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
