AUDIO_DIAGNOSTICS_EN.md

Linux Audio Diagnostics for Aura

1. Identifying Devices

List all audio devices as seen by the Python environment:

./.venv/bin/python3 -m sounddevice > /tmp/aura_devices.txt && kate /tmp/aura_devices.txt

  • What to look for: Note the Index Number and Hardware ID (hw:X,Y) of your microphone.

2. Who is using the hardware?

If you get “Device Busy” or “Timeout” errors, check which process (PID) is currently locking the audio hardware:

fuser -v /dev/snd/*

  • Tip: If you see pipewire or wireplumber, the sound server is managing the device. If you see a python3 or obs PID directly on a PCM device, they might be blocking others.

3. Real-time Monitoring (PipeWire)

If your system uses PipeWire (Standard in modern Manjaro), this is the best tool for live diagnostics:

pw-top

  • What to look for: Check the ERR column for dropouts and verify that Aura (16000Hz) and OBS (48000Hz) are not causing resampling-overload on the CPU.

4. Monitoring Audio Events

See live updates when microphones are muted, unmuted, or new streams are created:

pactl subscribe

  • Usage: Run this, then start Aura. If you see many remove events immediately, a process is crashing or being rejected.

5. Hardware Bypass Test

Test if your microphone works on a raw hardware level (bypassing PulseAudio/PipeWire). This records 5 seconds of audio:

# Replace hw:1,0 with your device index
arecord -D hw:1,0 -f S16_LE -r 16000 -d 5 /tmp/test.wav && vlc /tmp/test.wav

  • Result: If this works but Aura doesn’t, the issue is in the Sound-Server configuration, not the hardware.

6. Emergency Reset

If the audio system is stuck:

systemctl --user restart pipewire wireplumber
# Or for older PulseAudio systems:
pulseaudio -k

hint easier Workflow:

/tmp/diagnose.txt && kate /tmp/diagnose.txt an den Befehl an. 🌵🚀