Pipewire

Pipewire is the new sound system on Linux, meant to replace Pulseaudio.

Links

• PipeWire - Debian Wiki.
• PipeWire - ArchLinux
• PipeWire on HackerNews
• PipeWire repo - GitLab

• PipeWire issue trackers
• PipeWire Module: Protocol Pulse, Config PulseAudio, Migrate PulseAudio.

• Pipewire docs.
• WirePlumber - documentation

References

Configuration files:

• /usr/share/pipewire
• /usr/share/wireplumber

Commands

# View status
systemctl --user status pipewire

# Use PipeWire instead of JACK
pw-jack SOMEAPP

# PipeWire process viewer (quantum usage...)
pw-top

# Setup sinks, sources, audio devices
pw-link
qjackctl         # Graphical tool, leveraging on JACK
qpwgraph         # Alternative, pipewire native

# Get settings
pw-metadata -n settings

# Set settings
pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.rate 48000
pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.allowed-rates '[ 48000, 96000, 44100 ]'

# Command line
pw-cli
> info all

Configuration

• Package configuration files are located in /usr/share/pipewire and /usr/share/wireplumber.
• To change them, copy and edit them in /etc/pipewire (system-wide) or ~/.config/pipewire (local changes).

pipewire-pulse.conf

• A single section can also be updated through a file in /etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/ or ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/

cat /usr/share/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf
# # PulseAudio config file for PipeWire version "0.3.50" #
# #
# # Copy and edit this file in /etc/pipewire for system-wide changes
# # or in ~/.config/pipewire for local changes.
# #
# # It is also possible to place a file with an updated section in
# #  for system-wide changes or in
# # ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/ for local changes.

Troubleshooting

Setting and keeping bluetooth profile for headset

We want to use the profile sbc sbc_xq for our BT headset Sony WH-1000XM3.

Set the profile manually - profile should be persistent on reboot / reconnect.

• In principe WirePlumber should remember the last selected profile.
• See [1]

# See available profile and device id with 'pactl list'
pactl set-card-profile bluez_card.38_18_4C_4B_6A_3A a2dp-sink-sbc_xq

Configure profile

• When using pipewire-media-session, the default profile could be selected in bluez-monitor.conf, but this file no longer exists with WirePlumber.
• (UPDATE - Archlinux - Pipewire) Edit /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]",
}

Crackling / Stuttering audio

This applies in a VM. Not sure these apply when PipeWire is run on the host.

• https://superuser.com/questions/1646216/fedora-34-vmware-workstation-vm-upgraded-from-fedora-33-has-audio-crackling
• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/issues/469

Note that recent PipeWire already supports different auto-config if running in a vm [2].

Enable multi-user / network audio

References

• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/Network
• Multi-user audio sharing with PipeWire - archlinux forum
• PipeWire issue 847

Currently PipeWire support sharing through network using Pulse, but auth-anonymous is always turned on (auth-ip-acl not implemented).

• (pipewire 0.3.50+) On the main user, create file ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/listen-to-4713.conf

pulse.properties = {
    # the addresses this server listens on
    server.address = [
        "tcp:4713"                         # IPv4 and IPv6 on all addresses
        #"tcp:127.0.0.1:8888"               # IPv4 on a single address
        #
        #{ address = "tcp:4713"             # address
        #  max-clients = 64                 # maximum number of clients
        #  listen-backlog = 32              # backlog in the server listen queue
        #  client.access = "restricted"     # permissions for clients
        #}
    ]
}

Note: we CANNOT edit pipewire-pulse.conf or any system-level file (like in /etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.d) because the TCP socket would already be used, and service would fail to load.

We can check it works with

On the secondary user, export the following env variables:

export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:127.0.0.1:4713

Note: make sure the port is allowed in the firewall as well.

On the remote client, use the module PipeWire Module: Pulse Tunnel:

context.modules = [
{   name = libpipewire-module-pulse-tunnel
    args = {
        tunnel.mode = playback
        # Set the remote address to tunnel to
        pulse.server.address = "tcp:192.168.1.126"
        #audio.rate=<sample rate>
        #audio.channels=<number of channels>
        #audio.position=<channel map>
        #node.target=<remote target node>
        stream.props = {
            # extra sink properties
        }
    }
}
]

We can also use the PipeWire Module: Zeroconf Discover, that will automatically create sinks/sources to/from remote PulseAudio servers.

context.modules = [
{   name = libpipewire-module-zeroconf-discover
    args = { }
}
]

• Another method it seems is to start the daemon manually [3]:

# On the server
pipewire-pulse -a tcp:4713
# On the client
PULSE_SERVER=tcp:SERVER_IP_ADDRESS:4713 pactl info