Ubuntu Linux Fixing Crackling/Glitching Audio
Lynx and one other contributor
Last updated on May 30, 2025
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Community-Contributed Guide
An awesome member of our community made this guide. It was not created by iFixit staff.
Introduction
Go to step 1 ↓Are you experiencing a crackling sound when playing games in Ubuntu, especially during higher levels of CPU usage? Modifying your pipewire settings may fix the problem. This guide will show you how to locate and modify your pipewire settings to help resolve crackling audio issues.
Note: This guide will be using Konsole, the default terminal for Kubuntu systems. You may use another terminal if you wish.
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Open your terminal and type sudo nano /usr/share/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf
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Press enter. If you are prompted for your password, enter your device's password and press enter.
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You now have access to your pipewire settings!
Ask FixBot
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Press Ctrl + W to search for pulse.min.quantum and press Enter.
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You should find a line that says #pulse.min.quantum = 128/48000 # 2.7ms
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Remove the first '#' at the beginning of the line and change the number 128 to 256.
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To save your new settings, press Ctrl + X, then Y, then Enter.
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Test your new settings to see if the crackling continues.
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If the crackling is gone, great! If not, repeat the previous step but change the number 256 to 512. Then test again.
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If you'd like to reverse the changes made in this guide, go through the steps again but change the new number to 128 and add a '#' back on the beginning of the line.
