Upgraded to 4.2 and Audio No Longer Works

Here’s the output from systemctl --user status pulseaudio:

● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2023-12-31 07:31:15 EST; 24h ago
TriggeredBy: ● pulseaudio.socket
   Main PID: 4462 (pulseaudio)
      Tasks: 8 (limit: 4592)
     Memory: 9.6M
        CPU: 15.529s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pulseaudio.service
             ├─4462 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=journal
             └─4569 /usr/libexec/pulse/gsettings-helper

Dec 31 07:31:15 dom0 systemd[4166]: Started pulseaudio.service - Sound Service.
Dec 31 07:33:46 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: ALSA woke us up to read new data from the device, but there was actually nothing to read.
Dec 31 07:33:46 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_usb_audio'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Dec 31 07:33:46 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: We were woken up with POLLIN set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
Dec 31 07:34:41 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: Disabling timer-based scheduling because running inside a VM.
Dec 31 07:35:20 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: Disabling timer-based scheduling because running inside a VM.
Dec 31 07:36:37 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: Disabling timer-based scheduling because running inside a VM.
Dec 31 07:36:42 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write.
Dec 31 07:36:42 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Dec 31 07:36:42 dom0 pulseaudio[4462]: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.

By now I learned that the template (debian-12 in my case) is likely the root cause and not the dom0 pulseaudio instance.
debian-11 templates work fine for me for example. Admittedly I haven’t yet updated debian-11 with 4.2 repos, i.e. results may vary.
I didn’t test fedora, but possibly it works.

I’ll put my findings here: No sound via pulseaudio from upgraded debian-12 VMs · Issue #8816 · QubesOS/qubes-issues · GitHub

I tried switching from pipewire to pulseaudio inside a debian-12-xfce based template to see if it would work for me.
I installed pulseaudio-qubes in the template (it force removed qubes-vm-recommended) and then started a qube from it. Audio worked and pipewire did not start. start-pulseaudio-with-vchan was also installed (it was not before).
Have you tried installing a fresh debian-12 template just to see if it works?

I had misinterpreted dpkg -l | grep pulseaudio-qubes with rc in front as it being installed.
So yes, you had the correct idea, thanks!

qubes-vm-recommended shouldn’t be removed by Qubes OS though - that’s why I’ll leave my aforementioned issue open.

I just checked the package list you provided in your github issue, and if I’m not mistaken, you didn’t even have pipewire itself installed on that template. You have the libs, but pipewire, pipewire-bin, pipewire-pulse and wireplumber are not there. Can you check and see if you have them and pipewire-qubes too?

Yes, I had removed pipewire et al by purpose before and installed pulseaudio.

Oh, my bad, I didn’t see the steps you provided in the issue post.

Same issue for me after upgrade from 4.1 to 4.2. I’m using “Built-In Audio” (analog 1/8" jack) on a Lenovo.
I resolved by switching the profile from “Analog Stereo Output” to “Analog Stereo Duplex”.

Qubes System Settings > PulseAudio Volume Control > Configuration (tab)

same here with me. I solved it by uninstalling pipewire in dom0:

sudo dnf remove pipewire

as qubes_lover pointed out here:

I did not have to do any modifications in templates however.

It would be interesting if this problem also occurs after a clean 4.2. install

(obsolete: before that I always had to do my workaround:
Settings–> pulse Audio Volume there I have to change the profile (which is set to analog audio output) to something different and than back to analog audio output. )

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Had the same issue on Librem14 QubesOS upgrade from 4.1.1 to 4.2.0

Removing pipewire and rebooting resolved the issue for me too, thanks!

@Mol asked about clean installs. I clean-installed on two different machines and had this issue.

Not having read all of the way through this, I’ll point out that one symptom of this problem is videos stopping after about one second; I saw the same behavior in Clementine with music files.

I saw the video issue first and I initially thought YouTube was just being cranky about me using an ad blocker. That’s basically the only way I ever get audio on my laptop. In other words, I’ve been having this problem since I upgraded my laptop about a month ago, but because of the circumstances, didn’t realize it was an audio issue.

But in upgrading on my desktop I had issues with Clementine music files as well and that clued me in.

This sequence cleared things up on my desktop (had to restart VMs if they were already running).

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…And THIS fixed my laptop, once doing the stuff with pipewire did not work. (I don’t know if both actions were necessary or not.)

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(please ignore. I forgot to quote what “this solved” was, so I re-posted)
This solved it for me as well. before deleting the pulse folder the PulseAudio didn’t even recognize that I had an analog output and only showed the digital output of the (onboard) audio card. Now it sees both but I still experience no-sound on several App-VMs. I suspect it is on the “minimal” ones but will look into it only after I make sure the rest my (more essential) VM’s and applications work.

This solved it for me as well. before deleting the pulse folder the PulseAudio didn’t even recognize that I had an analog output and only showed the digital output of the (onboard) audio card. Now it sees both but I still experience no-sound on several App-VMs. I suspect it is on the “minimal” ones but will look into it only after I make sure the rest my (more essential) VM’s and applications work.

Funny that this should show up again; I was just coming here to look for it.

I’m seeing the same symptoms all of the sudden just in the last two or three hours, and nothing on here fixes it.

Audio and Youtube playbacks “freeze up” after a second; no sound.

[Edit: Fixed. I didn’t just have to do a reboot of the VMs, but rather of the entire system.]

Aaaaaaaand…audio is again completely dead after an update.

Apparently dom0 no longer has pulseaudio installed. I suppose I could install it, but maybe it was removed for a reason.

I had the same issue, removed PulseAudio and installed PipeWire + pipewire-qubes and audio worked again.

It had been stated that the audio framework would change.

In dom0 or in the domUs?

If I run pipewire in dom0 it can see the other qubes, but doesn’t receive sound from them, meanwhile the qubes refuse to play youtube videos.

In the domUs / templates.

YouTube probably doesn’t play because the video isn’t able to sync with the audio device, when you can’t play any sound.

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OK, so in dom0 i have unmasked, enabled, and restarted pipewire.

In a domu, I removed pulseaudio and pipewire-pulse, and installed pipewire-qubes. The video plays, but no sound.