Constant need to restart pipewire

[DORpave]

In one of the last updates of packages, I can unfortunetily not recognise when and which package it was, something with my sound and probably in general with media got broken.
Every time I want to start anything with sound, like an mp3-file, spotify or even a YouTube video, I do not hear any sound. YouTube videos do not even play.
This is the case until I run this command here:
systemctl --user restart pipewire

Then it works for this session until I change the source of the sound, like stopping spotify and starting it again, or starting a new youtube video. This became quite annoying.

Interestingly, this happens on two different computers, both with Manjaro and newest packages.

A status for pipewire does not show any errors:
Apr 30 22:57:22 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.

The journalctl shows how often I need to restart it:

journalctl --user -u pipewire --since "10 minutes ago"
Apr 30 22:55:54 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Stopping PipeWire Multimedia Service...
Apr 30 22:55:54 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Stopped PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Apr 30 22:55:54 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Apr 30 22:57:22 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Stopping PipeWire Multimedia Service...
Apr 30 22:57:22 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Stopped PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Apr 30 22:57:22 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Apr 30 23:03:25 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Stopping PipeWire Multimedia Service...
Apr 30 23:03:25 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Stopped PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Apr 30 23:03:25 Mycroft systemd[1570]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.

My system info from inxi:

inxi -F            
System:
  Host: Mycroft Kernel: 6.12.21-4-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: GNOME v: 48.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: B550M AORUS ELITE v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Gigabyte model: B550M AORUS ELITE v: x.x
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F13a
    date: 01/27/2021
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1734 min/max: 550/4651 cores: 1: 1734 2: 1734 3: 1734
    4: 1734 5: 1734 6: 1734 7: 1734 8: 1734 9: 1734 10: 1734 11: 1734 12: 1734
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1650] driver: nvidia v: 570.133.07
  Device-2: Logitech Webcam C310 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: N/A failed: nvidia
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 2560x1440~60Hz
    2: 2560x1440~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nouveau,nvidia,swrast
    platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 570.133.07
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650/PCIe/SSE2
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo gpu: nvidia-smi x11: xprop,xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-3: Logitech Webcam C310 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.21-4-MANJARO status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.1 status: active
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0-43-g3e2bb status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210/AX1675 2x2 [Typhoon Peak] driver: iwlwifi
  IF: wlp4s0 state: down mac: f6:58:f4:e1:c3:a2
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: b4:2e:99:f2:78:7b
  IF-ID-1: docker0 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: 9a:5b:92:ed:b3:0d
  IF-ID-2: vethc096f13 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: a6:1b:ec:17:11:41
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth driver: btusb type: USB
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.36 TiB used: 336.88 GiB (24.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB
    size: 465.76 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB
    size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 922.41 GiB used: 336.88 GiB (36.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 752 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme1n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 922.41 GiB used: 336.88 GiB (36.5%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-0
  ID-4: /var/log size: 922.41 GiB used: 336.88 GiB (36.5%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-0
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/dm-1
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 40.8 C mobo: 30.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.29 GiB used: 8.32 GiB (26.6%)
  Processes: 416 Uptime: 7d 4h 25m Shell: Zsh inxi: 3.3.38

I am honestly not sure what other info I should provide, but I can sent everything which is of help.
What is interesting is that this is actually happening on two different computers. The output here, of course is one single one

Does anybody have a hunch what that can be? I have seen quite a few audiobugs in this forum here, which looked similar, but not quite some which looked like mine

[ydar]

@DORpave

  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.1 status: active
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0-43-g3e2bb status: active

Do you need Pulseaudio? Could it be part of the problem?

On my system it’s no longer installed, but there are a few pulseaudio related packages: libpulse pipewire-pulse pulseaudio-qt and everything seems to be fine (audio related).

[nikgnomic]

[Stable Update] 2025-03-24 - Known Issues and Solutions

▼ No sound from PulseAudio after PipeWire update

If PulseAudio audio playback is suspended after PipeWire update, unload module-suspend-on-idle

pactl unload module module-suspend-on-idle

If that works, create a custom default.pa configuration for PulseAudio in home folder

cp /etc/pulse/default.pa ~/.config/pulse/default.pa

and comment out module-suspend-on-idle in custom configuration

sed -i '/load-module module-suspend-on-idle/s/^/#/' ~/.config/pulse/default.pa

Or install manjaro-pipewire to replace pulseaudio with pipewire-pulse

[nikgnomic]

@soundofthunder

You should have one or the other, but not both.

@LordTermor

Please stop spreading misinformation.

Inxi shows that both PA and PW are running which is a normal situation for PA-machines with GNOME or KDE as those require PW for working with WebRTC and video.

@nikgnomic

New users on Manjaro forum are often misinformed about 2 audio servers running on Manjaro, based on information from inxi only
Users can also be further misinformed by only being told to install PipeWire to replace PulseAudio

 

[soundofthunder]

It seems I have been likewise ill-informed with respect inxi results showing both PipeWire and PulseAudio active simultaneously.

Post removed pending more accurate information.

[DORpave]

Hello there,
Thank you very much for all of your answers!

I do not know why there is pipewire and pulseaudio installed at the same time, but I assume it has always been there. I checked three manjaro installations I have done in the past, they all have both.

I have tried the solution from nikgnomic above and after a restart, everything seems to work. I have now used one of them for an hour without any problems. I therefore assume that this was in fact the solution

I will update the topic if this is not the case.

I thank you all for your help and wish you a wonderful day.

[nikgnomic]

@DORpave

I do not know why there is pipewire and pulseaudio installed at the same time, but I assume it has always been there. I checked three manjaro installations I have done in the past, they all have both.

pipewire is a multimedia server and is needed for wayland support

Before Jan 2024, Manjaro ISOs included pulseaudio and jack2 software audio servers
since Jan 2024, ISOs include pipewire-pulse and jack2
(except for Manjaro i3wm that includes jack2 only)