Hello all,
I spent a lot a time reading whatever docs I could find for Pipewire,
and discuss things with some users, only to get frustrated more and
more.
Below is a description of the configuration I'd want. If anyone knows
how to do this (it shouldn't be that difficult) that person will
receive my eternal admiration and gratitude.
1. Jack2 and some clients are started manually after I login,
and will be running all the time.
2. Currently the ALSA Jack plugin is used to route audio from
web browsers etc. to Jack. PW may take over this role but
that is not a strict requirement.
3. PW will be started manually when required, and I don't expect
that will happen very often. It may remain running when no longer
needed but shouldn't interfere. It will be used to connect apps
to Jack as in (2), or those that even don't support ALSA, or
maybe to route audio from Jack to Bluetooth etc.
4. All Jack ports created by PW should be permanent and exist
as soon as PW is started, so they can be manually connected
and remain connected even when not in active use.
5. PW should never ever access the sound card used by Jack,
not even if accidentally started when Jack is not running.
It must not force Jack to use dbus in order to get access
to that card. It may manage other sound cards, but preferably
only those explicitly listed.
6. PW must never ever interfere with Jack in any way - making
connections, trying to change the period size, etc. Its only
role is to be a well-behaved Jack client.
7. I do not expect anything 'automatic' to happen when things
are plugged in or out.
8. The PW configuration should be done in such a way such that
it can't be modified by drop-in files from the system package
manager. All configuration should be manual and explicit, and
easy to verify without having to scan a myriad of files and/or
directories and trying to understand how they interact. This
is just basic security.
Ciao,
--
FA