Hello! I’ve been happily using Garuda for about a year and a half now. Came from Windows 10, and I’m loving the change! I apologize in advance for any amateur mistakes in the formatting of this question or any data I am missing. I appreciate everyone’s help.
How we got here:
A while ago I did something that was perhaps foolish. I was trying to run Rocksmith 2014 on my Garuda system and was having some issues getting the USB to instrument audio cable to work. I never did get it to work properly, but in the meantime I fiddled with so many audio settings that I must have messed something up.
The Situation:
In the course of trying out different ways to get this audio cable to work, I ended up having both Pulse and PipeWire installed at one point. I do not recall all the details of what I did unfortunately. I should remember to document things better next time. My audio seemed fine for the most part, but I started to lose audio (it would go silent) somewhat randomly during games. Some games (Ark) seem to be impacted more frequently than others (WoW) for whatever reason, but that might just be my impression. I can restore audio by going into the Sound settings and changing the sound card from 5.1 Digital Audio to something else and back again. This fix doesn’t always last terribly long though.
Attempted Solutions/Progress:
I have looked up this problem in several places and eventually determined that the issue was probably having Pulse and PipeWire on at the same time at some point. I scrubbed out Pulse as best I could and went with PipeWire. The audio was still randomly going silent (although maybe less frequently? Not sure.)
Another post suggested I should get rid of everything and check on only “ALSA Support” in Garuda Assistant. I attempted that, but even after checking off “PipeWire” and only leaving ALSA support, Pipewire was still on and the same issue persists.
I think I have worked the system to the point where it goes silent much less often than it was, but there must still be an issue because it is still happening. Any assistance would be most welcome!
Here is my result of the garuda-inxi command.
System:
Kernel: 6.17.1-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=0c445ada-8dfe-4a2b-99b1-ebf4a9892c24 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet loglevel=3
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.4.5 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.18.0
wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: X670E Steel Legend
serial: <superuser required> uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American
Megatrends LLC. v: 2.02 date: 11/17/2023
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 4 gen: 4
level: v4 note: check built: 2022+ process: TSMC n5 (5nm) family: 0x19 (25)
model-id: 0x61 (97) stepping: 2 microcode: 0xA60120A
Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 1 cores: 8 threads: 16 tpc: 2
smt: enabled cache: L1: 512 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 8 MiB
desc: 8x1024 KiB L3: 96 MiB desc: 1x96 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3592 min/max: 426/4201 boost: enabled scaling:
driver: amd-pstate-epp governor: powersave cores: 1: 3592 2: 3592 3: 3592
4: 3592 5: 3592 6: 3592 7: 3592 8: 3592 9: 3592 10: 3592 11: 3592 12: 3592
13: 3592 14: 3592 15: 3592 16: 3592 bogomips: 134153
Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
ssse3 svm
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA AD104 [GeForce RTX 4070 Ti] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: nvidia v: 580.95.05 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm
non-free: 550-580.xx+ status: current (as of 2025-08) arch: Lovelace
code: AD1xx process: TSMC n4 (5nm) built: 2022+ pcie: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-3 empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1
bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2782 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Raphael driver: amdgpu
v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 code: Navi-2x process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22
pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none empty: DP-4,
DP-5, DP-6, HDMI-A-2, Writeback-1 bus-ID: 16:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:164e
class-ID: 0300 temp: 41.0 C
Device-3: Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-9:3
chip-ID: 046d:082d class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu,nvidia
unloaded: modesetting,nouveau alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa dri: radeonsi
gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: DP-3 model: AOC AG274QG serial: <filter> built: 2020 res:
mode: 2560x1440 hz: 200 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 108 gamma: 1.2
size: 603x347mm (23.74x13.66") diag: 696mm (27.4") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 2560x1440 min: 640x480
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0
drv: nvidia device: 1 drv: radeonsi device: 3 drv: swrast gbm: drv: radeonsi
surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia
inactive: device-2
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.95.05
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
memory: 11.71 GiB display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.328 layers: 17 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti driver: nvidia v: 580.95.05 device-ID: 10de:2782
surfaces: N/A device: 1 type: integrated-gpu name: AMD Radeon Graphics
(RADV RAPHAEL_MENDOCINO) driver: mesa radv v: 25.2.4-arch1.1
device-ID: 1002:164e surfaces: N/A device: 2 type: cpu name: llvmpipe
(LLVM 20.1.8 256 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 25.2.4-arch1.1 (LLVM
20.1.8) device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: N/A
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: corectrl, nvidia-settings,
nvidia-smi wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: NVIDIA AD104 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22bc class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Creative Labs CA0132 Sound Core3D [Sound Blaster AE-7]
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 1102:0010
class-ID: 0403
Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio
[Rembrandt/Strix] driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 16:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640 class-ID: 0403
Device-4: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio
vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 16:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
Device-5: Razer USA RC30-026902 Gaming Headset [Nari Essential Wireless
Receiver] driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-6:2 chip-ID: 1532:051e
class-ID: 0300
Device-6: Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-9:3
chip-ID: 046d:082d class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
Device-7: C-Media Storm HP-USB500 5.1 Headset
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 7-2:2 chip-ID: 0d8c:0006 class-ID: 0300
serial: <filter>
API: ALSA v: k6.17.1-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off tools: aucat,midicat,sndioctl
Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.8 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
port: d000 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: MEDIATEK MT7922 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:0616 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp8s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-3: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel
pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: c000 bus-ID: 09:00.0
chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp9s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: torguard-wg state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Info: services: NetworkManager, smbd, systemd-timesyncd
Bluetooth:
Device-1: MediaTek Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.1
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-12:4 chip-ID: 0e8d:0616
class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.2
lmp-v: 11 status: discoverable: no pairing: no class-ID: 6c0104
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 33.7 TiB used: 31.46 TiB (93.3%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Western Digital
model: WD BLACK SN850X 2000GB size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B
logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 620331WD temp: 48.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 model: P3-2TB size: 1.86 TiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 840H scheme: GPT
ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Seagate model: ST20000NM007D-3DJ103
size: 18.19 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> fw-rev: SN01 scheme: GPT
ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Seagate model: Expansion Desk
size: 7.28 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: USB
rev: 3.0 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 tech: N/A serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 9401 scheme: GPT
ID-5: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 vendor: Seagate model: ST5000LM000-2AN170
size: 4.55 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: USB
rev: 3.0 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 tech: HDD rpm: 5526
serial: <filter> fw-rev: 0204 scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 1.79 TiB size: 1.79 TiB (100.00%) used: 1.42 TiB (79.2%)
fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 632 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 1.79 TiB size: 1.79 TiB (100.00%)
used: 1.42 TiB (79.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 1.79 TiB size: 1.79 TiB (100.00%)
used: 1.42 TiB (79.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 1.79 TiB size: 1.79 TiB (100.00%)
used: 1.42 TiB (79.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 30.46 GiB used: 8.9 MiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo-rle,lzo,lz4,lz4hc,deflate,842 dev: /dev/zram0
ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 33.52 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 41.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 32 GiB note: est. available: 30.46 GiB used: 4.3 GiB (14.1%)
Processes: 530 Power: uptime: 0m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
suspend, test_resume image: 12.12 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 258 default: graphical
tool: systemctl
Packages: 2489 pm: pacman pkgs: 2464 libs: 639 tools: octopi,paru,trizen
pm: flatpak pkgs: 25 Compilers: clang: 20.1.8 gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash
v: 5.3.3 default: fish v: 4.1.2 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.39
Garuda (2.11.1-1):
System install date: 2024-06-26
Garuda release: 240428
Last full system update: 2025-10-11
Is partially upgraded: No
Relevant software: snapper NetworkManager dracut nvidia-utils nvidia-open-dkms garuda-hardware-profile-nvidia garuda-hardware-profile-standard garuda-hardware-profile-standard-x11
Windows dual boot: No/Undetected
Failed units: