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Linux Users: How To Disable Automatic Suspend of HDMI Audio

Instructions

If you are experiencing audio popping or delays when playback starts or stops on your HDMI receiver, follow the steps below to disable automatic audio suspension in PipeWire.

1. Open the terminal. In GNOME, open the Overview, type terminal, and press Enter. In KDE, open the menu, search for Konsole, and press Enter.

2. Create the following directory:

   mkdir -p ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/

3. Use your favorite text editor such as vim or nano or whatever you want to use such as GEdit or Kate and create the file:

   vim .config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/50-local.conf

   Copy in the following (in Vim, press the i to go into INSERT mode):

   monitor.alsa.rules = [
     {
       matches = [
         {
           node.name = "..."
         }
       ]
       actions = {
         update-props = {
           session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 0
         }
       }
     }
   ]

   Save the file and quit (in Vim, press ESC (escape key), then : (colon), w, q and then press Enter.

4. Then, type in the following and press Enter:

   systemctl --user restart wireplumber

This should prevent your home theater receiver, your soundbar, or what-have-you from falling asleep.

Audience

The instructions are meant for Linux users who experienced the delay in sound or in some cases, those who hear the popping when starting and stopping audio playback. There is no GUI way in a Linux desktop environment that will allow anyone to disable the audio suspend feature, so the experience with the Linux terminal is needed.

Why Is The Instructions Needed?

I have an Onkyo TX-NZ30 home theater receiver and I'm using it to pipe sound to my home theater receiver through my NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4070 GPU. It's not as seamless as using Behringer Wing Rack or just about any audio interfaces such as the Behringer U-Phoria UMC1820 or just about any sound card for that matter that does not involve either HDMI, Toslink, or optical audio connection.

Currently, managing the power state of audio nodes is a policy decision handled by the daemon configuration. While there are excellent tools like Helvum for audio routing, a simple toggle to disable audio suspension is not yet standard in desktop settings applications, so editing the configuration file is the reliable method for now.

Explanation of the Configuration File

The file 50-local.conf acts as a custom instruction manual for WirePlumber, the session and policy manager for PipeWire (the modern audio backend used in Linux distributions). Because Linux protects the main system configuration files to prevent users from accidentally breaking the OS, you generally shouldn't edit the master settings directly. Instead, placing a file with a name like 50-local.conf inside the .config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/ directory allows you to safely override the default behavior without touching the system files.

Here is a breakdown of the code you are adding:

monitor.alsa.rules:

This defines a rule set for ALSA (the Linux sound driver architecture) devices.

matches = [{ node.name = "..." }]:

This tells the system to identify your audio device. The ... (ellipsis) serves as a wildcard to match the HDMI output node.

actions = { update-props = { ... } }:

This specifies the actions to take on the matched device.

session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 0:

This is the critical setting. By default, Linux will suspend an audio device after 5 seconds of silence to save power. Setting this value to 0 commands the system to disable the suspend timeout entirely, keeping the connection active and the device "awake"

For Windows Users Who Plan on Switching to Linux

For those switching from Windows, this process is the command-line equivalent of opening the Device Manager, finding your audio device, and unchecking the box that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." While Linux offers powerful software like PipeWire, specific power management features for audio often lack a graphical interface (GUI) switch. Editing this configuration file is simply the direct method to tell your computer, "Do not put my HDMI audio to sleep," which prevents the delay or popping noise when you resume audio playback.

Conclusion

Once the configuration is in place and the service has restarted, the audio playback over HDMI audio should be seamless. Enjoy piping audio from your computer to your home theater receiver or your soundbar! I hope I can be of help!

Article published: 2026-04-13 08:30

Categories: The World of Computers, Computers,