noraworld/pulsewire-conf

pulsewire-conf

PulseAudio & PipeWire (WirePlumber) config files.

Do you want to know the differences between PulseAudio and PipeWire? Take a look at the Known issues and "Should I choose PulseAudio or PipeWire?" sections below.

Setup

Note that only one of PulseAudio or PipeWire can be used at the same time.

Before the detailed setup

oFono will not be used for this configuration. So you need to disable it first if you have it installed on your computer.

sudo systemctl disable --now ofono
sudo systemctl mask ofono

Setup either PulseAudio or PipeWire according to the instructions below. You don't have to do both.

PulseAudio

cd pulsewire-conf
sudo rm -r /etc/pulse
sudo ln -s $PWD/pulse /etc/pulse
systemctl --user --now disable pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber
systemctl --user mask pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber
systemctl --user unmask pulseaudio.{socket,service}
systemctl --user --now enable pulseaudio.service pulseaudio.socket

PipeWire

cd pulsewire-conf
ln -s $PWD/pipewire $HOME/.config
ln -s $PWD/wireplumber $HOME/.config
systemctl --user --now disable pulseaudio.{socket,service}
systemctl --user mask pulseaudio.{socket,service}
systemctl --user unmask pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber
systemctl --user --now enable pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber

Shairport Sync

sudo ln -s $PWD/shairport/shairport-sync.conf /etc
sudo systemctl enable shairport-sync
sudo systemctl enable nqptp

After the detailed setup

sudo gpasswd -a $(whoami) pulse
sudo gpasswd -a $(whoami) pulse-access
sudo reboot

Configuration directories

You can change the paths of configuration files to link with a ln command depending on whether they're run locally or system-wide.

PulseAudio

• $HOME/.config/pulse/ (local configuration)
• /etc/pulse/ (system-wide & default configuration)

Ubuntu Manpage: default.pa - PulseAudio Sound Server Startup Script

PipeWire

• $HOME/.config/pipewire/ (local configuration)
• /etc/pipewire/ (system-wide configuration)
• /usr/share/pipewire/ (default configuration)

Ubuntu Manpage: pipewire.conf - The PipeWire server configuration file

WirePlumber

• $HOME/.config/wireplumber/ (local configuration)
• /etc/wireplumber/ (system-wide configuration)
• /usr/share/wireplumber/ (default configuration)

WirePlumber - ArchWiki

How to restart the PulseAudio process and daemon easily

You can use bin/pa.

bin/pa restart

For details on the other commands, see bin/pa --help.

How to figure out the appropriate default-fragments and default-fragment-size-msec

You can use bin/fragment-determiner.

bin/fragment-determiner

Sample output

sink 0 "alsa_output.usb-ZOOM_Corporation_U-44-00.analog-surround-40" with sample spec s32le 4ch 48000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right
        default-fragments = 2
        default-fragment-size-msec = 250

source 1 "alsa_input.usb-ZOOM_Corporation_U-44-00.multichannel-input" with sample spec s32le 4ch 48000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right
        default-fragments = 2
        default-fragment-size-msec = 250

sink 1 "alsa_output.platform-bcm2835_audio.stereo-fallback" with sample spec s16le 2ch 48000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right
        default-fragments = 2
        default-fragment-size-msec = 31

Or

bin/fragment-determiner --verbose

Sample output

sink 0 "alsa_output.usb-ZOOM_Corporation_U-44-00.analog-surround-40" with sample spec s32le 4ch 48000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right
        values used in calculations:
                sample_rate = 48000
                alsa.resolution_bits = 32
                device.buffering.buffer_size = 1536000
                device.buffering.fragment_size = 768000

        default-fragments = 2
                  (buffer_size / (sample_rate * resolution_bit * 2) * 1000) / fragment_size_msec
                = (1536000 / (48000 * 32 * 2) * 1000) / 250
                = 2

        default-fragment-size-msec = 250
                  fragment_size / (sample_rate * resolution_bit * 2) * 1000
                = 768000 / (48000 * 32 * 2) * 1000
                = 250

source 1 "alsa_input.usb-ZOOM_Corporation_U-44-00.multichannel-input" with sample spec s32le 4ch 48000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right
        values used in calculations:
                sample_rate = 48000
                alsa.resolution_bits = 32
                device.buffering.buffer_size = 1536000
                device.buffering.fragment_size = 768000

        default-fragments = 2
                  (buffer_size / (sample_rate * resolution_bit * 2) * 1000) / fragment_size_msec
                = (1536000 / (48000 * 32 * 2) * 1000) / 250
                = 2

        default-fragment-size-msec = 250
                  fragment_size / (sample_rate * resolution_bit * 2) * 1000
                = 768000 / (48000 * 32 * 2) * 1000
                = 250

sink 1 "alsa_output.platform-bcm2835_audio.stereo-fallback" with sample spec s16le 2ch 48000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right
        values used in calculations:
                sample_rate = 48000
                alsa.resolution_bits = 16
                device.buffering.buffer_size = 96000
                device.buffering.fragment_size = 48000

        default-fragments = 2
                  (buffer_size / (sample_rate * resolution_bit * 2) * 1000) / fragment_size_msec
                = (96000 / (48000 * 16 * 2) * 1000) / 31
                = 2

        default-fragment-size-msec = 31
                  fragment_size / (sample_rate * resolution_bit * 2) * 1000
                = 48000 / (48000 * 16 * 2) * 1000
                = 31

How to disable all daemons temporarily

In order to prevent all daemons from starting automatically, type the following commands.

systemctl --user --now disable pulseaudio.{socket,service} pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber
systemctl --user mask pulseaudio.{socket,service} pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber

# You might want to stop these daemons as well when you are using them.
sudo systemctl --now disable bluetooth shairport-sync nqptp
sudo systemctl mask bluetooth shairport-sync nqptp

If you want to revert these changes, perform the opposite operations like this.

systemctl --user --now enable pulseaudio.{socket,service} pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber
systemctl --user unmask pulseaudio.{socket,service} pipewire{,-pulse}.{socket,service} wireplumber

# Don't forget to execute the following commands when you stop them.
sudo systemctl --now enable bluetooth shairport-sync nqptp
sudo systemctl unmask bluetooth shairport-sync nqptp

Known issues

Here is a list of known issues that I'm not sure how to deal with so far. It would be great if you could tell me how to fix these issues if you are familiar with PulseAudio and PipeWire.

Both PulseAudio & PipeWire

• The sound gets occasionally choppy
• Sound vanishes even though a device continues to make the sound
• A Bluetooth connection gets disconnected unexpectedly, even when PulseAudio is being used
  • PipeWire is less likely to cause this problem than PulseAudio, in my experience

PulseAudio

• An iPhone can't recognize its microphone in some apps when it's connected to PulseAudio

PipeWire

• It can't switch a profile to HSP/HFP
• The sound gets slightly off
• It can't establish the connection on the client end, or the clients can't recognize it as the audio profile

Should I choose PulseAudio or PipeWire?

From my perspective, I feel like PipeWire is more stable than PulseAudio. I recommend PipeWire if you don't have a specific reason, but it's also recommended to check out the Known issues above before you make a decision.

License

All codes of this project are available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE for more information.