No audio output, suspended sink, pipewire

Issue

No audio output, output sink suspended.

Running updated Manjaro KDE, sound would work but stop after inactivity. Restarting pulseaudio did not fix the issue, only rebooting the system. Journald showed “pulseaudio - failed to create sink input: sink is suspended”.

When audio output stopped, mpv also stopped playing videos - I could open them and seek, but pressing ‘play’ would do nothing.

The output of inxi -Aazy was:

Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:160c class-ID: 0403 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.36-2-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.28 running: yes 

Relevant reports

  1. pulseaudio sink always suspended - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
  2. Sound Stopped Working - #3 by Rhaom
  3. PipeWire - Gentoo Wiki

Device specific information

This may not be relevant since it seems like the audio issues only occurred with older kernels:

  1. sound - Audio Fix for 2015 Google Chromebook Pixel II? - Ask Ubuntu
  2. Chromebook Pixel 2 - ArchWiki

Attempted fixes

I considered that the issue was ‘suspend on idle’ as mentioned in [1], but I thought it seemed more likely, based off [2], that the issue was a clash between pulseaudio and pipewire as shown by inxi -Aazy above.

So I followed [2] and ran pamac install manjaro pipewire, which changed these packages:

package changes
To install (6):
  pipewire-media-session  1:0.3.28-0  (Required By: manjaro-pipewire)     extra      122.5 kB
  pipewire-alsa           1:0.3.28-0  (Required By: manjaro-pipewire)     extra      5.1 kB
  pipewire-pulse          1:0.3.28-0  (Required By: manjaro-pipewire)     extra      21.1 kB
  pipewire-jack           1:0.3.28-0  (Required By: manjaro-pipewire)     extra      103.4 kB
  gst-plugin-pipewire     1:0.3.28-0  (Required By: manjaro-pipewire)     extra      51.5 kB
  manjaro-pipewire        20210425-2                                      community  3.6 kB
To remove (8):
  pulseaudio-zeroconf     14.2-3      (Depends On: pulseaudio)            extra
  pulseaudio-lirc         14.2-3      (Depends On: pulseaudio)            extra
  pulseaudio-equalizer    14.2-3      (Depends On: pulseaudio)            extra
  pulseaudio-rtp          14.2-3      (Depends On: pulseaudio)            extra
  pulseaudio-jack         14.2-3      (Depends On: pulseaudio)            extra
  manjaro-pulse           20210109-1  (Conflicts With: manjaro-pipewire)  extra
  pulseaudio-bluetooth    14.2-3      (Conflicts With: pipewire-pulse)    extra
  pulseaudio              14.2-3      (Conflicts With: pipewire-pulse)    extra

After rebooting, inxi -Aazy gave:

Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:160c class-ID: 0403 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.36-2-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: no 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.28 running: yes 

Audio still did not work (although videos didn’t hang), so I tried installing pulseeffects and rebooted again. Nothing changed.

At this point the output of pactl info was:

Server String: /run/user/1000/pulse/native
Library Protocol Version: 34
Server Protocol Version: 35
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 54
Tile Size: 65472
User Name: [CENSORED]
Host Name: [CENSORED]
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.28)
Server Version: 14.0.0
Default Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.platform-bdw-rt5677.HiFi__hw_bdwrt5677__sink
Default Source: alsa_input.platform-bdw-rt5677.HiFi__hw_bdwrt5677__source
Cookie: d527:a8c2

Running pactl list sinks also shows :

Sink #44
        State: SUSPENDED
        Name: alsa_output.platform-bdw-rt5677.HiFi__hw_bdwrt5677__sink
        Description: Built-in Audio Headphones + Speakers
        Driver: PipeWire
### truncated ###

Going off the information in [3], I’ve realized that if pipewire appears to be running according to pactl info, this is likely an ALSA issue.

I can’t really find any information about ALSA sinks always being suspended. Maybe this has something to do with documented old device issues (see [4] and [5]), but I can’t make heads or tails of that information.

Audio does play through bluetooth earphones, which show up as:

Sink #65
        State: RUNNING
        Name: bluez_output.E8_07_BF_72_B4_68.a2dp-sink
        Description: SoundBuds Slim
        Driver: PipeWire
### truncated ###

After disconnecting the bluetooth, though, pactl list sinks gives:

pactl list sinks
Sink #48
        State: RUNNING
        Name: alsa_output.platform-bdw-rt5677.HiFi__hw_bdwrt5677__sink
        Description: Built-in Audio Headphones + Speakers
        Driver: PipeWire
        Sample Specification: s24-32le 2ch 48000Hz
        Channel Map: front-left,front-right
        Owner Module: 4294967295
        Mute: no
        Volume: front-left: 32768 /  50% / -18.06 dB,   front-right: 32768 /  50% / -18.06 dB
                balance 0.00
        Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
        Monitor Source: alsa_output.platform-bdw-rt5677.HiFi__hw_bdwrt5677__sink.monitor
        Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
        Flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
        Properties:
                object.path = "alsa:pcm:0:hw:bdwrt5677:playback"
                api.alsa.path = "hw:bdwrt5677"
                api.alsa.pcm.card = "0"
                api.alsa.pcm.stream = "playback"
                audio.channels = "2"
                audio.position = "FL,FR"
                device.routes = "2"
                alsa.mixer_device = "hw:bdwrt5677"
                alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
                device.api = "alsa"
                device.class = "sound"
                alsa.class = "generic"
                alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
                alsa.name = ""
                alsa.id = "System Playback/Capture (*)"
                alsa.subdevice = "0"
                alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
                alsa.device = "0"
                alsa.card = "0"
                alsa.card_name = "bdw-rt5677"
                alsa.long_card_name = "bdw-rt5677"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_soc_sst_bdw_rt5677_mach"
                device.profile.name = "HiFi: hw:bdwrt5677: sink"
                device.profile.description = "Headphones + Speakers"
                card.profile.device = "0"
                device.id = "45"
                factory.name = "api.alsa.pcm.sink"
                priority.driver = "1000"
                priority.session = "1000"
                media.class = "Audio/Sink"
                node.nick = "bdw-rt5677"
                node.name = "alsa_output.platform-bdw-rt5677.HiFi__hw_bdwrt5677__sink"
                device.description = "Built-in Audio Headphones + Speakers"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card"
                node.pause-on-idle = "false"
                factory.id = "18"
                client.id = "32"
                node.driver = "true"
                factory.mode = "merge"
                audio.adapt.follower = ""
                library.name = "audioconvert/libspa-audioconvert"
                object.id = "48"
                node.max-latency = "1024/48000"
        Ports:
                [Out] Headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 300, availability group: Headphone, not available)
                [Out] Speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 100, availability unknown)
        Active Port: [Out] Speaker
        Formats:
                pcm

Reconnecting the bluetooth again doesn’t work, even though it shows up with pactl as before. I’ve also checked alsamixer and made sure everything was unmuted.

What should I do from here? Should I revert to pulseaudio and see if it works when the sink is not suspended? Why did the bluetooth work once then fail?

Output of inxi --full --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host

inxi
System:    Kernel: 5.10.36-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.5 
           tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: GOOGLE product: Samus v: EVT1 serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 9 
           serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: GOOGLE model: Samus v: EVT1 serial: <filter> UEFI: coreboot v: MrChromebox-4.12 
           date: 06/04/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 48.5 Wh (74.0%) condition: 65.5/72.3 Wh (90.6%) volts: 8.0 min: 7.6 
           model: SMP-ATL A55 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Discharging cycles: 388 
Memory:    RAM: total: 15.51 GiB used: 5.26 GiB (33.9%) 
           RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i7-5500U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Broadwell rev: 4 cache: 
           L2: 4 MiB bogomips: 19161 
           Speed: 2512 MHz min/max: 500/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2512 2: 2692 3: 2836 4: 2581 
           Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts 
           clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad 
           erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid 
           invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae 
           pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdseed 
           rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 
           tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave xsaveopt xtopology 
           xtpr 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1616 
           class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: Silicon Motion NCM-G102 type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-7:3 chip-ID: 2232:6001 
           class-ID: 0e02 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: intel 
           unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa resolution: 2560x1700~60Hz s-dpi: 192 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 
           chip-ID: 8086:160c class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.36-2-MANJARO running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
           Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: no 
           Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.28 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 1840 bus-ID: 01:00.0 
           chip-ID: 8086:08b1 class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
           IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
           WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-8:4 
           chip-ID: 8087:07dc class-ID: e001 
           Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: 
           hardware: no software: yes address: see --recommends 
Logical:   Message: No logical block device data found. 
           Device-1: luks-a96e049c-e778-4268-bf3f-24bda6abb66c type: LUKS dm: dm-0 size: 59.32 GiB 
           Components: p-1: sda2 
RAID:      Message: No RAID data found. 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 242.97 GiB used: 243.68 GiB (100.3%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Kingston model: RBU-SUS151S364GD size: 59.63 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 02.3 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Generic model: Power Saving USB size: 183.35 GiB 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0260 scheme: MBR 
           Message: No optical or floppy data found. 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 58.09 GiB used: 36.21 GiB (62.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 
           mapped: luks-a96e049c-e778-4268-bf3f-24bda6abb66c label: N/A 
           uuid: 7ec25ccd-995c-42df-9a15-e4776a67ccd5 
           ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 448 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 label: NO_LABEL 
           uuid: 7C26-72F2 
           ID-3: /home/<filter>/nextcloud size: 1 PiB used: 207.47 GiB (0.0%) fs: fuse.rclone 
           source: ERR-102 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile 
Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/sdb1 size: 183.33 GiB fs: <superuser required> label: N/A uuid: N/A 
USB:       Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 11 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
           Device-1: 1-4:2 info: Genesys Logic microSD Reader/Writer type: Mass Storage 
           driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 05e3:0727 
           class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter> 
           Device-2: 1-7:3 info: Silicon Motion NCM-G102 type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 
           rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 2232:6001 class-ID: 0e02 
           Device-3: 1-8:4 info: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: Bluetooth driver: btusb 
           interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:07dc class-ID: e001 
           Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 
           class-ID: 0900 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 95.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 258 Uptime: 6h 22m wakeups: 6 Init: systemd v: 247 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 
           clang: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1580 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 running-in: yakuake inxi: 3.3.04 

I’ve realized that sinks should be suspended when not in use, they show up as running when I do something that should produce output.

I’ve also found this reference. Running aplay -l gives:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: bdwrt5677 [bdw-rt5677], device 0: System Playback/Capture (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Maybe the issue is the order of sound cards? Should I try editing ~/.asoundrc to put card 1 ahead of card 0?

I just switched back pulseaudio with pamac remove --orphans manjaro-pipewire pipewire-media-session pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack gst-plugin-pipewire and pamac install manjaro-pulse.

For whatever reason it doesn’t seem to have the original issue any more. Had to manually install kmix to get the media key control and visual feedback back, and the ‘audio’ submenu in the settings manager is gone, but I can live with that.

1 Like
$ sudo pacman -Syu plasma-pa
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