PipeWire 1.4 Released: New RISC-V Support, MIDI2 Features, JACK Control API, and Additional Enhancements

The PipeWire project has released PipeWire 1.4, introducing significant enhancements and new features to this open-source multimedia server used widely across Linux systems for managing audio, video streams, and hardware interactions.

Key updates in PipeWire 1.4 include:

  • Configuration Changes: The client-rt.conf has been removed, standardizing client configurations so that all clients use client.conf and receive real-time (RT) priority for data threads.
  • MIDI Support Enhancements: The update adds support for UMP (Universal MIDI Packet), now default for handling MIDI data, with functions available for converting legacy MIDI formats.
  • Bluetooth Improvements: New support for BAP (Bluetooth Audio Processing) broadcast links, hearing aids via ASHA, and a new G722 codec have been introduced. Improvements were also made to delay reporting and configuration for Bluetooth devices.
  • ALSA Plugin Updates: Support for DSD playback was included in the ALSA plugin, with specific conditions needed for playback to take place.
  • JACK Control API: A new PipeWire JACK control API was added for better integration with JACK applications.
  • Filter Graph Enhancements: The module-filter-chain code was relocated into a dedicated plugin to ensure wider usability. Additional plugins for filtering capabilities like EBUR128 and param_eq were introduced.
  • Performance Optimizations: Several improvements led to better efficiency in invoke queues, enabling operation from multiple threads simultaneously.
  • RISC-V Support: New assembler optimizations for RISC-V CPUs expand PipeWire’s compatibility with more hardware configurations.
  • Configuration Options Enhancements: Enhancements to latency configurations and the logging clock used for timestamps have been made, improving the overall performance of the application.

PipeWire remains the default multimedia management server for many popular Linux distributions and is vital for handling camera interactions in the Mozilla Firefox browser.

You can download the latest release of PipeWire 1.4 from the official GitLab page.

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