Sound Settings “Test Speakers” produces no audio under PipeWire

[pyz0123-cpu]

Distribution

Mint 22.3

Package version

6.6.6

Graphics hardware in use

No response

Frequency

Always

Bug description

On Linux Mint Cinnamon with PipeWire, the Sound Settings → Test Speakers function fails to play audio.
Observed behavior:
Clicking “Test Sound” shows activity in the panel, but no audio is heard.
Running pactl list sink-inputs shows no stream created.
Everyday applications (YouTube, media players) play sound normally.
Running speaker-test -c2 -t wav produces audio immediately, proving ALSA and hardware are fine.

Expected behavior:
The test should generate a PulseAudio/PipeWire stream and wake the sink, producing audible sound.

Steps to reproduce:
Boot Mint Cinnamon with PipeWire enabled.
Open Sound Settings.
Click Test Sound.
Observe no audio output.
Run pactl list sink-inputs → no stream present.
Run speaker-test -c2 -t wav → audio plays correctly.

Environment:

Linux Mint Cinnamon (current release)
PipeWire with PulseAudio compatibility layer
Hardware: ALSA device (replace with your exact card name if desired)

Notes:
This appears to be a bug in the Cinnamon Sound Settings tool’s integration with PipeWire‑Pulse. Everyday audio works fine; only the test utility fails. Misleads users into thinking audio is broken when it is not.

Steps to reproduce

see above

Expected behavior

see above

Additional information

see above