Pulse is missing

Ubuntu 20.04.02
Audacity 3.0.2 from PPA

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been recording audio from Firefox using PulseAudio. Three days ago Audacity stopped detecting Pulse and I’m not sure why. I didn’t update anything and I can still start Pulse without any problems. But when I bring up the list of recording devices, Pulse isn’t on it.

I removed Audacity and Pulse through the shell and re-installed them, but I’m still not able to pick up Pulse.

When I play a stream from Firefox, Pulse picks it up, but I can’t get Audacity to monitor it using any of the recording devices available to it.

I’ve been searching through posts and can’t seem to find the answer here. If I’ve missed it I apologize. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

Wes

“Pulse” (aka “PulseAudio”) is normally installed by default in Ubuntu (and most other distros). It should not be manually removed unless you really know what you are doing - removing it can easily break the sound system and be very difficult to fix.

Pulse should start automatically when you log onto the system. Does it? (reboot, then look in your task manager to see if pulseaudio is running.)

Hi, thanks, Steve. Pulse is running after rebooting.

Launch Audacity, then “Help menu > Diagnostics > Audio Device Info”
Copy and paste the full info into your reply. That will tell us what devices Audacity can see.

==============================
Default recording device number: 7
Default playback device number: 7
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: HDA Intel PCH: CS4206 Analog (hw:0,0)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0.00580499
Low Playback Latency: 0.00870748
High Recording Latency: 0.0348299
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: HDA ATI HDMI: 0 (hw:1,3)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: sysdefault
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 128
Playback channels: 128
Low Recording Latency: 0.0213333
Low Playback Latency: 0.0213333
High Recording Latency: 0.0213333
High Playback Latency: 0.0213333
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: front
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: surround40
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: surround51
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: surround71
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 7
Device name: default
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 128
Playback channels: 128
Low Recording Latency: 0.0213333
Low Playback Latency: 0.0213333
High Recording Latency: 0.0213333
High Playback Latency: 0.0213333
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 8
Device name: dmix
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.0213333
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0213333
Supported Rates:
    48000
==============================
Selected recording device: 0 - HDA Intel PCH: CS4206 Analog (hw:0,0)
Selected playback device: 7 - default
Supported Rates:
    8000
    16000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available recording sources:
0 - Line:0
1 - Mic:0
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - Master:0
1 - Headphone:0
2 - Speaker:0
3 - PCM:0
4 - Line Boost:0
5 - Line Out:0
6 - Mic Boost:0
==============================
Recording volume is native
Playback volume is native

My guess would be that “default” is Pulse.

Thanks, Steve. I’ve tried using default and sysdefault as my recording devices, but Audacity can’t pick up the stream I’m trying to record using either one of them.

When I bring up the Pulse GUI I can see it finds the Firefox stream, but it doesn’t seem to recognize that Audacity is trying to record that stream.

Is there another app I could use to record?

Do you have pavucontrol installed?
Does this help: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_linux.html

Hi Steve, I do have pavucontrol installed. I was recording through it earlier this week, but a few days ago Audacity stopped detecting it.

Try this, and let me know what happens.

  1. Reboot the computer (so that we have a clean start for this)
  2. Launch Audacity.
  3. Ensure that the recording and playback setting in the Device Toolbar are set to “default”.
  4. Click on: “Start monitoring” in Audacity’s recording level meter.
  5. Launch pavucontrol.
  6. Go to the Recording tab in PulseAudio volume control. Is Audacity listed in that tab?

I’ve got two entries for Default. One is default: Line:0 and the other is default: Mic:0

I rebooted, started up Audacity, set Recording to default: Line:0 (default: Mic:0 works through the computer mic and picks up room sounds) and Playback to default, then started montioring. Then I brought up pavucontrol and clicked the Recording tab and went through all the Show selections, but Audacity wasn’t there.

Did you check while Audacity was recording?

I did. And I played a stream just to see if I could get Audacity to monitor it using any of the recording devices it’s showing, but it couldn’t find the stream on any of them. pavucontrol found the stream, but Audacity doesn’t seem able to find pavucontrol.

I played around with Ubuntu’s sound settings, too, to see if changing the Output and Input devices from Digital (S/PDIF) to the Built-In options, but that doesn’t change whether or not Audacity picks up the stream.

Earlier this week, Audacity had “pulse” as an option for recording and everything worked, but in the last few days “pulse” became unavailable and now it’s just options that don’t seem integrated.



and did Audacity appear in the Recording tab of pavucontrol?

It didn’t.

Try uninstalling your current version of Audacity and install Audacity 2.3.3 from the official Ubuntu repository. Does that work?

Just sharing my experience:

I’ve had to “snap revert audacity” to regain reliable access to devices, including the “pulse” device.
Here is a snap info snippet:

snap-id:      KTe2wdAu5JKdRDUgYBuXXGjDXyzobvFI
tracking:     latest/stable
refresh-date: 3 days ago, at 18:29 PDT
channels:
  latest/stable:    3.0.2 2021-07-12 (910) 246MB -
  latest/candidate: 3.0.2 2021-07-12 (910) 246MB -
  latest/beta:      ↑                            
  latest/edge:      3.0.2 2021-07-12 (910) 246MB -
installed:          3.0.2            (857) 196MB -

910 breaks device access…, but 857 is OK.

Wrt 910…, it’s not only that pulse isn’t accessible…, but that ANY device access is unpredictable from invocation to invocation…, and often the devices shown don’t work at all. Rebooting doesn’t help.

Are they both Audacity 3.0.2?

They both report as 3.0.2, yes.
But notice the size increase in the broken version.
I’m guessing they updated/increased dependencies in the snap…, and didn’t accomplish effective testing of the resulting environment.
I’m guessing that Audacity itself may not be “broken” per se…, but something changed in the packaged dependencies.