Beyond Linux® From Scratch (systemd Edition) - Version 11.2

Chapter 42. Multimedia Libraries and Drivers

Pipewire-0.3.56

Introduction to Pipewire

The pipewire package contains a server and user-space API to handle multimedia pipelines. This includes a universal API to connect to multimedia devices, as well as sharing multimedia files between applications.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-11.2 platform.

Package Information

Pipewire Dependencies

Recommended

BlueZ-5.65, gstreamer-1.20.3, gst-plugins-base-1.20.3, libva-2.15.0, PulseAudio-16.1, SBC-2.0, SDL2-2.24.0, and v4l-utils-1.22.1

Optional

FFmpeg-5.1, Valgrind-3.19.0, Doxygen-1.9.4 and Graphviz-5.0.1 (for documentation), JACK, ldacBT, libcamera, Vulkan, WirePlumber (runtime, for running Pipewire daemon), and xmltoman

User Notes: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/pipewire

Installation of Pipewire

Install pipewire by running the following commands: 

mkdir build &&
cd    build &&

meson --prefix=/usr --buildtype=release -Dsession-managers= .. &&
ninja

To test the result, issue: ninja test.

Now, as the root user: 

ninja install

Command Explanations

--buildtype=release: Specify a buildtype suitable for stable releases of the package, as the default may produce unoptimized binaries.

-Dsession-managers=: This switch prevents automatic downloading external dependencies.

-Ddocs=true: This switch enables the generation of HTML documentation. The optional dependencies for documentation need to be installed for this to work.

-Dman=true: This switch enables the generation of manual pages. The optional dependencies for documentation need to be installed for this to work.

-Dffmpeg=enabled: This switch enables using ffmpeg for audio conversion as a SPA backend.

Contents

Installed Programs: pipewire, pipewire-avb, pipewire-pulse, pw-cat, pw-cli, pw-dot, pw-dump, pw-jack, pw-link, pw-loopback, pw-metadata, pw-mididump, pw-mon, pw-profiler, pw-reserve, pw-top, pw-v4l2, spa-acp-tool, spa-inspect, spa-json-dump, spa-monitor, spa-resample, and pw-dsdplay, pw-midiplay, pw-midirecord, pw-play, and pw-record (symlinks to pw-cat)
Installed Libraries: libpipewire-0.3.so and 30 modules below /usr/lib/pipewire-0.3
Installed Directories: /usr/include/pipewire-0.3, /usr/include/spa-0.2, /usr/lib/alsa-lib, /usr/lib/pipewire-0.3, /usr/lib/spa-0.2, /usr/share/alsa-card-profile, /usr/share/pipewire, and /usr/share/spa-0.2

Short Descriptions

pipewire

is a service that allows access to multimedia devices and allows sharing of multimedia files between applications

pipewire-media-session

is a service that allows a desktop environment to know when media files are being played through pipewire

pipewire-pulse

starts a Pulseaudio-compatible version of the pipewire service

pw-cat

allows you to play or record media using a pipewire instance

pw-cli

allows you to interact with a pipewire instance

pw-dot

lists all of the daemons and objects in use by pipewire

pw-dump

dumps debug messages from a local or remote pipewire instance to the console

pw-jack

runs JACK applications on a pipewire instance

pw-link

links pipewire ports together

pw-loopback

initializes a loopback link between two different pipewire ports. This is useful for testing and debugging

pw-metadata

inspects, adds, and removes metadata for objects

pw-mididump

dumps MIDI messages from a file to the screen

pw-mon

allows you to monitor pipewire instances

pw-profiler

tracks memory usage and API calls used by pipewire

pw-reserve

reserves or monitors a device via D-Bus

pw-top

displays real-time performance information from pipewire

pw-v4l2

runs v4l2 applications on a pipewire instance

spa-acp-tool

inspects the card profile of a given sound card

spa-inspect

allows you to inspect pipewire plugins

spa-json-dump

dumps the current pipewire configuration in JSON format.

spa-monitor

allows you to monitor pipewire plugins

spa-resample

resamples a given file

libpipewire-0.3.so

contains API functions for handling multimedia pipelines