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No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Printable Version

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No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Jusic - 2024-04-11

Hello,

I have read that kodi 21 should now support native Pipewire, but it doesn't for me. My base system is Ubuntu 24.04 using the kodi Flatpak package. In all my scenarios "pipewire", "pipewire-bin" and "wireplumber" packages are installed.
  • If I only add "pipewire-alsa" package kodi starts using ALSA.
  • If I add "pipewire-pulse" package kodi start using PulseAudio.
  • If I force kodi into PipeWire using "KODI_AE_SINK=PIPEWIRE" I get "Error - no devices found". https://dpaste.com/GQSD9E42V
Any ideas?

Jusic

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Jusic - 2024-04-11

Found the issue myself, it's the Flatpak package maintainers fault. The package is missing PipeWire permissions. Adding "--filesystem=xdg-run/pipewire-0" to the params fixes this.

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Capslock - 2024-04-12

Do you think that's why I have this issue described here ? https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=374663

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Jusic - 2024-04-12

I'm not an expert on this topic but I don't think so. If I get it right you are using Debian with PipeWire. Kodi 20 didn't had proper PipeWire support so you where tied to options 2 or 3. Kodi 21 has implemented it and uses the order:
  1. PipeWire
  2. PulseAudio (through pipewire-pulse)
  3. ALSA (through pipewire-alsa)
Without the permission you are still tied to option 2 or 3. You can always overwrite this order by KODI_AE_SINK=PIPEWIRE or PULSEAUDIO or ALSA. But passthrough is another topic. I have no clue which kind of passthrough should be possible with which option...

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Capslock - 2024-04-12

Thanks for your answer @Jusic 
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I'm using Kodi 21.0 Flatpak package, that's why I think I've the same problem.

Can you explain how you added "--filesystem=xdg-run/pipewire-0" param ? I will give it a try maybe it'll solve the issue

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Jusic - 2024-04-12

Just add it to your Flatpak run command: "/usr/bin/flatpak run --filesystem=xdg-run/pipewire-0 tv.kodi.Kodi"
But at least in my setup I have no passthrough option even while using native PipeWire...

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Neo1973 - 2024-04-12

@Jusic For passthrough you have to configure pipewire as described in this commit: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/22560/commits/f6754bec84520b0ebc75822dbe50cb77f429698a

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - Schenckmeier - 2024-04-15

@Neo1973
OK, i'm able to compile kodi from source under Debian or Ubuntu and can run kodi with @fritsch 's old tutorial.
But with the implementation of pipewire i am at my wit's end.  Shocked
Maybe someone with a good soul can help please (without flatpack)?

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - mechevarria - 2024-04-20

Looks like the fix is to revert to pulse audio by default

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/25019

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - fritsch - 2024-04-20

(2024-04-20, 03:42)mechevarria Wrote: Looks like the fix is to revert to pulse audio by default

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/25019

This is not a fix. It just makes clear that we don't have the time similarly to 2016 where went through a whole lot of issues ... to get pulse audio stable. And to be honest: pulse audio over the years needed basically zero maintenance inside Kodi, while yeah: sadly proper multi channel and dtshd or truehd support never came, while I implemented that at a point.

From our testing for pipe wire we were also quite happy, some minors here and there but overall fine. In current situations it seems that some distributions do a better or worse default integration and fallback. We have multiple issues from no sound (bad distro config) towards crackling. Especially the latter made the decision easy for me to be on safe side and ship pulse by default.

While: we obviously want to get it fixed properly and therefore the existing command line switch makes testing for volunteers easy without fucking it up for everyone.

Sane?

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - contadino - 2024-04-20

Hi there,
sad story, that pipewire seems to have some problems. PulseAudio passthrough never worked for me, so i was waiting impatiently for Kodi 21 with pipewiresupport to end these hazzles...
To come to the point - it looks like there are difficulties with the interaction of Kodi with all types of soundservers. So why not integrating a possibility to map the audio-output directly to Alsa? As a minimum requirement which works 100% of the time?
I know i am repeating myself, but to me it seems like a real good idea to keep the whole thing simple and avoid inconveniences like this.
my old thread

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - fritsch - 2024-04-21

Also that possibility exists since a very long time. Simply choose it via command line: pipewire, pulse or alsa.

Automatisms are there cause average Joe prepares Shooting himself in the foot in many occasions...

I only changed the default, pipewire is not gone. Use it via command line switch or if you are on current stable, should still work by default.

Is it working okay ish for you?

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - contadino - 2024-04-21

Thats the way i use Kodi actually. I start Kodi 20 with the line "env KODI_AE_SINK=ALSA kodi".
Yes it works, but its far away from being ok. No
When other programs (MPD in my case) use Alsa while Kodi is running in standby, Kodi is not running in a useful way, when i start a video after listening to music. So i restart the computer every time i want to watch a film. And even then, every third time Kodi freezes while watching and its necessary to hard-reset the hardware.
So sorry, but far away from ok for me.

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - fritsch - 2024-04-23

Not sure why you want to use ALSA, but rely on mixing and sharing, which is the exact thing ALSA won't do out of the box ... but okay, you have your use-cases.

RE: No Pipewire Sound Server in kodi 21 - contadino - 2024-04-23

(2024-04-23, 09:27)fritsch Wrote: Not sure why you want to use ALSA

I use Alsa, because in Pulseaudio passthrough does not work, at least here on my side. Pipewire does not work with Kodi 20 and it seems that there are enough troubles with Kodi 21 and Pipewire?! So, what else should i use than Alsa?
But i have to confess - i didn't upgrade to 21 till now. I want to save my settings and i'm not sure how to do the update without the official PPA-repository. I'm not really a linux nerd.
And your point 'mixing and sharing' - i really don't get it. When watching a video or listen to music, i definitely don't want to mix or share the sound with anything.
But it's very likely, that others have other usecases?