Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2026 02:57:16 -0700 From: Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> To: vermaden <vermaden@interia.pl> Cc: "freebsd-current@freebsd.org" <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>, "freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org" <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, "freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org" <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Tragic State of FreeBSD Audio/Sound Message-ID: <CAK7dMtCRpXO71v=AEsrtuQufVJHjN%2B%2BhsN6CT_MkXhMa1-JOzw@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <sirudbjwrqwlhpzjpfqf@abqv> References: <hkttyyfmuguexmliuhmg@ewtn> <sirudbjwrqwlhpzjpfqf@abqv>
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On Sun, Jul 19, 2026 at 5:04 PM vermaden <vermaden@interia.pl> wrote:
>
> Hi.
>
> For a start lets define some TERMS. I use UPPERCASE not to shout - but to underline a part of the sentence that is needed to be underlined - this is plain email - I do not have Bold/Underscore/Italic options - keep that in mind - now - to the core of the issue ...
>
> I always considered FreeBSD OSS audio/sound subsystem superior to all ALSA/PulseAudio/PipeWire and other dramas from the Linux world ... but not anymore.
>
> Somewhere between 14.3-RELEASE and 14.4-RELEASE things begin to get broken - I thought that upgrade to latest and greatest 15.1-RELEASE would solve my issues - as there were LOTS of sound/audio related things.
>
> I will not even start about PITA syntax of mixer(1) which went into this:
>
> % mixer -f ${DEV} vol.volume=+0.05
>
> ... from MUCH MORE friendly syntax.
>
> But these random 'boozing' sounds are just unacceptable ... and I can not even tell where they came from ... is it OSS problem? Is is PulseAudio problem? Something in between? Because there is NOTHING in the logs for audio.
PulseAudio is a disaster. I recommend switching to PipeWire with the
pipewire-pulse compatibility layer as a drop in replacement and my OSS
sink: https://www.freshports.org/audio/pipewire-spa-oss-ng.
Only major outstanding work is pipewire/pipewire-pulse don't know how to
elevate their priority on FreeBSD and they really should be RT.
Disable the stock PulseAudio autostart. On a KDE box the package drops
`/usr/local/etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop`. Override it in your home
directory:
cp /usr/local/etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop \
~/.config/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop
and add to the end:
Hidden=true
Start PipeWire from the session. I use a small wrapper and a KDE autostart
desktop file:
`~/.local/bin/start-pipewire-freebsd`:
#!/bin/sh
if [ -z "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR" ]; then
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/var/run/user/$(id -u)"
mkdir -p "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"
chmod 700 "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"
fi
pgrep -U "$(id -u)" -x pipewire >/dev/null || pipewire &
sleep 1
pgrep -U "$(id -u)" -x wireplumber >/dev/null || wireplumber &
pgrep -U "$(id -u)" -x pipewire-pulse >/dev/null || pipewire-pulse &
`~/.config/autostart/pipewire-freebsd.desktop`:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=PipeWire FreeBSD
Exec=/home/kev009/.local/bin/start-pipewire-freebsd
X-KDE-autostart-phase=1
NoDisplay=true
Log out and back in (or terminate pulseaudio and run the script once
by hand). Confirm the stack:
pgrep -a pipewire
pgrep -a wireplumber
pactl info # should say "PulseAudio (on PipeWire ...)"
wpctl status # sinks/sources with [freebsd-oss]
Desktop volume keys, pavucontrol, and `wpctl set-volume` should drive the OSS
mixer on devices that expose one, instead of only attenuating in software.
> Its also possible to get that file from my personal 'mediafire.com' account here:
> - https://mediafire.com/file/jw3cpk8g77rvks2/freebsd-tragic-audio-sound.mp4/file
>
> ... and its not some fancy laptop from yesterday ... its a ThinkPad T480 from 2018 for fuck sake - hardware like that used to run smooth as Carlos Sainz 'smooth operator' in Singapore GP ... but not anymore.
>
> I do not even know what to add here ... its a message send our of despair ... as newer releases only made these things worse ... I have been repeating this over and over again - but its again probably the issue that 'too less' FreeBSD developers use FreeBSD as their daily driver/desktop/laptop system.
>
> Sorry to disappoint.
>
> Regards,
> vermaden
>
>
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