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UPDATE: This has nothing to do with mpd:

$ XDG_RUNTIME_DIR= pw-play foo.mp3
error: pw_context_connect() failed: Host is down

See below for original report.

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Version, Distribution, Desktop Environment: 0.3.20, Arch Linux, headless

Description of Problem: I have a mpd setup that used to work with pulseaudio. After installing pipewire-pulse, a system mpd can no longer connect to the pulse socket.

$ machinectl shell mpd@.host /bin/bash 
Connected to the local host. Press ^] three times within 1s to exit session.

[mpd@ubik ~]$ XDG_RUNTIME_DIR= mpd --no-daemon --stderr
exception: bind to '0.0.0.0:6600' failed (continuing anyway, because binding to '[::]:6600' succeeded): Failed to bind socket: Address already in use
exception: Decoder plugin 'wildmidi' is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
Failed to initialize io_uring: io_uring_queue_init() failed: Cannot allocate memory
## v---
Failed to create secure directory (/pulse): Permission denied
exception: Failed to enable output "MPD PulseAudio Output" (pulse); pa_context_connect() has failed: Connection refused
## ^--
avahi: Service 'Music Player @ ubik.home' successfully established.

[mpd@ubik ~]$ mpd --no-daemon --stderr
exception: bind to '0.0.0.0:6600' failed (continuing anyway, because binding to '[::]:6600' succeeded): Failed to bind socket: Address already in use
exception: Decoder plugin 'wildmidi' is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
Failed to initialize io_uring: io_uring_queue_init() failed: Cannot allocate memory
avahi: Service 'Music Player @ ubik.home' successfully established.

Notice how it's trying to create /pulse:

[mpd@ubik ~]$ XDG_RUNTIME_DIR= strace -e %file -f mpd --no-daemon --stderr 2>&1 | grep EACCES
[pid 963861] mkdir("/pulse", 0700)      = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)

I think pulseaudio and pipewire-pulse differ in their handling of an unset XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, in spite of #259 (closed).