I’m experiencing very annoying audio problems with some specific applications under Linux (I'm using openSUSE Tumbleweed). I've only noticed this with some games at the moment (but I’m not sure if this is related to games in particular or to a state of a heavier system load).
Here is some system context:
- Laptop with openSUSE Tumbleweed fully updated, KDE Plasma 5 with Wayland and Pipewire
- Issues occurring mainly with Wine apps, running from Bottles (flatpak)
- I noticed a less severe form even with some other games not using Wine, but still on flatpak
Here are my problems and some additional info:
Since a few days ago, when running games in this environment, I’ve been experiencing some very annoying audio issues, as soon as the game is launched it seems to be working fine, but after a while, the sound starts to get buzzing/crackling. Sometimes just slightly, some other times the degradation goes on and completely mutes the audio.
Even some games that do not require many system resources are giving me this problem.
Audio in other applications is working nicely without any problem, both installed from the system repos (Browsers and VLC) and from flatpak (Kodi, Spotify for Linux).
This trouble started a bit suddenly; I am not sure if it has something to do with a system update that may have changed my configuration, but before it started, I never had any kind of issue when running the same exact games.
I tried to test this with plain pulseaudio instead of pipewire, but the problem remains.
These issues are only present with the builtin speakers:
I have this problem only with one device, an AMD “Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller” sound card, when playing sound through the laptop speakers
If I connect an external TV device through my laptop HDMI port (that uses another sound device, “Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio Controller”), the sound works fine
If I connect wired earphones to the Jack port, the sound works fine
If I use wireless Bluetooth earphones, the sound works fine
I'm not really sure, but I suspect that there is some specific configuration that I have to tweak in order to prevent this. But I don't know where exactly this problem is originating (pipewire? wireplumber? specific device configuration? some other place?).
Can somebody help me to better diagnose this, and finally find a solution?
If more info is needed, please ask and I'll provide it. Thanks!
