PulseEffects does not properly initialize on startup

[Roman]

In KUbuntu 21.10, PulseEffects no longer initializes its effects chain on startup. I usually use only Equalizer, so when I log into KDE, this equalizer does not get activated. To ativate it I need (i) start PulseEffects GUI, (ii) untic and tic again the "Equalizer" box. This is rarher annoying sequence that I have to repeat each time I login.

Previousy, in ubuntu 21.04, all this was unnecessary. PluseEffets just worked immediately after logging in, without any additional actions. I would expect the same behaviour in 21.10.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.10
Package: pulseeffects 4.8.4-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.13.0-20.20-generic 5.13.14
Uname: Linux 5.13.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu71
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Wed Oct 27 02:56:47 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-04-03 (1667 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=ru
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseeffects
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to impish on 2021-09-24 (32 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[DeL00M (del00m)]

I have the same problem after upgrade to Kubuntu 21.10.

[Nelson Morais (geecode)]

Same happening to me after updating to Ubuntu 21.10

[Roman (m01brv)]

I found the root issue and a workaround. Pulseeffects package in Impish is of the same version as in Hirsute 4.8.4-1, so it cannot be the direct cause. But the issue is eliminated by downgrading the following four packages from their Impish version 0.40.0-1 to the Hirsute version 0.38.0-2:

dconf-gsettings-backend dconf-service dconf-cli libdconf1

So it seems that either newer DConf has a bug or PulseEffects should be updated to handle some interface changes in DConf.

[Roman (m01brv)]

Changing this to d-conf because its downgrade helps to eliminate the issue

[DeL00M (del00m)]

I can't imagine how did you found this, but thank you so much for this workaround!

[Roman (m01brv)]

After a recent daily update Pulseeffects just stopped working entirely (literal silence from the Pulseeffects(apps) stream). No idea if this is related to this bug in any way. Difficult to say which package update was responsible for that, seemingly nothing obviously related. I tried to upgrade the system to the current development realese of 22.04, and the same issue remains.

[DeL00M (del00m)]

Today I tried flatpak version of PulseEffects and it's work for me. Only issue with autostart, but fixed with manually added autostart entry:
/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=pulseeffects com.github.wwmm.pulseeffects --gapplication-service

[Roman (m01brv)]

OK, in devel 22.04 the sound restored after an update, though PE does not actually perform any transformation from the chain... I just hope that after all it will be fixed in the final release, and will work well like it worked in 20.04... If not it seems we have to use the flatpak version.

[Roman (m01brv)]

An update: I've noticed that my PE had the button "Global Bypass" occasionally activated (somehow without my consent), and after unpressing it the entire chain now works again. But the initial bug is unfortunately there, that is PE does not get activated on sturtup properly. So in 22.04 devel, the bug is still there.

[Roman (m01brv)]

Just confirming that the issue moved to Ubuntu Jammy stable relese. The workaround with downgrading DConf to the Hirsute version still works.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[carlosgs (carlosgs)]

I have switched to the flatpak version as @del00m proposed and indeed it starts correctly. That version of PulseEffects is 4.8.5 while the repository's is 4.8.4.

Changelog for 4.8.5 just says "Improved compatibility with dconf 0.40. Now our plugins should be enabled when using this version.", so maybe the solution is to update the PulseEffects package in the repository to 4.8.5+ :)

[Roman (m01brv)]

I am very unfamiliar with flatpak, but I noticed that current Debian sid includes PulseEffects 4.8.7. I've downloaded the following set from there: pulseeffects main package, the supporting set of gstreamer1.0-*-pulseffects packages, and also newer versions of libglibmm-2.4-1v5 and libgtkmm-3.0-1v5 that were required by dependencies. And, finally, upgraded DConf packages back to their normal Jammy version. Now everything seems to work well. PulseEffects starts normally.

[Anon (tbn4057)]

Version 4.8.7-1 from kinetic fixes this.

[Jo Grey (jagwaggy88)]

Can someone explain in a noob friendly way how to install the 4.8.7-1 version from the kinetic testing repo? I am experiencing this bug on Linux Mint 21 XFCE (Jammy) and PulseEffects 4.8.4-1 and don't know enough to be able to figure it out on my own... can you post the terminal commands to install this new bugfix version please?

[soonan (soonan5)]

I wrote a solution on this GitHub thread:https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects/issues/1644

However I think this package should get an update to fix this. Thanks!

[Milachew (milachew)]

This can also be fixed by a simple build of pulseeffects version 4.8.7.

I tried to do it on Ubuntu 22.04 and autorun worked.

A minor update of the pulseeffects version should fix the problem.