[2026-08-28T16:11:52Z] <Vova> anyone uses sndio instead pipewire?
[2026-08-28T18:52:58Z] <farkuhar> Vova: I use sndio instead of pipewire. It works great, as long as I don't try to route input and output through two different hardware devices.
[2026-08-28T18:55:57Z] <farkuhar> When I need full-duplex functionality, I either plug in a USB headset (combination microphone+headphones), or use the mic and headphone jacks on the internal soundcard; I can't for example route output through the USB speakers while simultaneously using the internal soundcard's mic jack for talking.
[2026-08-28T18:59:58Z] <farkuhar> The internal soundcard does offer more than just analog output jacks, though; I have in the past used the optical output in tandem with the internal soundcard's mic jack for videoconferencing. But that requires a bulky hi-fi receiver (the only hardware in my possession that can handle the optical out signal).
[2026-08-28T19:01:22Z] <Vova> farkuhar: ah fair enough, thanks for the info!
[2026-08-28T19:05:34Z] <farkuhar> Yesterday I joined a Zoom call before I managed to recall where my standalone 3.5mm microphone was stored, but the standalone 3.5mm headphones were already in easy reach. As a result, I heard the other parties' conversation, but they couldn't hear me. If I had bothered to plug in the USB headset, the conversation could have been two-way, but I would have had to restart sndiod with new flags first.
[2026-08-28T19:08:24Z] <farkuhar> My current sndio daemon only activates two devices by default: the internal soundcard (-f flag) and the USB speakers (-F flag). I should probably change the settings to also activate the USB headset, if I plan to do more videoconferencing regularly.
[2026-08-28T19:11:58Z] <farkuhar> For the applications that might need full-duplex mode, I launch them via a wrapper script that first sources /var/lib/sndio/server.default, whose only line is `export AUDIODEVICE=snd/headset` or something similar. Then I have a udev rule that detects the connection or disconnection of the hot-pluggable devices (USB speakers or headset) and overwrites /var/lib/sndio/server.default as appropriate.
[2026-08-28T21:00:30Z] <stilic> i did this customization with a custom river window manager https://conference.kitty.tel/file_share/01a04a23-fd7e-77bc-a00d-70248a8823c0/ac082440-7ada-4ca3-94f6-0dfffcc91d08.png