42 - Gamemode session - No audio

TL;DR: there's no audio on the deck mode, even after switching the default output on desktop mode and via wpctl Running Bazzite-deck-gnome on my PC. Upon booting, I have no sound in game mode (be it the Steamdeck UI or games). Going into the steamdeck settings I see that the audio device is correct (NAVI 10 HDMI Audio). The problem is that there's no way in the steamdeck UI to select another sink from the same device: I have my main monitor connected via HDMI-1 and my AVR 5.1 amplifier connected to DP-2 I've read the documentation and forums, went through serveral of the possible fixes but to no avail. I've forced wireplumber to change the defaults and given specific priorities to my audio devices, but nothing works for the gamescope session. As soon as I switch to gnome, I can hear the sublte "pop" of the amp switching to 5.1 mode, and indeed it gets enabled right there. I'm at a loss, I've tried figuring this out by myself for the better part of this week, and even got the run-around by chatGPT and similar tools. I'd love to hear from someone who actually knows the inner workings of gamescope-session and it's behaviour towards wireplumber/pipewire (instead of an AI hallucinating and giving me half-broken answers). I really want gamemode to work, since it's the only reliable way of enjoying HDR games.
1 Reply
Willdrick
WilldrickOP2d ago
Updated to the latest stable version (via ujust update) and now I have HDR controls on gnome 48, but games still show the HDR setting grayed out UPDATE: Reinstalled from scratch, using bazzite-42.20250417-deck-gnome-stable-amd64.iso and updated via ujust update Issue persists. I selected the correct device on desktop, and verified it works. Going back to gaming mode I have no sound output
bash-5.2$ wpctl status
PipeWire 'pipewire-0' [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, cookie:294743523]
└─ Clients:
33. WirePlumber [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:3052]
41. WirePlumber [export] [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:3052]
56. GNOME Shell Volume Control [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4647]
60. gnome-shell [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4647]
64. uresourced [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4595]
78. wpctl [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:7505]
81. pipewire [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:3421]
84. Steam [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:5333]
85. GNOME Volume Control Media Keys [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4781]
86. xdg-desktop-portal [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:5458]
87. Chromium input [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:192]
88. Steam Voice Settings [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:5333]

Audio
├─ Devices:
│ 69. Blue Snowball [alsa]
│ 71. Navi 10 HDMI Audio [alsa]
│ 73. DualSense wireless controller (PS5) [alsa]

├─ Sinks:
│ * 51. Navi 10 HDMI Audio Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) [vol: 0.75]
│ 68. DualSense wireless controller (PS5) Envolvente analógico 4.0 [vol: 0.40]

├─ Sources:
│ 54. DualSense wireless controller (PS5) Estéreo analógico [vol: 1.00]
│ * 75. Blue Snowball Mono [vol: 1.00]

├─ Filters:

└─ Streams:

Video
├─ Devices:

├─ Sinks:

├─ Sources:

├─ Filters:

└─ Streams:

Settings
└─ Default Configured Devices:
0. Audio/Sink alsa_output.pci-0000_0b_00.1.hdmi-surround-extra2
1. Audio/Source alsa_input.usb-BLUE_MICROPHONE_Blue_Snowball_SUGA_2021_03_19_08677-00.mono-fallback
bash-5.2$ wpctl status
PipeWire 'pipewire-0' [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, cookie:294743523]
└─ Clients:
33. WirePlumber [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:3052]
41. WirePlumber [export] [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:3052]
56. GNOME Shell Volume Control [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4647]
60. gnome-shell [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4647]
64. uresourced [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4595]
78. wpctl [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:7505]
81. pipewire [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:3421]
84. Steam [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:5333]
85. GNOME Volume Control Media Keys [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:4781]
86. xdg-desktop-portal [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:5458]
87. Chromium input [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:192]
88. Steam Voice Settings [1.4.1, willdrick@shodan, pid:5333]

Audio
├─ Devices:
│ 69. Blue Snowball [alsa]
│ 71. Navi 10 HDMI Audio [alsa]
│ 73. DualSense wireless controller (PS5) [alsa]

├─ Sinks:
│ * 51. Navi 10 HDMI Audio Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) [vol: 0.75]
│ 68. DualSense wireless controller (PS5) Envolvente analógico 4.0 [vol: 0.40]

├─ Sources:
│ 54. DualSense wireless controller (PS5) Estéreo analógico [vol: 1.00]
│ * 75. Blue Snowball Mono [vol: 1.00]

├─ Filters:

└─ Streams:

Video
├─ Devices:

├─ Sinks:

├─ Sources:

├─ Filters:

└─ Streams:

Settings
└─ Default Configured Devices:
0. Audio/Sink alsa_output.pci-0000_0b_00.1.hdmi-surround-extra2
1. Audio/Source alsa_input.usb-BLUE_MICROPHONE_Blue_Snowball_SUGA_2021_03_19_08677-00.mono-fallback

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