Bug 1978889

Summary: Pipewire: Alsa interface got broken with last update
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Klaus Siebke <ksiebke>
Component: pipewireAssignee: Wim Taymans <wtaymans>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 34CC: brunovern.a, joepesco2020, ksiebke, pschmidt.gaz, wtaymans
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Target Release: ---   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: pipewire-0.3.32-1.fc34 Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
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Last Closed: 2021-07-22 01:14:11 UTC Type: Bug
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Description Flags
alsamixer after fresh FC34 installation
none
alsamixer in the current environment (Kernel 5.12.13-300.fc34.x86_64 & pipewire 0.3.31) none

Description Klaus Siebke 2021-07-03 10:09:25 UTC 
Description of problem:

It seems that the last update has broken the alsa interface to pipewire.
Running alsamixer in a terminal gives the message "This sound device does not have any controls.".

Since installing FC34 and before the last update I had no problems.

To verify it, I made a fresh FC34 installation from the initial .iso on a second machine and it works correctly (with kernel 5.11.12-300.fc34.x86_64 and pipewire version 0.3.25)

Due to this issues also the Sound Control applet in Cairo-Dock does not work (and probably some other applications as well).

I tried already this solution:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=266541

As root create /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa.conf with this content
# set nivida card as secondary sound output for alsa 
options snd-hda-intel index=1,0
reboot and check

But it does not work.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

Fedora Version 34 (MATE-Compiz) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 5.12.13-300.fc34.x86_64
pipewire 0.3.31
(all current versions from 2021/07/03)

How reproducible:

Every time

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run alsamixer in a terminal
2.
3.

Actual results:

Message: This sound device does not have any controls.

Expected results:

pipewire master channel is shown and can be changed with the cursor keys

Additional info:

Bug also affects Cairo-Dock Sound Control applet
Comment 1 Klaus Siebke 2021-07-04 16:44:15 UTC 
Created attachment 1797874 [details]
alsamixer after fresh FC34 installation

This shows how it should look like (after a fresh FC34 installation)
Comment 2 Klaus Siebke 2021-07-04 16:48:02 UTC 
Created attachment 1797876 [details]
alsamixer in the current environment (Kernel 5.12.13-300.fc34.x86_64 & pipewire 0.3.31)
Comment 3 pschmidt.gaz 2021-07-05 19:23:10 UTC 
This bug is probably related to bug #1960829
Comment 4 Wim Taymans 2021-07-06 12:53:33 UTC 
It could also be: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/issues/1384
Comment 5 Klaus Siebke 2021-07-06 16:29:35 UTC 
The solution from bug  #1960829 works for the Cairo-Dock sound applet as well.

i.e:

sudo dnf remove pipewire-alsa & reboot

So pipewire-alsa is not really needed?
Comment 6 pschmidt.gaz 2021-07-08 22:35:50 UTC 
(In reply to Klaus Siebke from comment #5)
> The solution from bug  #1960829 works for the Cairo-Dock sound applet as
> well.
> 
> i.e:
> 
> sudo dnf remove pipewire-alsa & reboot
> 
> So pipewire-alsa is not really needed?

Yes and no. We can still use ALSA itself instead of pipewire of course, however pipewire is supposed to replace and unify many audio systems and to use ALSA through pipewire then pipewire-alsa is necessary. There is not much of a point in having them all installed together.

This can be easily verified with a program that allows the user to choose the audio back end, I just tested it with Audacious, if the back end is set to ALSA without neither ALSA itself nor pipewire-alsa then it will not work.
Comment 7 Fedora Update System 2021-07-20 14:38:48 UTC 
FEDORA-2021-f3a65aee6b has been submitted as an update to Fedora 34. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-f3a65aee6b
Comment 8 Fedora Update System 2021-07-21 01:54:40 UTC 
FEDORA-2021-f3a65aee6b has been pushed to the Fedora 34 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --advisory=FEDORA-2021-f3a65aee6b`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-f3a65aee6b

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.
Comment 9 Fedora Update System 2021-07-22 01:14:11 UTC 
FEDORA-2021-f3a65aee6b has been pushed to the Fedora 34 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.