pipewire wiki seems unclear - how should it be started?

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pipewire wiki seems unclear - how should it be started?

26 April 2025, 03:44:46

see https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Site/PipewireInsteadPulseaudio

i'm having trouble understanding this sentence:
"You can launch that instead of just adding the commands."

how should i launch that? for example, do i just run it once, or do i have to put it somewhere so it runs on every boot? and if so, where? and how do i know if i'm in an XDG session, and if D-Bus is set up correctly? i'm setting up a pro audio system for live performances, so i can't have things just breaking!

just adding the commands... to what? add them to what?!
"add at the startup of your DE"... how do i do that? where?

i'm running artix linux with open rc and kde plasma.

please update the wiki if you can, thanks!

p.s.
"To avoid speakers to go idle you can create the file ~/.config/wireplumber/ with this content: "
seems like it should read
To avoid speakers to go idle you can create the file ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf with this content: "

Re: pipewire wiki seems unclear - how should it be started?

Reply #1 – 26 April 2025, 04:40:27

There's lots of ways to do it. Hence why it can get a tad confusing as it used to depend on how you start X (or wayland) as to how to approach it.

But since recently openrc supports 'user services' so you can take that approach (not in the wiki).

Check this command returns output to ensure user services are enabled.

Code: [Select]

pgrep -fa "supervise-daemon user."

If you see similar to

Quote

3114 supervise-daemon user.lee --start /usr/lib/openrc/bin/openrc-user -- lee

you are good.
Run this command

Code: [Select]

mkdir ~/.config/rc/init.d

In that directory create the three following files

(filename) pipewire
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

#!/usr/bin/openrc-run

supervisor="supervise-daemon"
description="Low-latency audio/video router and processor"
command="/usr/bin/pipewire"

pipewire-pulse
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

#!/usr/bin/openrc-run

supervisor="supervise-daemon"
description="Low-latency audio/video router and processor - PulseAudio replacement"
command="/usr/bin/pipewire-pulse"

depend() {
	need pipewire
}

wireplumber
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

#!/usr/bin/openrc-run

supervisor="supervise-daemon"
description="Session / policy manager implementation for PipeWire"
command="/usr/bin/wireplumber"

depend() {
	need pipewire
	after pipewire-pulse
}

Make them executable

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chmod +x ~/.config/rc/init.d/*

Enable the user services

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rc-update --user add pipewire default
rc-update --user add pipewire-pulse default
rc-update --user add wireplumber default

Reboot and it should work. (you do need to have installed pipewire , pipewire-pulse and wireplumber)

That's how I do it anyway I thought it would lessen the confusion just giving one detailed method?

Re: pipewire wiki seems unclear - how should it be started?

Reply #2 – 26 April 2025, 06:16:53

it didn't work. sound is still broken. i was lucky to guess how to undo those commands:

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rc-update --user del pipewire default
rc-update --user del pipewire-pulse default
rc-update --user del wireplumber default

the wiki is a disaster and needs to be updated. my sound is broken, and i have yet to figure out how to even get back to just using alsa.

Re: pipewire wiki seems unclear - how should it be started?

Reply #3 – 26 April 2025, 11:14:58

Quote from: crunchbonk – on 26 April 2025, 06:16:53

it didn't work. sound is still broken. i was lucky to guess how to undo those commands:

Code: [Select]
rc-update --user del pipewire default
rc-update --user del pipewire-pulse default
rc-update --user del wireplumber default
the wiki is a disaster and needs to be updated. my sound is broken, and i have yet to figure out how to even get back to just using alsa.

Those are the commands to disable the services yes.

Just because the wiki doesn't address your exact issue, whatever that is, doesn't make it a disaster.
It explains how to start pipewire in many ways as many ways are possible and the right way depends you your setup and potentially also your choice of init (as I already explained)

With the services disabled what output do you get when you run.

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/usr/bin/pipewire & /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse & /usr/bin/wireplumber &

Also you now mention 'back'
Did you have sound and now you don't ?
Sometimes if there's more than one audio output you have to select it in the KDE Sound Settings - Playback Devices - and chose the right profile if many are listed.
If Playback Devices list no devices, or your audio devices is not listed, then you may have a lower level issue than pipewire ?

Edit: You are right about the ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf mistake.
Personally I've never needed that file.

Re: pipewire wiki seems unclear - how should it be started?

Reply #4 – 26 April 2025, 11:20:03

Please provide more details, like what did not work, were the 3 processes from the services present in the output of ps -ef after reboot, etc.

artist

Re: pipewire wiki seems unclear - how should it be started?

Reply #5 – 26 April 2025, 17:51:25

PipeWire also requires dbus user session or service which isn't mentioned in the wiki.

I use dinit and dbus user service:

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type = process
command = /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session --nofork --address unix:path=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/bus
smooth-recovery = true

I guess you may write openrc service based on command above.