Play audio without logging in to Gnome

Ask Fedora
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1

TLDR: How do i get my audio devices to show up without logging in at the physical machine?

I’m trying to play audio from the speakers connected to my computer using spotifyd. Everything works fine when I’m logged in. I can run spotifyd, select the right audio output and play music.

But I’d like to have the service available on startup, without needing to physically log into the machine.

The barrier I’m hitting is setting the audio sink. If I’ve already logged into the machine, I can ssh from another device and use pactl list sinks to see the connected devices. Then use

pactl set-sink-port alsa_output.pci-0000_2f_00.4.iec958-stereo iec958-stereo-output

to select the right output sink and port for the speakers remotely.

However, if I’m not logged in, I ssh into the machine and pactl list sinks just shows the dummy output.

[kyle@monolith ~]$ pactl list sinks
Sink #141
	State: RUNNING
	Name: auto_null
	Description: Dummy Output
	Driver: PipeWire
	Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz
	Channel Map: front-left,front-right
	Owner Module: 4294967295
	Mute: no
	Volume: front-left: 6553 /  10% / -60.00 dB,   front-right: 6553 /  10% / -60.00 dB
	        balance 0.00
	Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
	Monitor Source: auto_null.monitor
	Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
	Flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
	Properties:
		node.name = "auto_null"
		device.description = "Dummy Output"
		audio.rate = "48000"
		audio.channels = "2"
		audio.position = "FL,FR"
		media.class = "Audio/Sink"
		factory.name = "support.null-audio-sink"
		node.virtual = "true"
		monitor.channel-volumes = "true"
		factory.id = "18"
		clock.quantum-limit = "8192"
		client.id = "35"
		node.driver = "true"
		factory.mode = "merge"
		audio.adapt.follower = ""
		library.name = "audioconvert/libspa-audioconvert"
		object.id = "50"
		object.serial = "141"
	Formats:
		pcm

Can I get audio running without being logged in to Gnome? Perhaps some combination of aplay and pipewire directly? I don’t really understand how the audio stack works.

2

I think audio with pipewire is a user process, and thus requires the user to be logged in.
Since the ssh session is not a gui it does not enable the pipewire session for that user.

Can you log in then leave the screen locked and have audio the way you wish?; accessible via the ssh session?

You might be able to start pipewire from the ssh session, but then the ssh session would need to remain active for pipewire to continue running.

3

Thanks for the reply Jeff.

Agree that pipewire being a user process is the issue. Logging in and locking the screen does work, but feels like too much of a compromise.

Do you have any suggestions on how to run pipewire from an ssh session? I’ve tried just starting the pipewire systemd service, but got some RTKit errors.

If I gui login, I get the following logs from pipewire.service

[kyle@monolith ~]$ journalctl --user-unit pipewire.service -b
Nov 20 15:06:57 monolith systemd[1596]: Started pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Nov 20 15:06:57 monolith pipewire[2344]: mod.rt: Can't find xdg-portal: (null)
Nov 20 15:06:57 monolith pipewire[2344]: mod.rt: found session bus but no portal
Nov 20 15:06:57 monolith pipewire[2344]: mod.x11-bell: XOpenDisplay() failed
Nov 20 15:06:58 monolith pipewire[2344]: default: can't setup properties: No such file or directory

If I reboot, then manually start pipewire.service, I get issue with RTKit

[kyle@monolith ~]$ systemctl --user start pipewire.service
[kyle@monolith ~]$ journalctl --user-unit pipewire.service -b
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith systemd[1558]: Started pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith pipewire[2183]: mod.rt: Can't find xdg-portal: (null)
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith pipewire[2183]: mod.rt: found session bus but no portal
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith pipewire[2183]: mod.rt: RTKit error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith pipewire[2183]: mod.rt: could not set nice-level to -11: Permission denied
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith pipewire[2183]: mod.x11-bell: XOpenDisplay() failed
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith pipewire[2183]: mod.rt: RTKit error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied
Nov 20 15:05:18 monolith pipewire[2183]: mod.rt: could not make thread 2194 realtime using RTKit: Permission denied

The new RTKit lines are

mod.rt: RTKit error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied
mod.rt: could not set nice-level to -11: Permission denied
mod.rt: RTKit error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied
mod.rt: could not make thread 2194 realtime using RTKit: Permission denied

Some googling suggested I should add my user to the rtkit group, but that didn’t change anything.

Gonna keep trying things, but open to any suggestions.