Cinnamon Desktop crashing upon switching audio output

[SpencerLommel]

Summary

When I connect my headphones (Sony WH-1000XM4) to my computer via Bluetooth and then select "HandsFree" in the Sound Output Device tab, cinnamon-desktop crashes and enters fallback mode then I restart it and it works perfectly fine. Trying to reproduce this bug by disconnecting my headphones and reconnecting them does not work. This bug only occurs the first time I startup my computer and connect my headphones and select the HandsFree option.

System Info

OS: Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon
Cinnamon Version: 6.0.4
Linux Kernel: 6.8.0-57-generic
Display Server: X11
Audio Server: PipeWire
libcvc0 Version: 6.0.0+virginia

Yes I use PipeWire instead of PulseAudio, but I believe this should still be fixed anyways because gvc_mixer_card_get_profile() shouldn't ever return NULL

Reproduction Steps

1. Pair Bluetooth headphones that support HFP/HSP (e.g., Sony WH-1000XM4).
2. Open the sound settings and select the "Hands-Free" profile.
3. Cinnamon crashes to fallback mode.

Cause

In libcvc/gvc-mixer-card.c, the function gvc_mixer_card_get_profile() can return NULL, which is not always safely handled by callers.

Specifically:

• gvc_mixer_control_change_output() in cinnamon-control-center
• gvc_mixer_ui_device_get_matching_profile() in cinnamon-desktop

cinnamon_crash.log

Suggested Fix

Add NULL checks before using gvc_mixer_card_get_profile() and return safely/log a warning.

Patch

I am fixing this right now! I will make a PR soon after I test it a bunch to make sure it doesn't break anything else =D

[Pb-rec]

I'm getting a similar problem in my Cinnamon desktop environment on Fedora 42 when plugging in Sony WH-CH720N headphones. Every day, when connected to a work video conference, the environment drops. The error is reproduced every time the output source is changed. Are there any solutions to this problem?

[SpencerLommel]

@Pb-rec I have experienced this issue too even after #254. Though it seems to be a lot less frequent so there must be something else causing this bug as well.

To get some more info to see if I can fix this could you send me some info:

• Cinnamon version (cinnamon --version)
• libcvc version (rpm -q libcvc)
• X11 or Wayland? (echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE)
• PipeWire or PulseAudio (pactl info | grep "Server Name")

Also, are you able to reliably reproduce this bug? It seems to only happen every 3-4 months for me but if you are able to reproduce it easily that will help for testing and gathering logs

[Pb-rec]

Cinnamon 6.4.9
rpm -q libcvc - not install. It`s disable in repo.
rpm -q cvc5 - cvc5-1.2.1-5.fc42.x86_64
x11
PulseAudio (on PipeWire 1.4.11)
The libcvc package is missing from the repository, but cvc5 is available. However, there is no effect after installation.

[Pb-rec]

Oh! Installing cvc5 had an effect after restarting the audio server. The bug was reproduced every time I switched to handsfree. Fedora was originally shipped with KDE Plasma. I installed Cinnamon manually. The cvc5 package did not come with cinnamon-desktop. Thanks for the help!!!

[SpencerLommel]

Awesome I'm glad that fixed it!

[leigh123linux]

libcvc is provided cinnamon-desktop package.

$ dnf provides 'libcvc.so.0()(64bit)'
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
cinnamon-desktop-6.7.0^unstable-1.fc44.x86_64 : Shared code among cinnamon-session, nemo, etc
Repo         : @System
Matched From : 
Provide      : cinnamon-desktop = 6.7.0^unstable-1.fc44

cinnamon-desktop-6.7.0^unstable-1.fc44.x86_64 : Shared code among cinnamon-session, nemo, etc
Repo         : copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:leigh123linux:cin_mozjs140
Matched From : 
Provide      : cinnamon-desktop = 6.7.0^unstable-1.fc44

cinnamon-desktop-6.6.2-7.fc44.x86_64 : Shared code among cinnamon-session, nemo, etc
Repo         : fedora
Matched From : 
Provide      : cinnamon-desktop = 6.6.2-7.fc44

[leigh123linux]

Fixed in 2d4f356

[leigh123linux]

This was fixed in f43 2d4f356

@Pb-rec

I didn't do f42 because I didn't think the wireplumber maintainer would be stupid enough to push it to a stable release!
You have two choices if you want to stick with a nearly EOL release (f42).

1: live with the issue
2: downgrade wireplumber

Or you could update to F43.

2d4f356