[MU4 Issue] MuseScore on Linux cannot access sound device if any other software on the computer is even tangentially using it

[majenkotech]

Describe the bug If you have any other software running that even tangentially looks at using the default sound device (such as Discord just sat there doing nothing, or firefox that happens to have something that once made a noise open in a tab) then MuseScore will fail to init the sound system. It will load (with errors) but as soon as you try and play anything playback just hangs. Any attempt to look at the sound settings (which still don't have anything other than "System Default") causes the software to crash.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Have something else that could potentially use sound, like Discord, sat running
2. Load MuseScore
3. ???
4. Fail to profit

Platform information

• OS: Linux

• Additional context We urgently need an alternative to just ALSA as the sound backend on Linux. PulseAudio and Jack support are the bare minimum we need in order for it to be actually usable in Linux. As an interim stop-gap just the ability to select a different audio device than "System Default" might be a help.

[oktophonie]

Same here! (OS: Artix Linux, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 4.0.1-230121751, revision: github-musescore-musescore-9b70a8c)

[macaquedev]

Sorry, I'm on Ubuntu 22.04 and have had no issues whatsoever with all sorts of things going through my bluetooth headphones while MS runs, so I can't reproduce the issue.

[MarcSabatella]

I have noticed the playback hanging lately on one of my two Linux systems but so far it hasn't happened on the other. I don't see any errors printed to console when this happens, though. I can confirm that if I start MuseScore and play, it works, but if I then switch to another application and use audio (eg, play a video in a browser tab), then MuseScore playback hangs.

[NexAdn]

Are there any plans on implementing support for PulseAudio or JACK? I haven't found any open issues with a feature request, yet.

[majenkotech]

I would say probably not: I have switched my system from pulse/jack to PipeWire and all my problems are cured. I resisted it for a while, but now I'm sold and not looking back...

[EvyBongers]

I recently seem to have fixed my issue on Arch by installing pipewire-alsa (I've been running pipewire for months but never seem to have required pipewire-alsa, until now). Possibly pulseaudio-alsa is missing as package requirement?

[aliceh75]

Installing pipewire-alsa did not fix the issue for me. Can't use MuseScore if another app is using audio. Note that this is not MuseScore specific, other than the fact MuseScore doesn't support pipewire directly. Using native ALSA gives me the same problem (e.g. speaker-test). Ubuntu 22.10, wayland.