"ESC Mixer Control" from gnome-shell sometimes spams and fills up hundreds of connections in just seconds, blocking any other client from reaching pulseaudio
Sometimes, "ESC Mixer Control" from gnome-shell appears to begin spamming and filling up hundreds of connections to pulseaudio in just seconds, blocking any other client from reaching pulseaudio. When that happens, essentially all audio goes back and all tools like pactl or pavucontrol fail until pulseaudio is restarted, which gives about a few seconds window for any sound client to reconnect (and if it manages to, play back audio as long as it stays connected) until the situation repeats.
Here is an example of how that looks like in pactl list clients
output:
$ pactl list clients
Client #0
Driver: module-systemd-login.c
Owner Module: 15
Properties:
application.name = "Login Session 2"
systemd-login.session = "2"
Client #1
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "Mutter"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #2
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "Firefox Developer Edition"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.icon_name = "firefox"
application.version = "116.0"
application.process.id = "1445455"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "firefox-bin"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #3
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "Thunderbird"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.icon_name = "thunderbird"
application.version = "102.12.0"
application.process.id = "1448729"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "thunderbird"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #5
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "PulseAudio Volume Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.PulseAudio.pavucontrol"
application.icon_name = "audio-card"
application.version = "5.0"
application.process.id = "1835552"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "pavucontrol"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #6
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #7
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #8
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #9
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #10
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #11
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #12
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #13
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #14
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #15
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "ESC Mixer Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "43.6"
application.process.id = "2351"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
Client #16
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 10
Properties:
application.name = "pactl"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "35"
application.process.id = "1837154"
application.process.user = "ellie"
application.process.host = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>""
application.process.binary = "pactl"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "<removed manually by me when pasting this into bug report>"
$
(Eventually, pactl list clients
itself will also fail, around the time pulseaudio starts logging Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
and becomes unusable.)
Seen with gnome-shell version: 43.6
Seen on linux distribution: Fedora 37