Cannot remove virtual audio devices after uninstalling

[mattmoose]

Hi, OS = Ubuntu Studio 24.04, I tried installing OVOS with the Python option, it claimed successful installation, it recognised the wake word a few times and could tell me the time over audio, then the sound system broke. Audio became choppy on all sources, microphone input similarly affected.

I uninstalled OVOS, but it left behind "OVOS noise suppressed source/sink" and "Echo-cancel capture/playback" (making 4 virtual devices in total). It's really unclear how to remove them. They're messing with the default flow of audio between my usual devices, and I'm probably going to have to reinstall/upgrade my OS now.

Please be aware of this for further devlopment. The OVOS installation has seriously impacted my original core sound system. Suggestions for remedy welcome.

[goldyfruit]

Sorry about that, those devices are ours.

We drop a PipeWire echo-cancel filter chain in your home, and that one config is where all 4 nodes come from, the two "OVOS Noise Suppressed" ones and the Echo-Cancel pair. The uninstall only cleans it up on a Raspberry Pi, so on a desktop it just stays there. Fix: OpenVoiceOS/ovos-installer#636

Second leftover is systemd lingering, which keeps PipeWire running outside your session and fighting it for the devices: OpenVoiceOS/ovos-installer#630

In your home, no sudo needed:

rm -f ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-noise-suppression.conf \
      ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-low-latency.conf \
      ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/99-disable-idle.conf \
      ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/99-ovos-capture-volume.conf
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
loginctl disable-linger $USER

Then one with sudo. This is the one that can make everything choppy if you have a USB audio interface, we set nrpacks=1 on the USB audio driver:

sudo rm -f /etc/modprobe.d/snd-usb-audio.conf
sudo rm -f /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-low-latency.conf   # older installs only, fine if it's not there

Reboot after that one so the USB driver goes back to its default.

That's everything we touch, no need to reinstall your OS.

[mattmoose]

Hello, Thanks so much for your prompt reply. Your instructions seem to have helped, and stuff's pretty much back to default now. Very grateful. I hope my experience can help inform OVOS's future development. I'd be very happy to try OVOS again on my OS, but perhaps with some 1:1 supervision in case things break again! eg. I never found how to invoke the text-only GUI for monitoring or testing message I/O; I'm not certain it ever installed, nor how to install it if it didn't. It also wasn't too obvious to me how to check the audio system's health after installation, nor why mine broke down and went stuttery and OVOS went unresponsive. Please get back to me if I can help further. Is Ubuntu Studio even a legitimate OS to try OVOS on, in your opinion? Kind regards!

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On Mon, 5 Oct 2026 at 12:33, Gaëtan Trellu ***@***.***> wrote: Sorry about that, those devices are ours. The noise suppression config is a PipeWire filter-chain we drop in your home, and the uninstall only cleans it up on a Raspberry Pi, so on a desktop it just stays there. Echo-cancel comes along with it. Fix is here: OpenVoiceOS/ovos-installer#636 <OpenVoiceOS/ovos-installer#636> There was a second leftover as well, systemd lingering, which keeps PipeWire running outside your session and fighting it for the devices: OpenVoiceOS/ovos-installer#630 <OpenVoiceOS/ovos-installer#630> To get your audio back right now: rm -f ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-noise-suppression.conf \ ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-low-latency.conf \ ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/99-disable-idle.conf \ ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/99-ovos-capture-volume.conf systemctl --user restart pipewire wireplumber loginctl disable-linger $USER No need to reinstall your OS, nothing was changed outside your home except that linger file. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#330?email_source=notifications&email_token=ABV3IQALQJE5XJ7FD3UZU3T5SOBG3A5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOBXGU4DIMZTUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVRTG633UMVZF6Y3MNFRWW#discussioncomment-18758433>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABV3IQBUX5OSX743K4335FT5SOBG3AVCNFSNUABIKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTKNJUGA4DQMBRHNCGS43DOVZXG2LPNY5TCMBZGUZTKMRSUF3AE> . Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/ABV3IQFA6UREL3U5Q7DS4F35SOBG3A5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOBXGU4DIMZTUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVJTG633UMVZF62LPOM> and Android <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/ABV3IQC5IUTLS6WD3ECDG7D5SOBG3A5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOBXGU4DIMZTUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVZTG633UMVZF6YLOMRZG62LE>. Download it today! You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

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[goldyfruit]

On the text client: it was installed, the name is just not guessable. The package is ovos-tui-client but the command is ovos-tui:

~/.venvs/ovos/bin/ovos-tui

(the installer also puts that venv on your PATH in a new shell, so plain ovos-tui usually works). You type a sentence, you get the answer back and you see which skill handled it, no microphone involved. That's the thing to reach for when you want to know whether OVOS itself is alive, separately from audio.

For the audio side:

systemctl --user status ovos-listener ovos-audio   # the two that touch sound
wpctl status                                       # what PipeWire thinks your devices are
journalctl --user -u ovos-listener -n 50           # why the listener is unhappy

As for why yours went stuttery: that filter chain we drop in becomes the default source and sink, so everything on the machine goes through our echo-cancel instead of straight to your hardware. On a Studio box with a USB interface that is exactly where crackle comes from, and the nrpacks=1 file I mentioned makes it worse. It should never have been installed on a desktop in the first place, that is the bug.

You're right that none of this is discoverable, and that's fair criticism. I'll get the client and the health checks written down where people can find them.

[mattmoose]

Thanks, it's becoming slightly clearer. For the record, I was just using the motherboard audio system, not a USB audio interface. Sadly I don't have the confidence that trying OVOS again in the near future is going to work on my system, so perhaps I'll leave it a few months. Cheering you on. Nice to speak to someone who really knows what's going on, and at speed too! I don't think this is ready for the less technically inclined (me) just yet. But again, if I can help with installation/operation/uninstallation testing and my particular OS, do please ask. Thanks and best wishes

…

On Mon, 5 Oct 2026 at 14:07, Gaëtan Trellu ***@***.***> wrote: On the text client: it was installed, the name is just not guessable. The package is ovos-tui-client but the command is ovos-tui: ~/.venvs/ovos/bin/ovos-tui (the installer also puts that venv on your PATH in a new shell, so plain ovos-tui usually works). You type a sentence, you get the answer back and you see which skill handled it, no microphone involved. That's the thing to reach for when you want to know whether OVOS itself is alive, separately from audio. For the audio side: systemctl --user status ovos-listener ovos-audio # the two that touch sound wpctl status # what PipeWire thinks your devices are journalctl --user -u ovos-listener -n 50 # why the listener is unhappy As for why yours went stuttery: that filter chain we drop in becomes the default source and sink, so everything on the machine goes through our echo-cancel instead of straight to your hardware. On a Studio box with a USB interface that is exactly where crackle comes from, and the nrpacks=1 file I mentioned makes it worse. It should never have been installed on a desktop in the first place, that is the bug. You're right that none of this is discoverable, and that's fair criticism. I'll get the client and the health checks written down where people can find them. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#330?email_source=notifications&email_token=ABV3IQD3XEX52WKBXPBZLL35SOMIJA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOBXGU4TKNRQUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVRTG633UMVZF6Y3MNFRWW#discussioncomment-18759560>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABV3IQEMF6Q5A5C5XMZW2K35SOMIJAVCNFSNUABIKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTKNJUGA4DQMBRHNCGS43DOVZXG2LPNY5TCMBZGUZTKMRSUF3AE> . Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/ABV3IQEP2SA3LPSLDRUQGBL5SOMIJA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOBXGU4TKNRQUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVJTG633UMVZF62LPOM> and Android <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/ABV3IQBVTWM3QTGHITGFCX35SOMIJA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOBXGU4TKNRQUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVZTG633UMVZF6YLOMRZG62LE>. Download it today! You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

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[goldyfruit]

You are welcome to join our Matrix's support chat anytime. ;)

[goldyfruit]

All your issues have been addressed in the ovos-installer code. Thanks for your feedback @mattmoose!