Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Linux -- The Pipewire Fiasco

 If you want reliable Linux, you stay with the stable version.  If you want adventure then you go with the unstable versions.  

I love Linux adventure and have my media machines on the bleeding edge.  My backup machine is on a more stable version.  The rubber hit the road this week when I did a 'full upgrade' on Debian Unstable.  This brought in the new KDE with Pipewire.

Pipewire is a a new audio system that attempts to clear lags by going deeper into the base.  That means it has to worry about specific hardware quirks.  Too bad.  My bluetooth keyboard still worked (not pipewire) but my soundbar arrangement would not pair.  The physics of these releases is decreasing probability.  They get it working with everybody they know (1 in 100 chance of failiure), then they open it to hard-core beta lovers (1 in 1000).

I was caught in the next phase, which is 'unstable' and that might be 1 in a million.  I lost out, as these things can be something like 3 factors put together.  Lots of people complaining and the Pipewire news is full of hardware problems.  They try to fix it and something else goes wrong.  Worst is when old bugs from a year ago come up again.

There was no solution to these bugs, just sometimes a note that a new update solved everything.  That is why you have to wait for an update.  If you were really hard up, you would go back to 'stable', or something.


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