Sound thinking...

[midigark]

This is a tale of something gone right. (for a change)
After running the pre-release of Virginia and then getting the system updated to the full release, things have gone pretty smoothly. But, the same old issues I've been having with this elderly motherboard and pulseaudio did not improve. (we can always hope, right?)

Out of the blue, I became the temporary custodian of an Elgato Wave 3 Microphone. Nice piece of hardware, but yeah, it's not supported in linux.

Plug it in, it lights up, but no sound from the mic.

Reading several forums, I came to the conclusion that I needed to give "pipewire-pulse" a try. Remembering the last time I turned off Pulseaudio and it made Cinnamon a little upset, I attempted following the instructions to the letter.
Instructions and info here: https://www.maketecheasier.com/install- ... ire-linux/

I say "attempted" because "pipewire-pulse" and "wireplumber" were already installed. (yay!)

For this installation, I went with the wireplumber option, not pipewire-media-sessions.

Upon completion of the setup, I rebooted the system and found almost everything working as expected. Everything except Chromium was AWOL, gone. I panicked just a little, because I expected all my links and settings would be gone as well. Reinstalling Chromium went smoothly and all my links and open sessions were still working fine. (whew)

Onward...
1.) The system saw the Elgato Wave 3 and it was 100% functional.
* Capacitive Mute
* Mic Gain
* Headphone output (and volume)
* Mic/PC Mix Monitor
It worked without any special setup on Discord, Second Life and several Steam games. All good so far.

2.) Testing general sound support in various apps.
* Chromium -> YouTube - no problems
* Discord - No problems
* Audacity - No problems

What didn't work...
A previously existing "problem" that I've been trying to fix without success is connecting the motherboard "line-in" to USB out. The line-in works beautifully as long as I expect the output on the motherboard main audio output. I've tried mucking about with JACK and gotten all kinds of results, just not the one I was looking for.

Updating to pipewire-pulse seemed to be a golden opportunity to try something different, but it did not provide a solution to my ongoing problem. Well, not yet. I have yet to dig into the operation of this alternate sound scheme, so I can't fully appreciate (or use) it to its best. That comes next.

I'm thinking that it might have been better if I had installed the pipewire_media_sessions instead. Go figure.

All in all, the operation was painless and left me with a working sound setup and a new microphone that far exceeds any other mic in my possession.
This system also boasts better functionality for Bluetooth devices. (yet to be seen) It would be nice to be able to use my linux box as a Bluetooth sink for my Fire TV Stick. lol
Maybe someday.