Debian-minimal template for sys-audio

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Just for clarification, I’m to update the guide posted in post #2. And because I cannot edit that post, I’ll post it here.
Creation of sys-audio:
In dom0:

  1. Copy your debian-11-minimal to name deb11-audio.

In deb11-audio:

  1. Install qubes-usb-proxy qubes-input-proxy-sender alsa-utils alsa-oss alsa-ucm-conf alsa-firmware-loaders without --no-install-recommends.
  2. Install pavucontrol pulseaudio qubes-core-admin-client qubes-gui-daemon-pulseaudio pulseaudio-qubes with --no-install-recommends.
    3.1. Remove pulseaudio through apt. Note that some other packages are also removed. Copy the list of removed packages in the terminal.
    3.2 Install those removed packages whose names were copied, including pulseaudio.
  3. Create a file at /etc/modprobe.d/, name it 50-snd.conf, and put options snd_hda_intel power_save=0 in it. Shutdown the template.

In dom0:

  1. Create a appvm named sys-audio based on deb11-audio. Assign your PCI audio devices to it. Configure them to be no-strict-reset.
  2. Create 50-sys-audio.policy in dom0 at /etc/qubes/policy.d/, enter those policy lines at #2.
  3. In Qubes-Settings of sys-audio, turn to “Services” page, Add a (custom…) service called “audiovm”.
  4. Run qubes-prefs default_audiovm sys-audio. Boot up sys-audio.

At this point, you have a working sys-audio. Any newly started qube is using sys-audio as its audio sink. You can start a new disposable and play music in it.

To adjust volume:
Run pavucontrol in a terminal in sys-audio. You’ll have a graphical interface to do adjust the volume.

To enable bluetooth:
See @dom0’s detailed guide.
Please note that if you are using a wireless card that also provides bluetooth, then the bluetooth device might appear in the Device Widget as a strange string of numbers, for example, 8087_2345.

To enable shortcut adjusting volume:
Add a shortcut based on your desktop environment (Xfce, KDE, etc.) to run the command qvm-run sys-audio 'amixer sset Master 2%+', which will turn up the volume.
Add a shortcut based on your desktop environment (Xfce, KDE, etc.) to run the command qvm-run sys-audio 'amixer sset Master 2%-', which will turn down the volume.
Add a shortcut based on your desktop environment (Xfce, KDE, etc.) to run the command qvm-run sys-audio 'amixer sset Master toggle', which will toggle the audio between muted and unmuted.

The shortcut can be the default Fn+F1/2/3 combinations. For KDE, no further config is required. For Xfce4, you might have to disable some audio related services in dom0, in order that your shortcut is correctly passed to sys-audio. That part is beyond this post and will not be discussed.

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