Win11pro/WSL2/UBUNTU 24.04.1 - pulsaudio.service | pulseaudio.socket | PulseServer doesn`t run?

[cjg-aussee-ai]

Hallo, we recently migrated to Windows 11 Pro (24H2, 26100.6584). In doing so, I set up our system on WSL2 with Ubuntu 24.04.1 (from the MS Store). Basically, everything worked quite well. !!! Unfortunately, pulseaudio.service is not working !!!

The configuration also appears to be correct. In Win 11, the permission for all apps to use the sound system is set to Yes (allowed). Immediately after starting Ubuntu (WSL2), I receive the following messages via the command line:

$ systemctl --user status pulseaudio.service

$xxx@ausseeai001:~$ systemctl --user status pulseaudio.service
× pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2025-09-26 23:51:33 CEST; 13s ago
TriggeredBy: × pulseaudio.socket
Process: 506 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=journal (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 506 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CPU: 12ms

Sep 26 23:51:32 ausseeai001 systemd[394]: Failed to start pulseaudio.service - Sound Service.
Sep 26 23:51:33 ausseeai001 systemd[394]: pulseaudio.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Sep 26 23:51:33 ausseeai001 systemd[394]: pulseaudio.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Sep 26 23:51:33 ausseeai001 systemd[394]: pulseaudio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 26 23:51:33 ausseeai001 systemd[394]: Failed to start pulseaudio.service - Sound Service.

$ pulseaudio --log-level=debug

$xxx@ausseeai001:~$ pulseaudio --log-level=debug
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted
D: [pulseaudio] core-rtclock.c: Timer slack is set to 50 us.
I: [pulseaudio] core-util.c: Failed to acquire high-priority scheduling: Permission denied
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: This is PulseAudio 16.1
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Compilation CFLAGS: Not yet supported on meson
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Running on host: Linux x86_64 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2 microsoft/WSL#1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Jun 5 18:30:46 UTC 2025
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Found 24 CPUs.
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: Page size is 4096 bytes
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Compiled with Valgrind support: no
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Running in valgrind mode: no
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Running in VM: yes
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Running from build tree: no
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: Optimized build: yes
D: [pulseaudio] main.c: All asserts enabled.
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: Machine ID is d659ce931bd84bc9aaaedec8d8b5a2a4.
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: Using runtime directory /run/user/1000//pulse.
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: Using state directory /home/cjg/.config/pulse.
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: Using modules directory /usr/lib/pulse-16.1+dfsg1/modules.
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: Running in system mode: no
W: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Failed to open PID file '/run/user/1000/pulse/pid': Too many levels of symbolic links
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.

$ ls -l /run/user/1000/pulse/

$xxx@ausseeai001:~$ ls -l /run/user/1000/pulse/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cjg cjg 34 Sep 26 23:51 native -> /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/pulse/native
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cjg cjg 31 Sep 26 23:51 pid -> /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/pulse/pid

$ ls -l /mnt/wslg/Pulse*

$xxx@ausseeai001:~$ ls -l /mnt/wslg/Pulse*
srwxrwxrwx 1 cjg cjg 0 Sep 26 23:51 /mnt/wslg/PulseAudioRDPSink
srwxrwxrwx 1 cjg cjg 0 Sep 26 23:51 /mnt/wslg/PulseAudioRDPSource
srwxrwxrwx 1 cjg cjg 0 Sep 26 23:51 /mnt/wslg/PulseServer

$ env | grep -E "PULSE|XDG"

$xxx@ausseeai001:~$ env | grep -E "PULSE|XDG"
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000/
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/local/share:/usr/share:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
PULSE_SERVER=unix:/mnt/wslg/PulseServer

$ inxi -Aaz

$xxx@ausseeai001:~$ inxi -Aaz
Audio:
Message: No device data found.
Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: off
tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol,pulsemixer

$ pavucontrol

The pavucontrol window opens, but no sound is played.

!!! Any ideas, what we are doing wrong? !!!

[github-actions]

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[cjg-aussee-ai]

Ok, logs attached

WslLogs-2025-09-27_10-20-03.zip

[github-actions]

The log file doesn't contain any WSL traces. Please make sure that you reproduced the issue while the log collection was running.

Diagnostic information

.wslconfig found
Detected appx version: 2.6.1.0
Found no WSL traces in the logs

[cjg-aussee-ai]

Ok, additional

WslLogs-2025-09-27_10-32-24.zip

logs attached

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

.wslconfig found
Detected appx version: 2.6.1.0

[sirredbeard]

PulseAudio normally runs in the WSLg image (overlayed on top of your working Ubuntu WSL image), it may get installed there but you don't need to run in your working Ubuntu WSL image.

We could potentially help more if I understood what you were trying to accomplish. Is there a particular application or workflow you are trying to get to?

[cjg-aussee-ai]

Thank you. My first requirement we just want to be able to use microphone and speakers (of our notebooks) in python. If pulseaudio is implemented differently = as an overlay in WSL2, and, for example, pulseaudio-utils (and subsequently also the communicated audio implementations in python) do not work, it would be great if you could provide a link to the alternative and correct procedure for WSL2. Normally, you would immediately install pulseaudio | pulsaudio-utils, which cause error messages by default in WSL2.

Summary questions/workflows:

a) Do I need to install pulseaudio | pulsaudio-utils under WSL2 > Yes/No?
b) Are the common function control commands obsolete under WSL2 > Yes/No?
c) If pulseaudio | pulsaudio-utils are no longer available, can you (or MS) link us to two simple python scripts/implementations that show how to handle audio input and audio output correctly under WSL2?

(n the short term. we need it for testing an intern transcribe script)

Thanks for your time and your help.

[sirredbeard]

Because PulseAudio is implemented as part of WSLg, I recommend relocating this issue to microsoft/WSLg @OneBlue

[cjg-aussee-ai]

Thank you @sirredbeard , but are you shure it is a GUI issue? Are commandline tools/issues also linked to wslg?

[cjg-aussee-ai]

Following @sirredbeard's idea to pass this on to wslg (GUI) @OneBlue, I installed Firefox for testing purposes.

a) At least Audio Out (RDP Source) seems to be working. That's a small success, at least.
b) I then ran two simple Python test scripts again > and, interestingly, sound came out of the speakers. That's another small success, at least.
- Var A: simpleaudio
- Var B: pyaudio

c) Basically, nothing has changed in terms of the error messages described above. After a short playback time, because then the buffer seems to cause problems. And I get the following error messages and the playback stops.

py_scripts$ python3 test_sound_wav_simpleaudio.py

• ALSA lib pcm.c:8740:(snd_pcm_recover) underrun occurred
• ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:758:(pulse_prepare) PulseAudio: Unable to create stream: Timeout
• ALSA lib pcm.c:8743:(snd_pcm_recover) cannot recovery from underrun, prepare failed: Input/output error
• Segmentation fault (core dumped)

d) If there is a parameter here, at least Audio Out for Python scripts would work rudimentarily under WSL2 (without GUI).

e) Microphone (RDP Sink) remains an open issue.

thanx

P.S.: WslLogs-2025-09-29_21-38-24.zip

[sirredbeard]

@cjg-aussee-ai It's not a GUI issue, but WSLg handles the PulseAudio implementation on top of WSL, see generally here, even if no GUI is running, see env | grep -E "PULSE|XDG". If you are encountering PulseAudio issues, I think the devs and community members there will have more insight. It may also be helpful if you can attach your Python script, if you can. I will try to reproduce.

[cjg-aussee-ai]

Ok, here are my reduced examples for

• simpleaudio
• pyaudio recording
• pyaudio playing

which get stuck after some seconds ...

[thanx.]

test_pyaudio_playing_aussee.ai.py
test_pyaudio_recording_aussee.ai.py
test_sound_mp3_simpleaudio_aussee.ai.py

(without wav/mp3 > so you have to link them to some local samples or path for recording).

[cjg-aussee-ai]

Okay, since the thread was moved from WSL to WLSG, I assume that the scripts also caused problems during testing. So it's not my audio driver, but WSL/WSLg. Maybe this will be addressed soon, because for e.g. comfyUI will continue to cause problems ...