MX 23 Going back to pulseaudio (step-by-step tutorial)

[Charlie Brown]

I just wanted to say it's been a complete disappointment in my case (Consequently: the results may be depending on hardware):


Removed Pipewire, yes it auto installed Pulseaudio => Dummy output (no speakers)

Then tried "bitperfect", as I used to do on previous MXs, bypassed Pulseaudio => Same: no sound.

Then decided to remove Pulseaudio => it said it'll install Pipewire (automatically) (Grrr, I hate being forced like that: "fait accompli" )

Then installed back them all: Pipewire and Wireplumber => Sound is back.


(Yes, of course I played with Alsamixer etc.. and tried everything when it showed Dummy output.. Btw. on Alsamixer and also on Volume icon everything looked normal, bars etc. as if there was sound... Consequently: Pipewire (sadly) seems to be kind of "hardcoded")

[CharlesV]

That is sad to hear. The more I read about pipewire the more it sounds like it really isnt quite ready for 'all' the variations of machines.

I have so little time with it that it is all still very new to me. The one laptop I was hoping it would fix sound issues it didnt, but otherwise has been perfect on three machines. ( limited use though.)

[Stevo]

AVLinux has tested the latest pipewire in the MX 21/23 test repo, and says it resolves the nagging issues that the stock and now dated pipewires have in even Bookworm.

[siamhie]

I've tested pipewire 0.3.79 on my dual desktop (mx-23 xfce with fluxbox 1.3.7+git) and the volume still drops to default (40) when switching between the two in systemd. It's perfectly fine when booted to sys-v.

[Charlie Brown]

In the meantime, Pipewire works on that laptop, no problem with the sound. The disappointment was just with the trial of removing it. :)

[AVLinux]

Hi,

To be clear the issues I've been testing and had concerns about are mostly related to the pipewire-jack implementation and issues with low-latency recording. I'm kind of being dragged kicking and screaming (and swearing) into the inevitability of Pipewire but so far testing it on my dev box it's not too bad. I'm hoping to get a GUI together to make use of controlling PipeWire sample rates and buffers with it's 'pw-metadata' functionality as greater detailed here:

https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?t=25768

[Insam]

Thank you so much for this tutorial, which has enabled me to get my audio management back on track, and thus keep the few hairs I have left.

[oops]

For anyone who might wonder:

It may be even just Alsa (bitperfect) : No Pipewire and no Pulseaudio. (I use it that way happily for years).

Only con(s): Firefox (if you prefer that as the browser) won't have sound without Pulse, also root account (in case you have to login as) needs Pulse ...

It is a good solution too ... I used this way in the past.