Several packages depend on libpipewire-0.3-0 in order to have
pipewire *support* (but they don't need pipewire: the user may
want to use pulseaudio). However, libpipewire-0.3-0 currently
has "Recommends: pipewire [...]", which means that the pipewire
package is installed as a consequence, which runs the pipewire
server automatically.

FYI, xdg-desktop-portal depends on libpipewire-0.3-0, and
xdg-desktop-portal is automatically installed via dependencies
from packages like atril (a document viewer), gnucash and
viking.

Until now, this did not seem to have any major drawback (except
that having a useless server running, just because that one wants
pacakges like atril, gnucash or viking). But now that vlc has
pipewire support in its plugins recommended by default, this
breaks VLC when one just wants to use pulseaudio. Worse, this
also breaks ogg123, with apparently ***no way of going back***
(I suspect that the use of pipewire changed something in the
configuration), unlike VLC.

Packages that need the pipewire server (instead of only pipewire
support) could just depend on (or recommend) the pipewire package
directly. Users who want the pipewire server can install the
package directly.

Note that usually, libraries do not depend on packages providing
daemons.

So, in short:
  * The "Recommends: pipewire [...]" is useless.
  * It breaks other software, even not written with pipewire in mind.

Control: severity -1 normal
* uninstall the pipewire package
* disable the pipewire service

Also vlc still just works with pulseaudio.

Please stop using RC severities for your crusade against pipewire.

Cheers

Dear Maintainer,

just for the record (with a bit of pro-audio background).

1. i wholeheartedly welcome "pipewire" and cannot wait until it becomes
the default soundsystem for Debian. (pulse be gone! it's been a pain)

2. i agree with vincent however, that there's no need to pull in the
pipewire daemon by default. just like libjack1 does not Depend
on/Recommend jackd1 (resp, libjack-jackd2-0 does not Depend on/Recommend
jackd2). libjack uses "Suggests".
libpuse0 uses "Suggests" for pulseaudio as well...

3. i understand sebastinas' annoyance if they feel somebody is on a crusade
against pipewire (but i haven't  followed any of the discussion except
for this bug-report on the thread on debian-devel@ to acknowledge
whether there is an actual crusade or not).


cheers.

This is not a crusade against pipewire. An upgrade of vlc related to
piprewire was just breaking my audio system (not just vlc, but also
ogg123, and ogg123 remained broken even after removing pipewire).

In any case, if there is an intent to switch to the pipewire sound
server, this should be announced and things should be consistent
between the various Debian packages.

Moreover, users (including me) may currently want to stick with
pulseaudio for various reasons. In particular, pipewire/wireplumber
works poorly with headphones:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/wireplumber/-/issues/267

Hello,

Bug #1011130 in pipewire reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/utopia-team/pipewire/-/commit/c9393d5efe2fa62de6f92346c2ded8ea032d861a
------------------------------------------------------------------------
libpipewire-0.3-0: Demote pipewire from Recommends to Suggests (Closes: #1011130)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/1011130

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
pipewire, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1011130@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Dylan Aïssi <daissi@debian.org> (supplier of updated pipewire package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2022 22:17:03 +0200
Source: pipewire
Architecture: source
Version: 0.3.52-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Utopia Maintenance Team <pkg-utopia-maintainers@alioth-lists.debian.net>
Changed-By: Dylan Aïssi <daissi@debian.org>
Closes: 1011130
Changes:
 pipewire (0.3.52-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Dylan Aïssi ]
   * New upstream release
   * libpipewire-0.3-0: Demote pipewire from Recommends to Suggests
       (Closes: #1011130)
   * pipewire-pulse: Suggests for libspa-0.2-bluetooth
   * Bump libxfixes-dev version requirement to 6.0.0
   * Disable LC3plus codec
   * Update symbols file
   * Add myself in Uploaders
   * Standards-Version: 4.6.1 (no changes needed)
 .
   [ Debian Janitor ]
   * Avoid explicitly specifying -Wl,--as-needed linker flag.
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Files:
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