PipeWire

• the latest framework that claims to 'fix' linux audio
• existing interfaces e.g. alsa, pulse, jack are emulated
  • the idea is that existing tools/apps will 'just work' without modification
  • fair in the case of a well-known browser that refuses to talk to anything but pulse

Problems

• in practice interface emulation is incomplete, so tools in particular are less capable than before
  • this is inevitable, interfaces will only be as complete as what looks good, they will never be as powerful as the real thing
• all audio hardware is grabbed on startup denying anything else from using it directly
  • furthermore, nothing works over ssh (or systemd linger) unless a real login session is open
• pipewire seems to be under the control of something called wireplumber, via a secret interface and with impenetrable configuration
  • presumably this makes sense to certain individuals, but users want task-focused tooling
  • specifically, don't force me to be a config expert before i can make changes

Parallels with PulseAudio

• deployed at the exclusion of legacy services when migration paths are missing
• obsession with the way things 'should' be done at the expense of use-cases of real users
  • in particular, aggressive teardown of user services after logout
• criticism from real users rudely dismissed, for example https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?t=24830
  • the users are supposed to be in control, not the machine
• please do not force users to understand systemd, it is like unconsensually involving them in a kink

Can we fix it

• it is essential that users have the power to take matters into their own hands if necessary
  • this is not a support burden, power users can support each other
• make common tasks easy and sophisticated tasks possible
  • just playing sound is common, session management is sophisticated
• grab a subset of hardware based on config
  • this can be a sensible default for users who don't know what hardware they have

Use case

• fundamentally, on my server i have the hardware and want to send audio to it without jumping through hoops such as lua
• one instance of mpd for builtin audio, running as a regular user, and it should continue to be audible after logout
  • in the future another mpd for hdmi, and further instances for any usb audio adapters i might add

Just use ALSA

• sudo systemctl --global disable everything with pipewire or wireplumber in its name
  • this includes something called filter-chain
  • check no such symlinks remain under /etc/systemd
  • reboot and verify nothing with wire in its name is running, both over ssh and when logged in properly
• add self to audio group
  • aplay -L should work now
  • probably need to crank volume back up using alsamixer