Cannot play streams or videos in qubes connected to GUI domain (sys-gui)

[ZYousef]

How to file a helpful issue

Qubes OS release

Qubes release 4.1.0

Brief summary

GUI-domain seems to be unable to render videos with audio streams, PulseAudio setup seems to be incomplete, (no autostart & when started manually says no cards available). Looking to ~/.xsession-errors says sys-gui AUDIO connected to None. Skipping
. I tried playing muted videos and it works fine, I suspect that the issue is coming from PulseAudio

Steps to reproduce

sudo qubesctl top.enable qvm.sys-gui
sudo qubesctl top.enable qvm.sys-gui pillar=True
sudo qubesctl --all state.highstate

((wait for a long time)

sudo qubesctl top.disable qvm.sys-gui
set default gui:
qubes-prefs default-guivm sys-gui

Expected behavior

Logging to GUI-Domain works fine.

Actual behavior

GUI-Domain works reasonably well regardless of some cluttering, however, it cannot render videos or streams with audio.
((videos not rendered at all unless it has no audio))

[DemiMarie]

On the one hand this is definitely a bug, but on the other hand I am curious why you are trying to play videos in the GUI domain. The GUI domain is highly privileged (via qrexec policy) and videos are generally considered untrusted.

[ZYousef]

I am sorry I wasn't clear in my OP. I meant to say that the video is played within a qube/appVM on the sys-gui environment.
When I log into the sys-gui and run say youtube on any qube, the video gets stuck and doesn't play (this isn't the case with dom0) . The audio icon on the top right of sys-gui has an x-mark with a pop-up message: "Not connected to the PulseAudio server". I will share some logs shortly.

[ZYousef]

Below you can find some logs from:
sudo pulseaudio --system & ~/.xsession-errors

What I've noticed from these logs is that pulseaudio isn't set up correctly and is unable to connect.
Interesting line from xsession: sys-gui: AUDIO connected to None. Skipping.

As for pulseaudio --system command I noticed this different behavior W: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Denied access to client with invalid authentication data.

xsession.txt
pulseaudio --system.txt

[ZYousef]

Update
Surprisingly if you start the machine while you're in dom0 environment then switch to the sys-gui environment, and use it to run some videos it will play fine!

[DemiMarie]

@ZYousef Have you set sys-gui to also be the AudioVM?

[ZYousef]

@DemiMarie do you mean setting default-audiovm to be sys-gui?
if so, yes! however, after setting it as audiovm, ~/.xsession-errors now fails
at sys-net: Starting AUDIO with Task exception was never retrieved ... qvm_start_daemon.py:576> exception=FileNotFoundError(2,'No such file or directory'">

Update
I've installed qubes-audio-daemon to fix the previous error, now it says: sys-gui connected to None.
please note that I'm only using sys-gui without sys-audio being set up.

[DemiMarie]

Update
I've installed qubes-audio-daemon to fix the previous error, now it says: sys-gui connected to None.
please note that I'm only using sys-gui without sys-audio being set up.

What happens if you set sys-gui’s AudioVM to dom0?

[ZYousef]

Update
I've found a workaround to solve this issue with the help of @DemiMarie, however, I'm concerned about the security implications of the solution.

1. Setup sys-gui as mentioned before

Steps to reproduce

sudo qubesctl top.enable qvm.sys-gui
sudo qubesctl top.enable qvm.sys-gui pillar=True
sudo qubesctl --all state.highstate

((wait for a long time)

2. Change the preferences:

qubes-prefs default-guivm sys-gui
qubes-prefs default-audiovm sys-gui
qvm-prefs sys-gui audiovm dom0

3. install qubes-audio-daemon on fedora-34-xfce (sys-gui's template)
4. Create an autostart for pulse-audio-with-vchan or edit /etc/xdg/autostart/qubes-pulseaudio.desktop on fedora-34-xfce
   (existing autostart doesn't initiate with boot up

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Pulseaudio
Comment=Starts Pulseaudio
Icon=qubes
Exec=start-pulseaudio-with-vchan
Terminal=False
Type=Application
NotShowIn=KDE;

Voilà you should be able to enjoy YouTube on GUI-domain!

[DemiMarie]

I've found a workaround to solve this issue with the help of @DemiMarie, however, I'm concerned about the security implications of the solution.

I don’t see any security implications of this, it looks fine (assuming you trust your fedora-34-xfce template).

[ben-grande]

From reading #7367 (comment), I believe this was solved and this issue can be closed.

I am sorry I wasn't clear in my OP. I meant to say that the video is played within a qube/appVM on the sys-gui environment.

I just recommend correcting the title for people searching for it.

Recommended title:

Can't play streams on qubes connected to GUI-domain (sys-gui)

[andrewdavidwong]

From reading #7367 (comment), I believe this was solved and this issue can be closed.

That comment says that a workaround was found. Also, it appears that there was no actual change to code or documentation, which suggests that the issue is not actually completed. (If it should still be closed, maybe it should be closed with another resolution, like R: not applicable E.g., help/support requests, questions, discussions, "not a bug," not enough info, not actionable. ?)

I just recommend correcting the title for people searching for it.

Done.

[ben-grande]

(If it should still be closed, maybe it should be closed with another resolution, like R: not applicable ?)

Yes.

[github-actions]

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