Kubuntu 25.04/Plasma 6.3.5 fails to connect to Pipewire

[artee]

Hi. I am pretty new to Linux and brand new to Kubuntu. Loving Kubuntu except that I have no sound output from the built-in speakers or headphone jack. Bluetooth works fine.

KSystemLog says: user@1000.service Failed connect to PipeWire: Couldn't connect to PipeWire

In Sound Settings it shows that Playback Devices are inactive and have Dummy Output.

I am using an (old) HP Spectre x360t. What other information can I provide to help solve this?

[Virginio Miranda]

Hi there,

Using Dolphin go to /home/user and in config >>>> Enable " Show Hidden Files "

Then > .local/state and delete wireplumber folder.

Restart the PC again and see if it fix the problem.

[claydoh]

In Sound Settings it shows that Playback Devices are inactive and have Dummy Output.

This is the key thing. Your audio chip is not loading a firmware or a driver isn't loading, or something along these lines

Do you know the specific model number of the laptop?

Does the output of lspci in the terminal show an audio device> or aplay -L. One or both of these should show something for the hardware no matter if it works or not.

[kubicle]

Another thing that can cause is that you have both pulseaudio and pipewire installed (and they can get in each other's way), can you post the output of command (run in terminal):

dpkg -l | grep -E 'pipewire|wireplumber|pulse'​

[artee]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried deleting the wireplumber folder but it did not work.

The computer is an HP Spectre x360t model 13-4101dx. I know it has a functioning audio card because I come here from a brief stint in Linux Mint where I had the same problem which could be fixed by changing some settings that only worked by then changing to pulseaudio (following instructions in the Linux Mint 22.1 installation notes) but that was not a good fix because it broke bluetooth. That story is here: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=436806

I'm trying to have both so I'm looking for a better fix.


lspci shows this:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Host Bridge -OPI (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 5500 (rev 09)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Audio Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP USB xHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP MEI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev e3)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev e3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5227 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 (rev 50)

aplay -L shows this:

null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pipewire
PipeWire Sound Server
default
Default ALSA Output (currently PipeWire Media Server)
hw:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=0
broadwell-rt286,
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=1
broadwell-rt286,
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=2
broadwell-rt286,
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=0
broadwell-rt286,
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=1
broadwell-rt286,
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=2
broadwell-rt286,
Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=broadwellrt286
broadwell-rt286,
Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=0
broadwell-rt286,
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=1
broadwell-rt286,
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=2
broadwell-rt286,
Direct sample mixing device
hw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA Intel HDMI, Generic Digital
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA Intel HDMI, Generic Digital
Hardware device with all software conversions
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
HDA Intel HDMI, Generic Digital
HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA Intel HDMI, Generic Digital
Direct sample mixing device

dpkg -l | grep -E 'pipewire|wireplumber|pulse' shows this:

ii gstreamer1.0-pipewire:amd64 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
GStreamer 1.0 plugin for the PipeWire multimedia server
ii libkpipewire-data 6.3.5-0ubuntu0.1~ubuntu25.04~ppa1 all
KDE's Pipewire libraries - data files
ii libkpipewire6:amd64 6.3.5-0ubuntu0.1~ubuntu25.04~ppa1 amd64
KDE's Pipewire libraries - libkpipewire6 library
ii libkpipewiredmabuf6:amd64 6.3.5-0ubuntu0.1~ubuntu25.04~ppa1 amd64
KDE's Pipewire libraries - libkpipewiredmabuf6
ii libkpipewirerecord6:amd64 6.3.5-0ubuntu0.1~ubuntu25.04~ppa1 amd64
KDE's Pipewire libraries - libkpipewirerecord6
ii libpipewire-0.3-0t64:amd64 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
libraries for the PipeWire multimedia server
ii libpipewire-0.3-common 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 all
libraries for the PipeWire multimedia server - common files
ii libpipewire-0.3-modules:amd64 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
libraries for the PipeWire multimedia server - modules
ii libwireplumber-0.5-0:amd64 0.5.8-1 amd64
Shared libraries for WirePlumber
ii pipewire:amd64 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
audio and video processing engine multimedia server
ii pipewire-alsa:amd64 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
PipeWire ALSA plugin, for ALSA applications to output via PipeWire
ii pipewire-audio-client-libraries 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 all
transitional package for pipewire-alsa and pipewire-jack
ii pipewire-bin 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
PipeWire multimedia server - programs
ii pipewire-jack:amd64 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
PipeWire JACK plugin, for JACK applications to output via PipeWire
ii pipewire-pulse 1.2.7-1ubuntu5 amd64
PipeWire PulseAudio daemon
ii qml6-module-org-kde-pipewire:amd64 6.3.5-0ubuntu0.1~ubuntu25.04~ppa1 amd64
KDE's Pipewire libraries - QML module
ii wireplumber 0.5.8-1 amd64
modular session / policy manager for PipeWire

[Virginio Miranda]

The device is there:

" Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=0 "

I am almost sure the kernel driver for this is a driver called snd-hda-intel.

Before continue lets try to reload the driver and see if it perform weel and load the drive.

Do:

sudo alsa force-reload

Do not reboot. Check if it works.

[Snowhog]

Maybe see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=242805

roisoleil
I solved this issue by installing pulseaudio and pavucontrol.

[artee]

The device is there:

" Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=broadwellrt286,DEV=0 "

I am almost sure the kernel driver for this is a driver called snd-hda-intel.

Before continue lets try to reload the driver and see if it perform weel and load the drive.

Do:

sudo alsa force-reload

Do not reboot. Check if it works.

That did not do it. Thanks for sticking with this!

@Snowhog: I did once restore audio similar to this way under Linux Mint, but pulseaudio broke bluetooth, so I would prefer not to go that route. thank you, though!

[Snowhog]

@Snowhog: I did once restore audio similar to this way under Linux Mint, but pulseaudio broke bluetooth, so I would prefer not to go that route. thank you, though!

You can simulate the install to see what will happen.

sudo apt install --simulate pulseaudio pavucontrol

[artee]

You can simulate the install to see what will happen.

sudo apt install --simulate pulseaudio pavucontrol

I tried this and got this result:

pavucontrol is already the newest version (6.1-1).
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
pipewire-jack
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.

Installing:
pulseaudio

Installing dependencies:
libasound2-plugins

Suggested packages:
pavumeter paprefs

REMOVING:
pipewire-alsa pipewire-audio-client-libraries

Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 2, Removing: 2, Not Upgrading: 0
Remv pipewire-audio-client-libraries [1.2.7-1ubuntu5]
Remv pipewire-alsa [1.2.7-1ubuntu5]
Inst libasound2-plugins (1.2.12-2 Ubuntu:25.04/plucky [amd64])
Inst pulseaudio (1:17.0+dfsg1-2ubuntu1 Ubuntu:25.04/plucky [amd64])
Conf libasound2-plugins (1.2.12-2 Ubuntu:25.04/plucky [amd64])
Conf pulseaudio (1:17.0+dfsg1-2ubuntu1 Ubuntu:25.04/plucky [amd64])

The good news is that blue tooth still works but I still have Dummy Output for the speakers.

[Virginio Miranda]

Do it:

$ inxi -xxz -A

What is the output?

[artee]

That returns:

Audio:
Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:160c
API: ALSA v: k6.14.0-22-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin

[Virginio Miranda]

Fine,

So, now go to /proc/asound/cards

copy and paste the info inside there, please.

[Snowhog]

The good news is that blue tooth still works but I still have Dummy Output for the speakers.

The command didn’t do anything; it simulated what would be done if you actually ran it (without --simulate).

[artee]

Fine,

So, now go to /proc/asound/cards

copy and paste the info inside there, please.

Please forgive my Newbie ignorance: where is this? I tried to find such a directory in Konsole. I did cd /proc and got to the /proc directory but /proc/asound/cards said it does not exist. I did not find that in Dolphin, either.