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amc252

Member

From: Italy/México

Registered: 2021-01-16

Posts: 54  

[SOLVED] Pipewire dependency problem

Hello everybody,

I'm trying to install pipewire on Daedalus but there seems to be some dependency problem.
I first removed pulseuadio and updated the system.
Then:

 sudo apt install pipewire-audio
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libspa-0.2-bluetooth : Depends: libspa-0.2-modules (= 0.3.65-3+deb12u1) but 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1 is to be installed
 pipewire-alsa : Depends: pipewire (= 0.3.65-3+deb12u1) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libpipewire-0.3-0 (= 0.3.65-3+deb12u1) but 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1 is to be installed
 pipewire-audio : Depends: pipewire-pulse
 wireplumber : Depends: pipewire (>= 0.3.52) but it is not installable
               Recommends: pipewire-pulse
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I tried the following solutions:
apt install -f (all packages were fine)
activated backport updated and apt-get install -t daedalus-backports pipewire-audio (still dependency problems)
aptitude install pipewire-audio (several solutions with downgrade and some unmet dependencies so I didn't go through)

Is there a way to solve the problem?
I always keep my system up to date and haven't installed anything weird, so It's strange to get this issue

Thanks.

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 105  

Re: [SOLVED] Pipewire dependency problem

Is there a way to solve the problem?

Usually when faced with things like this I always use similar to the below.

apt-cache policy pipewire-audio libspa-0.2-bluetooth libspa-0.2-modules pipewire-alsa pipewire libpipewire-0.3-0 wireplumber

Then once you have determined the version available and looking at the output of what it says is needed you go with.

apt install libspa-0.2-modules=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 libpipewire-0.3-0=0.3.65-3+deb12u1

Then you need to find out why the pipewire (= 0.3.65-3+deb12u1) has nothing at all to install because looking at Debian packages it is certainly there to be installed.

https://packages.debian.org/search?keyw … ection=all

Last edited by RedGreen925 (2025-04-12 03:48:30)

amc252

Member

From: Italy/México

Registered: 2021-01-16

Posts: 54  

Re: [SOLVED] Pipewire dependency problem

Thanks for the pointer.
I tried your method and apt-cache policy output was the following:

apt-cache policy pipewire-audio libspa-0.2-bluetooth libspa-0.2-modules pipewire-alsa pipewire libpipewire-0.3-0 wireplumber
pipewire-audio:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.3.65-3+deb12u1
  Version table:
     0.3.65-3+deb12u1 500
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main i386 Packages
libspa-0.2-bluetooth:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.3.65-3+deb12u1
  Version table:
     0.3.65-3+deb12u1 500
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
libspa-0.2-modules:
  Installed: 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1
  Candidate: 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1
  Version table:
 *** 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.3.65-3+deb12u1 500
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
pipewire-alsa:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.3.65-3+deb12u1
  Version table:
     0.3.65-3+deb12u1 500
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
pipewire:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.3.65-3+deb12u1
  Version table:
     0.3.65-3+deb12u1 500
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
libpipewire-0.3-0:
  Installed: 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1
  Candidate: 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1
  Version table:
 *** 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.3.65-3+deb12u1 500
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
wireplumber:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.4.13-1
  Version table:
     0.4.13-1 500
        500 http://devuan.planetcobalt.net/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages

Then I tried this:

apt install libspa-0.2-modules=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 libpipewire-0.3-0=0.3.65-3+deb12u1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  pipewire
The following packages will be DOWNGRADED:
  libpipewire-0.3-0 libspa-0.2-modules
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 downgraded, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 785 kB of archives.
After this operation, 391 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

Since I was not sure about downgrading packages, I didn't go through, yet.
But: apt search output was:

pipewire/stable 0.3.65-3+deb12u1 amd64
  audio and video processing engine multimedia server

So pipewire (= 0.3.65-3+deb12u1)  is in fact listed to be available.
I might give it a try tomorrow and see how it goes.

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 105  

Re: [SOLVED] Pipewire dependency problem

Do the install with all the packages it complains about it appears the versions required are there so.

apt install -s libspa-0.2-modules=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 libpipewire-0.3-0=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 pipewire-audio=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 libspa-0.2-bluetooth=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 pipewire-alsa=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 pipewire=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 libpipewire-0.3-0=0.3.65-3+deb12u1 wireplumber

This should get it installed, once the -s is removed from the line for the simulation,  say yes to the downgrade of the 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1 version packages. Which the policy command gives no clue on how that junk got installed in the first place. Certain not from a Debian related source as that is not a package format used by them for the version number.

Edit: If you remove the two packages at the version 1.2.7-1.1b~c71b67b6~1 then try to install the pipewire it will most likely just install as that is what is messing up the install. Without them present there is nothing to stop the install from happening normally.

Last edited by RedGreen925 (2025-04-12 12:59:10)

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 105  

Re: [SOLVED] Pipewire dependency problem

And now it pops into my head you have to start pipewire manually to have sound using it, from my startup script I use in the autostart of kde but as the comment shows was used as .xsessionrc file to have it loaded when X started.

zeus@9600k:~$ cat bin/pipewire_start.sh 
#!/bin/bash

# Added to start pipewire on login to desktop
# https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=5867
# was the ~/.xsessionrc -rw-rw-r-- permissions
# now ~/bin/pipewire_start.sh executable permissions
# as bash script loaded from KDE autostart in System Settings

# kill any existing pipewire instance to restore sound
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse 1>/dev/null 2>&1
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/wireplumber 1>/dev/null 2>&1
pkill -u "$USER" -fx /usr/bin/pipewire 1>/dev/null 2>&1

# start pipewire
exec /usr/bin/pipewire &

# wait for pipewire to start before attempting to start related daemons
while [ "$(pgrep -f /usr/bin/pipewire)" = "" ] ; do
   sleep 1
done

# start wireplumber
exec /usr/bin/wireplumber &

# start pipewire-pulse
exec /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse &

amc252

Member

From: Italy/México

Registered: 2021-01-16

Posts: 54  

Re: [SOLVED] Pipewire dependency problem

Removing libpipewire-0.3-0:amd64 libpipewire-0.3-common libspa-0.2-modules:amd64 did the trick.
After that pipewire installed without a problem.

I use JWM, so I added pipewire wireplumber and pipewire-pulse to the startup entries and it seems to work just fine.

Thanks a lot for the help and the detailed instructions.

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 105  

Re: [SOLVED] Pipewire dependency problem

You are welcome, good to read you get it sorted.