Debian-12-minimal no sound with pipewire

User Support
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1

Hello. After installing pipewire in the template debian-12-minimal

apt install -y --no-install-recommends pipewire-pulse
apt install -y pipewire-qubes

I don’t hear a sound when file playback

pw-play /home/user/QubesIncoming/vault/Front_Center.wav

And I see lines in the log

debian-12-minimal systemd : pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionUser=!root).
debian-12-minimal systemd : pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionUser=!root).

The dpkg -l | grep pulseaudio command gives an empty output
In other anon-whonix templates, debian12-xfce TemplateWM pw-play works.

What can you advise me to solve such a problem?

2

What command did you use to see this log?
The pipewire is only started for non-root users, so you need to check the log for non-root user.
For example, search for pipewire messages in journalctl -b.
Or check pipewire and other services using systemctl:

systemctl --user status pipewire

Also check the Volume Control (pavucontrol) in dom0 and make sure that your qube is using the correct output device in the Playback tab.

3

in user

Summary 
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Queued start job for default target default.target.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Created slice app.slice - User Application Slice.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Created slice session.slice - User Core Session Slice.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Reached target paths.target - Paths.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Reached target timers.target - Timers.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Starting dbus.socket - D-Bus User Message Bus Socket...
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on dirmngr.socket - GnuPG network certificate management daemon.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on gpg-agent-browser.socket - GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (access for web browsers).
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on gpg-agent-extra.socket - GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on gpg-agent-ssh.socket - GnuPG cryptographic agent (ssh-agent emulation).
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on gpg-agent.socket - GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on pipewire-pulse.socket - PipeWire PulseAudio.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on pipewire.socket - PipeWire Multimedia System Socket.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Listening on dbus.socket - D-Bus User Message Bus Socket.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Reached target sockets.target - Sockets.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Reached target basic.target - Basic System.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Started pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Started pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Reached target default.target - Main User Target.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Startup finished in 1.496s.
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Starting dbus.service - D-Bus User Message Bus...
debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Started dbus.service - D-Bus User Message Bus.
debian-12-minimal qubes.StartApp+debian-xterm-dom0[784]: Warning: locale not supported by C library, locale unchanged

in user

Summary 
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service.d
             └─30_qubes.conf
     Active: active (running) 
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
   Main PID: 537 (pipewire)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 7680)
     Memory: 5.1M
        CPU: 73ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
             └─537 /usr/bin/pipewire

debian-12-minimal systemd[519]: Started pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service.

In Volume Control, the parameters are the same for all VMs. However, the only thing that doesn’t have sound is in the Debian-12-minimal template and the AppVM based on it.

4

I installed pamixer in debian-12-minimal and debian-12-xfce and it has different output.

user@debian-12-xfce:~$ pamixer --list-sinks
Sinks:
36 "qubes-sink" "Suspended" "Qubes Virtual Audio Sink"

user@debian-12-minimal:~$ pamixer --list-sinks
The sink doesn't exist
5

I found the problem, Qubes OS needs the wireplumber package for sound to work and it’s not installed by default when installing pipewire-pulse:

apt install -y --no-install-recommends pipewire-pulse

Because wireplumber is not a dependency of pipewire-pulse, it’s only a recommended package.

I’ll update the “Advanced way” in Waydroid guide to also install the wireplumber package.

1 Like
6

Thank you very much! After

apt install -y --no-install-recommends wireplumber

sound works!!! :fireworks: