[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#1082772: Pipewire 1.2.5-1~bpo12+1 makes things a lot better

[Tyler Riddle]

Hello,

I installed the pipewire update in backports on Oct 15 and it certainly has
made things a lot better. With the new version of pipewire and the modern
kernels the frequency and severity of the audio crackling is severely
reduced.

In firefox I typically experience a small amount of crackling for about a
second at the very start of sound in a tab. Occasionally a little bit of
crackling may work it's way in.

Playing Skyrim under Proton Experimental is also usually crackle free
though some times the crackling can be moderate but it does not last very
long.

I looked at the change log for the 1.2.5 pipewire release and I did not see
anything mentioned that might apply to the audio crackling aside from the
generic "Some more fixes and improvements."

I've started a new experiment with the Linux kernel 6.1.112 build I made
using the config file from the linux-image-6.1.0-17-amd64 package. I've set
the kernel preemption mode to "full" which is a move away from the default
of "none" under the hypothesis that pipewire isn't getting CPU fast enough
for the very small audio buffers it has in the default configuration.

Using the "full" preemption mode does not seem to have had any appreciable
effect if any at all.

Unfortunately though while the situation is very much improved and
tolerable for casual use (if still annoying) pipewire still isn't reliable
enough to do something like record live audio especially if the opportunity
for multiple takes didn't exist.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/pkg-utopia-maintainers/attachments/20241019/5c8b9401/attachment.htm>