"pamac update" returns errors about pulseaudio

When I try and run pamac update to apply package updates I get the following errors:

pamac update
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Warning: removing pulseaudio breaks dependency 'pulseaudio=14.2-2' required by pulseaudio-equalizer
Add pulseaudio-equalizer to remove
Warning: removing pulseaudio breaks dependency 'pulseaudio=14.2-2' required by pulseaudio-jack
Add pulseaudio-jack to remove
Warning: removing pulseaudio breaks dependency 'pulseaudio=14.2-2' required by pulseaudio-lirc
Add pulseaudio-lirc to remove
Warning: removing pulseaudio breaks dependency 'pulseaudio=14.2-2' required by pulseaudio-rtp
Add pulseaudio-rtp to remove
Warning: removing pulseaudio breaks dependency 'pulseaudio=14.2-2' required by pulseaudio-zeroconf
Add pulseaudio-zeroconf to remove
Error: Failed to prepare transaction:
could not satisfy dependencies:
- removing pulseaudio-jack breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-jack' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-zeroconf breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-zeroconf' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-lirc breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-lirc' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-rtp breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-rtp' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-equalizer breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-equalizer' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...
Error: Failed to prepare transaction:
could not satisfy dependencies:
- removing pulseaudio-jack breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-jack' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-zeroconf breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-zeroconf' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-lirc breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-lirc' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-rtp breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-rtp' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry
- removing pulseaudio-equalizer breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-equalizer' required by manjaro-pulse,
- if possible, remove manjaro-pulse and retry

Reading around it seems that pulseaudio has been replaced with pipewire. So where does that leave me?

Should I just be able to run “pamac remove manjaro-pulse” and this should be resolved? How could this have happened? What further investigation should I do?

2 Likes

Hi @outsidefactor ,
Similar happened to me so I removed manjaro-pulse and then updated. After updating everything was working fine with audio. You can also install manjaro-pipewire package optionally after the update

PulseAudio is still the default audio server on Manjaro and Pipewire is still a beta project

The Pulseeffects developer changed the package dependencies to include pipewire-pulse
which is marked as conflicting with pulseaudio and pulseaudio-bluetooth

where does that leave me?

you have 2 options

4 Likes

Thanks for the supporting info! saurabh’s solution was a better one. I think I used manjaro-pulse as a way to fix a pulseaudio package getting removed last year or while I was doing something else, meaning it could no longer be removed automagically on upgrade.

You seem to indicate that Pipewire is still beta and PulseAudio is the default audio server, but is that the case? I am not tracking the experimental branch and yet pipewire is being installed in favor pulseaudio when I run pamac update, suggesting that either Manjaro are now selecting a beta audio server or it’s no longer beta.

From my very brief reading it seems that pipewire is the only fix for certain problems, especially for KDE and Weyland. From what I can understand, because pipewire is based on polkit authentication it will allow WebRTC recording of audio (which might solve the current problem streaming game audio to Discord) as just one example.

I can see that pipewire is version 0.3.something, so not release by that measure, but I am fairly sure that Manjaro has a few 0.something version packages it relies on. Perhaps the team thought that the beta was better than sticking with pulseaudio?

Anyway, seems resolved for me. Will reboot and test!

PulseAudio is the default audio server
IMO Pipewire is not an option for audio production and I expect to continue using JACK with a bit of PulseAudio for many more years
I expect that will continue to be possible on Manjaro

The Team has made no announcement about any change so far and I have no idea what they are thinking
But I would not expect any Arch-based distribution to consider any change before Arch

1 Like

I don’t think anyone has any choice, in the long run. As I understand it (and I am the first to admit an imperfect understanding) to resolve the recording issue with WebRTC and many others the audio server has to work with polkit auth, and pulseaudio doesn’t (and possibly can’t) do that. Hence why pipewire is an essential move.

IMO your understanding is incorrect

Manjaro - Under Your Control

Change everything you need
Every person is different and needs an operating system that doesn’t try to enforce a specific workflow, visual style or certain programs. Manjaro comes with default settings, that we believe are helpful to most users. But as with most Linux distributions, you still have every option to configure, change, remove or replace whatever you like.

Control Your PC
As like many other Linux distributions, we believe that privacy, security and keeping control are among the most valuable things for a user…
…But you, the user, will always be in control of your own computer. It’s your hardware and your operating system.

This topic was automatically closed 15 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.