Valve continue upgrading and tweaking the Steam client with a fresh Beta version being released today with a couple of tweaks that are interesting for Linux users.
Some of the issues fixed are for everyone including slow startup after suspend, Cloud Sync will now happen as soon as possible to avoid delays launching games and for Remote Play they fixed using multiple PS5 controllers from the Steam Link app.
Just for Linux though these caught my eye today:
- Enabled pipewire desktop capture by default on Linux, pass -nopipewire on the command line to disable it
- Fixed Linux games seeing multiple controllers when Steam controller configuration support is enabled
- Fixed Linux clients not getting any controller input once streaming starts
Some real nice fixes, the controller issues are something I came up against a couple of times. The first one is the bigger and more interesting change as PipeWire is basically the next-generation of audio and video on Linux. As the official website states:
It provides a low-latency, graph based processing engine on top of audio and video devices that can be used to support the use cases currently handled by both pulseaudio and JACK. PipeWire was designed with a powerful security model that makes interacting with audio and video devices from containerized applications easy, with supporting Flatpak applications being the primary goal. Alongside Wayland and Flatpak we expect PipeWire to provide a core building block for the future of Linux application development.
So now that Valve are using it for Remote Play, perhaps this will work even better (especially on Wayland). This is quite likely another improvement to ready up for the Steam Deck, since we already know games will be played on it inside a Wayland session along with it using Gamescope.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Mohandevir Sep 23, 2021
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
2 Likes, Who?
ElectricPrism Sep 23, 2021
Switching to pipewire was a PITA earlier this year because I didn't know I needed to nuke `~/.config/pulse/` and maybe 1 or 2 other cache directories, but since has been doing just fine 8 Archlinuxes. I use standard Stereo, AUX, HDMI, D-Sub, 5.1, 7.1.
My ex-linux audio recording buddies biggest complaint used to be PulseAudio was terrible & JACK was very difficult to configure and maintain (2016?). They are more hopeful that pipewire is better but yet to try it. It seems like from talking with them they have a renewed interest in Linux especially because of the Steam Deck. I am hopeful that many new talented people develop interest as SteamDeck and Linux in general are amazing development platforms & devices.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 23 September 2021 at 4:04 pm UTC
My ex-linux audio recording buddies biggest complaint used to be PulseAudio was terrible & JACK was very difficult to configure and maintain (2016?). They are more hopeful that pipewire is better but yet to try it. It seems like from talking with them they have a renewed interest in Linux especially because of the Steam Deck. I am hopeful that many new talented people develop interest as SteamDeck and Linux in general are amazing development platforms & devices.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 23 September 2021 at 4:04 pm UTC
8 Likes, Who?
Always good to see stories like this. They serve as a reminder of how developing technologies like Pipewire, Wayland, Flatpaks, etc... are valuable to Linux for establishing modern frameworks that application support can be built on top of. Last year's technologies of PulseAudio, X11, non-sandboxed package files, were good things to help get Linux to where it is today. They will continue to remain in use, shoring up the new frameworks till ultimately they reach maturity. However new frameworks do need to made as our understanding (and expectations) of technology evolves over time. Hopefully, these nice features continue to roll into the "mainstream" Linux so that old and new Linux users alike can enjoy the benefits.
1 Likes, Who?
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
Huh... I'll have to try that fix. Pretty much made everything unplayable for me after an hour or two. Thanks for sharing!
0 Likes
Been using Pipewire ever since it became default on Fedora and it is great so far. There are still some instabilities but nothing serious either way.
0 Likes
Mohandevir Sep 23, 2021
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
Huh... I'll have to try that fix. Pretty much made everything unplayable for me after an hour or two. Thanks for sharing!
Can't promise it will solve your issue, but for my GTX 1660 Super, it's the way to go.
1 Likes, Who?
Now if only they would release a 64 bit build...And Wayland support...
2 Likes, Who?
Steam client that is 64 bit and supports Wayland...?
One can dream!
One can dream!
2 Likes, Who?
hell i hope that means i will be able to use something like jack-rack without messing the audio of everything else
0 Likes
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
I had the same issue but didn't know about that solution. I also didn't try yet with Pipewire again. Need to check something...
0 Likes
Yeah, my knowledge of the Linux audio stack isn't strong enough to try to replace PulseAudio with PipeWire just yet. I'll hopefully be able to try the work around in a few days on my day off.
0 Likes
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
Three simple words:
Yes it is!
I just removed it in debian in favor of pipewire-pulse. Done replacement fake pulse audio packages with equivs to solve dependency problems and bye bye pulse audio crackling system
3 Likes, Who?
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
Three simple words:
Yes it is!
I just removed it in debian in favor of pipewire-pulse. Done replacement fake pulse audio packages with equivs to solve dependency problems and bye bye pulse audio crackling system
Hm, for me it didn't solve the issue, I just tested. I think that it took some more time to occur though
Last edited by ljrk on 23 September 2021 at 10:42 pm UTC
0 Likes
Pipewire can do Hardware encoding on AMD hardware? Because that was a big missing piece for mi on In-Home-Streaming...
Last edited by recioalex on 24 September 2021 at 6:44 am UTC
Last edited by recioalex on 24 September 2021 at 6:44 am UTC
0 Likes
I stopped using in home streaming all together because so many games just cast audio and a black screen, hopefully this will solve the issue :D
0 Likes
furaxhornyx Sep 24, 2021
[...]
My ex-linux audio recording buddies biggest complaint used to be PulseAudio was terrible & JACK was very difficult to configure and maintain (2016?). They are more hopeful that pipewire is better but yet to try it. [...]
Same here ; I looked into installing Pipewire a few months ago, but from a few forums posts, it still seemed to be not mature enough yet... And with my little Linux knowledge, I am afraid I cannot fix anything if it goes wrong, so I'll be waiting a bit more
0 Likes
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
I am not sure for in home streaming, but for local audio, it already solved quite a few quality issues and bugs for me. In particular, with the latest bluetooth work, LDAC is finally working properly for me. And overall audio seems to be less prone to crackling which I had with pulse.
Hope this helps.
1 Likes, Who?
Is Pipewire the solution to the long standing audio degradation issue with PulseAudio, when it comes to in-home streaming from a Linux host?
I have to disable all HDMI audio devices in Pavucontrol of the host computer to prevent that from happening.
Three simple words:
Yes it is!
I just removed it in debian in favor of pipewire-pulse. Done replacement fake pulse audio packages with equivs to solve dependency problems and bye bye pulse audio crackling system
I've stopped using IHS at the moment but switching to Pipewire at the time (~6 months ago) didn't fix this issue.
The only thing that did, as mentioned earlier, was disabling local audio on the host.
0 Likes
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