[Qemu-devel] [Bug 1772262] [NEW] Adding -spice doesn't respect environment variable QEMU_AUDIO_DRV

[Koroti Itsuka]

Public bug reported:

When -spice is added to the commandline, QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa is not
respected and I receive no audio from the guest using the alsa driver.
When -spice options are omitted, audio works as usual.

I want to channel mouse and keyboard events to the guest using spice
(with looking-glass) instead of a third-party product over a network
interface (with synergy), but audio ends up over the spice protocol as
well instead of using alsa despite asking otherwise.  For example, one
will only hear audio when a program like spicy is running.  Naturally it
would be nice if this were not needed, since spice audio is gappier than
regular audio on my machine.

Perhaps if -spice added an option similar to agent-mouse=off but for
audio, (say audio-pipe=off or so for example,) this might mitigate the
issue in a more naive fashion UX-wise, without having to force the issue
with environment variables that unfortunately for me don't seem to work.
:(

QEMU emulator version 2.12.0

Commandline

        qemu-system-x86_64 \
          -ctrl-grab \
          -enable-kvm \
          -cpu host,hv-time,kvm=off \
          -smp cores=4 \
          -m 8G \
          -M q35 \
          -vga none \
          -netdev tap,id=hostnet,ifname=tap1,script=no,downscript=no \
          -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=52:54:FD:BF:F7:9A,netdev=hostnet \
          -netdev user,id=usernet,smb=/media/DRIVE-C/tux/vms/share \
          -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=52:54:2E:40:4F:C8,netdev=usernet \
          -usb \
          -device usb-ehci,id=ehci \
          -device 
ioh3420,bus=pcie.0,addr=1c,multifunction=on,port=1,chassis=1,id=root.1 \
          -device 
vfio-pci,host=07:00.0,bus=root.1,addr=00.0,multifunction=on,x-vga=on \
          -device ich9-intel-hda \
          -device hda-micro \
          -drive if=virtio,file=vm/win10/disk.img,media=disk \
          -boot menu=on,splash=splash/boot.jpg,splash-time=5000 \
          -name win10 \
          -device ivshmem-plain,memdev=ivshmem \
          -object 
memory-backend-file,id=ivshmem,share=on,mem-path=/dev/shm/looking-glass,size=32M
 \
          -device virtio-serial-pci \
          -device virtserialport,chardev=spicechannel0,name=com.redhat.spice.0 \
          -chardev spicevmc,id=spicechannel0,name=vdagent \
          -spice addr=127.0.0.1,port=5900,disable-ticketing

When the last four options are not present, audio works as expected.
This is with both a windows 10 guest and a windows 7 guest.

** Affects: qemu
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1772262

Title:
  Adding -spice doesn't respect environment variable QEMU_AUDIO_DRV

Status in QEMU:
  New

Bug description:
  When -spice is added to the commandline, QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa is not
  respected and I receive no audio from the guest using the alsa driver.
  When -spice options are omitted, audio works as usual.

  I want to channel mouse and keyboard events to the guest using spice
  (with looking-glass) instead of a third-party product over a network
  interface (with synergy), but audio ends up over the spice protocol as
  well instead of using alsa despite asking otherwise.  For example, one
  will only hear audio when a program like spicy is running.  Naturally
  it would be nice if this were not needed, since spice audio is gappier
  than regular audio on my machine.

  Perhaps if -spice added an option similar to agent-mouse=off but for
  audio, (say audio-pipe=off or so for example,) this might mitigate the
  issue in a more naive fashion UX-wise, without having to force the
  issue with environment variables that unfortunately for me don't seem
  to work. :(

  QEMU emulator version 2.12.0

  Commandline

          qemu-system-x86_64 \
            -ctrl-grab \
            -enable-kvm \
            -cpu host,hv-time,kvm=off \
            -smp cores=4 \
            -m 8G \
            -M q35 \
            -vga none \
            -netdev tap,id=hostnet,ifname=tap1,script=no,downscript=no \
            -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=52:54:FD:BF:F7:9A,netdev=hostnet \
            -netdev user,id=usernet,smb=/media/DRIVE-C/tux/vms/share \
            -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=52:54:2E:40:4F:C8,netdev=usernet \
            -usb \
            -device usb-ehci,id=ehci \
            -device 
ioh3420,bus=pcie.0,addr=1c,multifunction=on,port=1,chassis=1,id=root.1 \
            -device 
vfio-pci,host=07:00.0,bus=root.1,addr=00.0,multifunction=on,x-vga=on \
            -device ich9-intel-hda \
            -device hda-micro \
            -drive if=virtio,file=vm/win10/disk.img,media=disk \
            -boot menu=on,splash=splash/boot.jpg,splash-time=5000 \
            -name win10 \
            -device ivshmem-plain,memdev=ivshmem \
            -object 
memory-backend-file,id=ivshmem,share=on,mem-path=/dev/shm/looking-glass,size=32M
 \
            -device virtio-serial-pci \
            -device 
virtserialport,chardev=spicechannel0,name=com.redhat.spice.0 \
            -chardev spicevmc,id=spicechannel0,name=vdagent \
            -spice addr=127.0.0.1,port=5900,disable-ticketing

  When the last four options are not present, audio works as expected.
  This is with both a windows 10 guest and a windows 7 guest.

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