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[Help] Audio devices disappear after reboot (EndeavourOS, Pipewire)

Hello! I've posted this a few weeks ago on /c/linux4noobs@programming.dev but I didn't get much of an answer, I hope it's okay to post it here as well.

I use 3 audio devices on my computer: my monitor's speakers (through HDMI), my headphones (through line-out/built-in audio) and my microphone (line-in/built-in audio). They all work fine, but when I reboot my headphones / line-out don't seem to get recognized at all.

The only solution I've found thus far is to re-install alsa-utils twice after rebooting. Upon the first reinstall, my line-out / headphones reappear but my line-in mic disappears, only to come back after the second reinstall. Technically my sound works perfectly fine after this, but it feels extremely dumb to reinstall a package twice after every reboot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance :)

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  • Reinstalling alsa utils twice? Interesting and weird.

    Any chance some other software is messing things up? Is pulse audio installed too? Jack? Other? Just tossing out crazy ideas here, idk.

    Wonder if the kernel version has a known issue with your specific hardware? What hardware is it, btw?

    Like the other person said I would definitely want to see if there are any errors in the logs.

    • Nope, I've checked and I don't have any PulseAudio, JACK, or other audio packages that could interfere. This install has only ever used PipeWire for audio.

      Could be kernel related, I don't know. That'd be quite over my head, but I've had this issue using both the standard linux kernel and the zen kernel.

      I didn't see anything in journalctl's logs that relates to audio as far as I can tell.

      Reinstalling alsa utils twice? Interesting and weird.

      Want to know what's even more fun? I need to re-install alsa-utils thrice now after properly enabling pipewire.service like I did on that other comment thread :P

      • PS:

        What pipewire packages are installed?

        What alsa packages are installed?

        I'm wondering if something is missing or borked for some reason.

      • Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

        Nope, I've checked and I don't have any PulseAudio, JACK, or other audio packages

        Ok good. We should be able to rule that out.

        Could be kernel related, I don't know.

        What version? The command uname -r will give it to you. More info here

        Also... If you run dmesg do you see any audio related devices or errors? I should've thought to ask about that last time.

        Want to know what's even more fun? I need to re-install alsa-utils thrice now

        Whee!™ Are we having fun yet lol

        That is seriously bizarre.

        Did I ask what audio hardware chipset you're using?

        It should show up in dmesg output. Or alternatively look up your motherboard specs and get it that way. Assuming you're using the built in motherboard audio and not a separate card.

        • Hey don't apologize for offering free help to a stranger online! It's much appreciated. uname -r returns "6.7.0-zen3-1-zen", but like I said I had this issue with the standard Linux kernel as well.

          Nothing stands out to me when I run dmesg in terms of errors. I'm not sure which part is the audio hardware chipset, so here is the output relating to audio. I'm running both the built-in CPU audio and GPU audio through HDMI.

          Edit: Forgot to add my ALSA and Pipewire packages. For ALSA I got:

          alsa-card-profiles alsa-firmware alsa-lib alsa-plugins alsa-topology-conf alsa-ucm-conf alsa-utils lib32-alsa-lib lib32-alsa-plugins pipewire-alsa tinycompress

          and for Pipewire:

          gst-plugin-pipewire kpipewire libpipewire libwireplumber pipewire pipewire-audio pipewire-jack pipewire-pulse wireplumber

          • Hm. Nothing really jumping out then. I am racking my brain trying to think of anything else to look at.

            Dumb question but... Shouldn't headphones be plugged into the headphone jack, not line out?

            Headphones typically have a lower impedance than, say, an amplifier.

            I'm just wondering if the audio hardware checks load impedance for audio out to prevent issues and the headphones are reading too low (tens to hundreds of ohms instead of, say, 10k-100k ohm or whatever) for a line out.

            I don't know how that explains reinstalling alsa-utils twice or thrice to fix it until the next reboot. So I guess my theory isn't all that great.

            Does it make a difference if you unplug the headphones before rebooting?

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