Dependency loop preventing reinstallation of pulseaudio

[Persephone]

I am trying to reinstall Pulseaudio because Pipewire doesnt work well with Firefox.

I had some problems but was finally able to remove manjaro-pipewire with Pamac, and install barebones Pulseaudio (no optional packages) and turn Pulseaudio on in syscontrol.
However, there are still pipewire packages I cannot remove, and I still cannot add optional packages to pulseaudio.

The main problem appears to be that I installed Ardour.
There is a circular set of dependencies between Ardour and some pipewire packages. Is there any way to force removal of a package despite the dependency, or removing it together with the dependency?

   ~  inxi -Aa                                                                                ✔  4s  
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0b:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 0d:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.6.19-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.3 status: off with: 1: pipewire-media-session
    status: off 2: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pw-cat,pw-cli
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl
    ~  pamac install manjaro-pulse                                                                    ✔ 
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Refreshing AUR...                                                                                             
                                                                                                              
Choose optional dependencies for manjaro-pulse:
 1:  paprefs: Configuration dialog
 2:  pasystray: system tray application
 3:  pavucontrol: A GTK volume control tool
 4:  pavucontrol-qt: A Qt volume control tool
 5:  pulseaudio-equalizer: Graphical equalizer
 6:  pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa: A 15-band equalizer
 7:  pulseaudio-jack: Jack support
 8:  pulseaudio-lirc: IR (lirc) support
 9:  pulseaudio-rtp: RTP and RAOP support
10:  pulseaudio-zeroconf: Zeroconf support

Enter a selection (default=none): 1,2,4,5,6 

Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...
Error: Failed to prepare transaction:
could not satisfy dependencies:
- removing pipewire-jack breaks dependency 'jack' required by ardour
- removing pipewire-jack breaks dependency 'libjack.so=0-64' required by ardour

I’m happy to provide other info, of course, if needed. Thank you for your help, and taking time to read this!

[mithrial]

This looks like a xy problem. What is your actual problem with pipewire and Firefox?

If ardour requires pipewire, there is no other way than to either stay with pipewire or remove ardour.

[Persephone]

Man, you are fast! Thanks!
Firefox forces max volume every time I touch the web player. It appears to be a problem without resolution and Firefox states they use Pulseaudio. I tried Pipewire hoping it would fix some bluetooth headphone issues, but it did not.

I do not need Ardour, I installed because it intrigued me. Unfortunately that same circular dependency refuses to let me uninstall Ardour. This is way I was hoping there might be a way to force uninstall.

[mithrial]

What happens if you remove ardour?

pamac remove ardour

Or maybe in your available choices, simply also install the jack package (choice 7)?

[Yochanan]

btwn

Please don’t invent abbreviations. This is a support forum, not a social network. Please see How to Post and edit your topic title appropriately.

@Persephone

there are still pipewire packages I cannot remove

That’s because some packages require it. You can’t remove them and shouldn’t be trying to. What’s important is the active audio server:

❯ inxi -A | grep Server
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.4 status: active

Please see:

• PulseAudio - ArchWiki
• PipeWire - ArchWiki

[Persephone]

As you can see, there there were dependencies. I removed them, removed ardour, installed the pulseaudio options, but this time I chose audacity. Not I am getting the same error about pipewire-jack, but with audacity this time.

   ~  sudo pacman -R ardour                                                                        1 ✘ 
[sudo] password for alexandra: 
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for alexandra: 
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing ardour breaks dependency 'lv2-host' required by zam-plugins-lv2
    ~  pamac zam-plugins-lv2                                                                1 ✘  14s  
Available actions:
  pamac --version     
  pamac --help, -h     [action]
  pamac search         [options] <package(s)>
  pamac list           [options] <package(s)>
  pamac info           [options] <package(s)>
  pamac install        [options] <package(s)>
  pamac reinstall      [options] <package(s)>
  pamac remove         [options] [package(s)]
  pamac checkupdates   [options]
  pamac update,upgrade [options]
  pamac clone          [options] <package(s)>
  pamac build          [options] [package(s)]
  pamac clean          [options]
    ~  pamac remove zam-plugins-lv2                                                                   ✔ 
Preparing...
Checking dependencies...

To remove (1):
  zam-plugins-lv2  4.2-1    extra

Total removed size: 34.3 MB

Apply transaction ? [y/N] y
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: Alexandra (alexandra)
Password: 
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ====
Removing zam-plugins-lv2 (4.2-1)...                                                                      [1/1]
Running post-transaction hooks...
Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...                                                                           [1/2]
Refreshing PackageKit...                                                                                 [2/2]
Transaction successfully finished.
    ~  pamac remove ardour                                                                     ✔  8s  
Preparing...
Checking dependencies...

To remove (1):
  ardour  8.4-1    extra

Total removed size: 98.5 MB

Apply transaction ? [y/N] y
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: Alexandra (alexandra)
Password: 
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ====
Removing ardour (8.4-1)...                                                                               [1/1]
Running post-transaction hooks...
Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...                                                                           [1/5]
Updating the MIME type database...                                                                       [2/5]
Refreshing PackageKit...                                                                                 [3/5]
Updating icon theme caches...                                                                            [4/5]
Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...                                                             [5/5]
Transaction successfully finished.
    ~  pamac install manjaro-pulse                                                            ✔  18s  
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Refreshing AUR...                                                                                             
                                                                                                              
Choose optional dependencies for manjaro-pulse:
 1:  paprefs: Configuration dialog
 2:  pasystray: system tray application
 3:  pavucontrol: A GTK volume control tool
 4:  pavucontrol-qt: A Qt volume control tool
 5:  pulseaudio-equalizer: Graphical equalizer
 6:  pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa: A 15-band equalizer
 7:  pulseaudio-jack: Jack support
 8:  pulseaudio-lirc: IR (lirc) support
 9:  pulseaudio-rtp: RTP and RAOP support
10:  pulseaudio-zeroconf: Zeroconf support

Enter a selection (default=none): 1,2,3,4,5,6

Choose a provider for ladspa-host:
1:  ardour      8.4-1      extra
2:  audacity    1:3.4.2-3  extra
3:  carla       2.5.8-1    extra
4:  element     0.46.6-1   extra
5:  muse        4.2.1-1    extra
6:  qtractor    0.9.39-3   extra
7:  rosegarden  23.12-1    extra

Enter a number (default=1): 2

Resolving dependencies...
Choose a provider for ladspa-host:
1:  ardour      8.4-1      extra
2:  audacity    1:3.4.2-3  extra
3:  carla       2.5.8-1    extra
4:  element     0.46.6-1   extra
5:  muse        4.2.1-1    extra
6:  qtractor    0.9.39-3   extra
7:  rosegarden  23.12-1    extra

Enter a number (default=1): 2

Checking inter-conflicts...
Error: Failed to prepare transaction:
could not satisfy dependencies:
- unable to satisfy dependency 'jack' required by audacity
- removing pipewire-jack breaks dependency 'libjack.so=0-64' required by aubio
    ~       

[Persephone]

Thank you, as I posted before, Pulsecontrol is active, but I am still having these problems.

inxi -Aa                                                                                ✔  4s  
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0b:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 0d:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.6.19-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.3 status: off with: 1: pipewire-media-session
    status: off 2: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pw-cat,pw-cli
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl

I am very sorry for the abbreviation.

[Yochanan]

@Persephone

I am very sorry for the abbreviation.

@Yochanan

Please see How to Post and edit your topic title appropriately.

[Persephone]

Thank you I have done that.

Checking inter-conflicts...
Error: Failed to prepare transaction:
could not satisfy dependencies:
- unable to satisfy dependency 'jack' required by audacity
- removing pipewire-jack breaks dependency 'libjack.so=0-64' required by aubio

(aubio was ardour before I removed it and replaced with audacity)
The above seems to be the crux of the problem. Although I have removed manjaro-pipewire, I can do no more than reinstall pulseaudio without any options, because pipewire-jack remains. If I try to remove pipewire-jack, it states it is required by various programs. if I remove those, then new ones appear.

Is there any way to force removal of pipewire-jack?

[Yochanan]

@Persephone

I have done that.

Are you sure? I see no edits.

@Persephone

I have removed manjaro-pipewire

Did you try installing manjaro-pulse instead?

What you seem to be tripping up on is trying to manually remove things that you cannot (and should not) because other things depend on them.

At the very least, try installing pulseaudio-jack and it will prompt to remove pipewire-jack.

[Persephone]

Thank you for your reply. Installing Manjaro-pulse via pamac is exactly what I did. If you look at my first post, I show the results of that.
I was able to install manjaro-pulse with no options. However if I try to install with any options, I still get the pipewire-jack conflict.

Believe me I do not desire make any of this uneccesarily difficult.

I manually installed pulseaudio-jack, and that appeared to work, however, I did not get a prompt to remove pipewire-jack, and then when I tried to reinstall pulseaudio with other options, the pipewire conflict reappears.

pamac install pulseaudio-jack                                                          ✔  23s  
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Refreshing AUR...                                                                                             
Resolving dependencies...                                                                                     
Checking inter-conflicts...

To install (1):
  pulseaudio-jack  17.0-3    extra  19.5 kB

Total download size: 19.5 kB
Total installed size: 83.6 kB

Apply transaction ? [y/N] y
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: Alexandra (alexandra)
Password: 
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ====
Download of pulseaudio-jack (17.0-3) started                                                                  
Download of pulseaudio-jack (17.0-3) finished                                                                 
Checking keyring...                                                                                      [1/1]
Checking integrity...                                                                                    [1/1]
Loading packages files...                                                                                [1/1]
Checking file conflicts...                                                                               [1/1]
Checking available disk space...                                                                         [1/1]
Installing pulseaudio-jack (17.0-3)...                                                                   [1/1]
Running post-transaction hooks...
Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...                                                                           [1/2]
Refreshing PackageKit...                                                                                 [2/2]
Transaction successfully finished.
    ~  Pamac install manjaro-pulse                                                            ✔  17s  
zsh: correct 'Pamac' to 'pamac' [nyae]? y
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...


Choose optional dependencies for manjaro-pulse:
1:  paprefs: Configuration dialog
2:  pasystray: system tray application
3:  pavucontrol: A GTK volume control tool
4:  pavucontrol-qt: A Qt volume control tool
5:  pulseaudio-equalizer: Graphical equalizer
6:  pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa: A 15-band equalizer
7:  pulseaudio-lirc: IR (lirc) support
8:  pulseaudio-rtp: RTP and RAOP support
9:  pulseaudio-zeroconf: Zeroconf support

Enter a selection (default=none): 1,2,3,4,5,6,

Choose a provider for ladspa-host:
1:  ardour      8.4-1      extra
2:  audacity    1:3.4.2-3  extra
3:  carla       2.5.8-1    extra
4:  element     0.46.6-1   extra
5:  muse        4.2.1-1    extra
6:  qtractor    0.9.39-3   extra
7:  rosegarden  23.12-1    extra

Enter a number (default=1): 2

Resolving dependencies...
Choose a provider for ladspa-host:
1:  ardour      8.4-1      extra
2:  audacity    1:3.4.2-3  extra
3:  carla       2.5.8-1    extra
4:  element     0.46.6-1   extra
5:  muse        4.2.1-1    extra
6:  qtractor    0.9.39-3   extra
7:  rosegarden  23.12-1    extra

Enter a number (default=1): 2

Checking inter-conflicts...
Error: Failed to prepare transaction:
could not satisfy dependencies:
- unable to satisfy dependency 'jack' required by audacity
- removing pipewire-jack breaks dependency 'libjack.so=0-64' required by aubio

I believe the title is properly fixed now, sorry

[nikgnomic]

You already have the 2 main PulseAudio packages installed

I suggest you try installing pulseaudio-jack and jack2

pamac install pulseaudio-jack jack2

if pamac asks to choose any optional dependencies press enter to select none

[Yochanan]

@Persephone

- unable to satisfy dependency 'jack' required by audacity
- removing pipewire-jack breaks dependency 'libjack.so=0-64' required by aubio```

Install jack2 and it will prompt to remove pipewire-jack. Sorry, forgot to double-check what package provides libjack.so earlier.

[Persephone]

That did it! Thank you very much!

[Persephone]

Thank you so much! That was the solution!