Bug#1138184: systemd: Upgrading to version 261~rc2-1 breaks programs that use libopenal1

[David Witbrodt]

Package: systemd
Version: 261~rc2-1
Severity: normal

Upon upgrading to version 261~rc2-1 (from 261~rc1-1) I found that audio 
was broken in some programs (but still working in others).  Since the 
upgrade involved many other packages in addition to systemd, I looked at 
the following list of potential culprits:

alsa-utils:amd64 1.2.15.2-2 -> 1.2.15.2-3
dbus:amd64 1.16.2-4 -> 1.16.2-5
systemd:amd64 261~rc1-1 -> 261~rc2-1

Some programs using audio (Firefox, xine, some simple games, even 
DosBox) were unaffected, while others would run but were silent. 
Checking ~/.xsession-errors quickly revealed that libopenal was now 
unable to enumerate audio devices -- 2 failing games were torcs and 
alien-arena, and both depend on libopenal1.  I decided to quickly 
install openal-tools to check the output of 'openal-info' and this 
confirmed what I was seeing... and provided a very nice tool to check 
whether the problem was present or not as I tested things further... as 
demonstrated by this (truncated) output:

$ systemctl --version
systemd 261 (261~rc2-1)
+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +APPARMOR +IMA +IPE +SMACK +SECCOMP +GCRYPT -GNUTLS
[...]

$ openal-info
Available playback devices:
     !!! none !!!
Available capture devices:
     !!! none !!!
Default playback device:
Default capture device:
ALC version: 1.1

!!! Failed to open default device !!!

[after downgrading systemd and rebooting

$ systemctl --version
systemd 261 (261~rc1-1)
[...]

$ openal-info
Available playback devices:
     Built-in Audio Analog Surround 5.1
     Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590] Digital 
Stereo (HDMI 4)
     CA0108/CA10300 [Sound Blaster Audigy Series] (E-MU 0404) Analog 
Surround 5.0
Available capture devices:
     Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Surround 5.1
[...]


After downgrading alsa-utils (and restarting Xfce), things were still 
broken.  I additionally downgraded dbus and then rebooted, but things 
were still broken.  Finally, I downgraded systemd (back to 261~rc1-1) 
and rebooted, and found that audio was working again in all programs, 
including those relying on libopenal.

I didn't see any warnings or errors relevant to systemd or libopenal in 
my boot logs.

It is relatively easy for me to switch between the working and broken 
versions of systemd, so if there are commands I can run or logs that 
would useful, I can get those for you.  Something in the latest systemd 
must have affected how Xfce sets itself up and makes libopenal available 
to programs, but I'm afraid that how such things happen under-the-hood 
is opaque to me... and have no idea how to triage the exact problem further.


-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
   APT prefers unstable
   APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (500, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 7.0.9+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE 
not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages systemd is related to:
ii  dbus-user-session  1.16.2-5
pn  dracut             <none>
ii  initramfs-tools    0.151
ii  libnss-systemd     261~rc1-1
ii  libpam-systemd     261~rc1-1
ii  udev               261~rc1-1