No Audio: ALSA lib ../../pulse/pulse.c:242:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

[0XDE57]

No audio on steam deck:

[ALSOFT] (EE) Failed to set real-time priority for thread: Operation not permitted (1) ALSA lib ../../pulse/pulse.c:242:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

[0XDE57]

Could not find any errors in journalctl

Despite error message mentioning PulseAudio, deck actually uses Pipewire (pipewire-pulse):

Checked with: pactl info | grep "Server Name"

(deck@steamdeck ~)$ pactl info | grep "Server Name"
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.59)

checked pipewire status: systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse

(130)(deck@steamdeck ~)$ systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-10-18 00:37:56 MDT; 20h ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
   Main PID: 1242 (pipewire)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 17686)
     Memory: 29.5M
        CPU: 681ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/[email protected]/session.slice/pipewire.service
             └─1242 /usr/bin/pipewire

Oct 18 00:37:56 steamdeck systemd[1074]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Oct 18 00:37:56 steamdeck pipewire[1242]: mod.rt: Can't find xdg-portal: (null)
Oct 18 00:37:56 steamdeck pipewire[1242]: mod.rt: found session bus but no portal

● pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-10-18 00:38:01 MDT; 20h ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire-pulse.socket
   Main PID: 1718 (pipewire-pulse)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 17686)
     Memory: 13.7M
        CPU: 915ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/[email protected]/session.slice/pipewire-pulse.service
             └─1718 /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse

Oct 18 00:38:01 steamdeck systemd[1074]: Started PipeWire PulseAudio.
Oct 18 00:38:01 steamdeck pipewire-pulse[1718]: mod.rt: RTKit error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Failed
Oct 18 00:38:01 steamdeck pipewire-pulse[1718]: mod.rt: could not set nice-level to -11: Input/output error

and checked: wpctl status

(deck@steamdeck ~)$ wpctl status
PipeWire 'pipewire-0' [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, cookie:1558823201]
 └─ Clients:
        32. Plasma PA                           [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:2436]
        33. pipewire                            [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:1241]
        34. WirePlumber                         [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:1242]
        35. WirePlumber [export]                [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:1242]
        37. wpctl                               [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:4979]
        62. xdg-desktop-portal                  [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:2355]
        63. QPulse                              [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:2574]
        64. pipewire                            [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:1717]
        77. Steam                               [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:2895]
        78. Steam Voice Settings                [0.3.59, deck@steamdeck, pid:2895]

Audio
 ├─ Devices:
 │      45. Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio Controller [alsa]
 │      46. ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor   [alsa]
 │  
 ├─ Sinks:
 │  *   49. ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor Speaker [vol: 0.61]
 │      50. ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor Headphones [vol: 1.00]
 │  
 ├─ Sink endpoints:
 │  
 ├─ Sources:
 │      39. Filter Chain Source                 [vol: 1.00]
 │  *   51. ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor Headset Microphone + Internal Microphone [vol: 0.67]
 │  
 ├─ Source endpoints:
 │  
 └─ Streams:
        38. filter-chain-capture                                        
             73. input_FL       
             74. monitor_FL     
             75. input_FR       
             76. monitor_FR     

Video
 ├─ Devices:
 │  
 ├─ Sinks:
 │  
 ├─ Sink endpoints:
 │  
 ├─ Sources:
 │  
 ├─ Source endpoints:
 │  
 └─ Streams:

Settings
 └─ Default Configured Node Names:

I tried adding user deck to group audio usermod -a -G <group> <user>

(deck@steamdeck ~)$ groups deck
wheel deck
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ sudo usermod -a -G audio deck
[sudo] password for deck: 
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ groups deck
wheel audio deck

restarted and still fails with: ALSA lib ../../pulse/pulse.c:242:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

found location of message in source: https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-plugins/blob/master/pulse/pulse.c#L242