pulseaudio works itermittently for some applications (Warning! Too many connections, dropping incoming connection)
The behavior is pulseaudio will work for applications that I already have open, usually Firefox. But when I open a new application, typically Firefox or Chrome, audio will not play.
When it gets into this state, "systemctl --user status pulseaudio" produces the following output:
● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2024-04-24 21:59:54 EDT; 12h ago
TriggeredBy: ● pulseaudio.socket
Main PID: 1422 (pulseaudio)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 37975)
Memory: 19.4M
CPU: 12min 6.042s
CGroup: /user.slice/user-1001.slice/user@1001.service/session.slice/pulseaudio.service
└─1422 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=journal
Apr 25 10:40:27 darkstar pulseaudio[1422]: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
Apr 25 10:40:27 darkstar pulseaudio[1422]: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
Apr 25 10:40:27 darkstar pulseaudio[1422]: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
Apr 25 10:40:27 darkstar pulseaudio[1422]: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
I discovered by running "pulseaudio -vvvvv" that Bluetooth is the most frequent culprit exhausting 64 sockets:
D: [pulseaudio] bluez5-util.c: Media application for adapter /org/bluez/hci0 was successfully registered
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 3 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 4 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 5 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 6 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 7 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 8 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 9 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 10 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 11 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 12 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 13 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 14 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 15 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 16 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 17 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 18 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 19 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 20 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 21 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 22 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 23 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 24 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 25 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 26 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 27 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 28 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 29 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 30 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 31 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 32 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 33 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 34 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 35 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 36 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 37 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 38 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 39 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 40 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 41 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 42 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 43 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 44 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 45 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 46 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 47 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 48 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 49 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 50 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 51 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 52 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 53 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 54 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 55 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 56 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 57 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 58 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 59 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 60 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 61 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 62 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 63 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
I: [pulseaudio] client.c: Created 64 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
W: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
W: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
W: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
W: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.
After disabling Bluetooth, I still get this "too many connections" error but less frequently (after about 2 days) after resetting pulseaudio. Debugging shows it may be related to srbchannel (Shared RingBuffer channel) but at this point I need help with this.
Note I originally reported this in detail in a Linux Mint forum but realized I needed to report this to the pulseaudio team: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=418496