sway-sway           | Sway Tiling Wayland Compositor and related tools | package
#3

Yes, I run a minimal MATE DE with recommends turned off in zypp.conf. Do you think it should be reported as a bug and requested that the package be required, instead of recommended?

Thanks,
Gene

#4

I think the maintainer of pipewire-pulseaudio should be aware of this issue, yes. I’m not sure what the solution would be, it is up to the maintainer.

#5

https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1196781