20 May 2026
Planet Debian
Michael Prokop: The mysterious XF86AudioPlay issue
I was getting "<XF86AudioPlay> is undefined" in the status bar of Emacs displayed every 2-3 seconds. Nowhere else I noticed any misbehavior or problems, and also couldn't find any related log entries. It didn't stop, though didn't want to reboot my system to see whether that would fix the problem, but it was driving me nuts.
Now, as a starting point I adjusted my sway configuration, to react to the XF86AudioPlay key press event:
bindsym XF86AudioPlay exec playerctl play-pause
After reloading sway, my music player started to play for 2-3 seconds, stopped playing, started again, etc. It wasn't a Emacs bug, but something indeed seemed to send the XF86AudioPlay key event every 2-3 seconds. It wasn't my USB keyboard or any stuck key on it, as verified also by unplugging it. So which device was causing this?
libinput from libinput-tools to the rescue:
% sudo libinput debug-events [...] -event12 KEYBOARD_KEY +0.000s KEY_PLAYPAUSE (164) pressed event12 KEYBOARD_KEY +0.000s KEY_PLAYPAUSE (164) released event12 KEYBOARD_KEY +2.887s KEY_PLAYPAUSE (164) pressed event12 KEYBOARD_KEY +2.887s KEY_PLAYPAUSE (164) released event12 KEYBOARD_KEY +5.773s KEY_PLAYPAUSE (164) pressed event12 KEYBOARD_KEY +5.774s KEY_PLAYPAUSE (164) released [...]
The `event12` device was sending this event, what's behind this?
% sudo udevadm info /dev/input/event12
P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input17/event12
M: event12
R: 12
J: c13:76
U: input
D: c 13:76
N: input/event12
L: 0
S: input/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.3-platform-skl_hda_dsp_generic-event
E: DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input17/event12
E: DEVNAME=/dev/input/event12
E: MAJOR=13
E: MINOR=76
E: SUBSYSTEM=input
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=12468722
E: ID_INPUT=1
E: ID_INPUT_KEY=1
E: ID_INPUT_SWITCH=1
E: ID_PATH=pci-0000:00:1f.3-platform-skl_hda_dsp_generic
E: ID_PATH_TAG=pci-0000_00_1f_3-platform-skl_hda_dsp_generic
E: XKBMODEL=pc105
E: XKBLAYOUT=us
E: XKBOPTIONS=lv3:ralt_switch,compose:rctrl
E: BACKSPACE=guess
E: LIBINPUT_DEVICE_GROUP=0/0/0:ALSA
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.3-platform-skl_hda_dsp_generic-event
E: TAGS=:power-switch:
E: CURRENT_TAGS=:power-switch:
% sudo udevadm info -a /dev/input/event12 | grep -iE 'kernels|drivers|name'
KERNELS=="input17"
DRIVERS==""
ATTRS{name}=="sof-hda-dsp Headphone"
KERNELS=="card0"
DRIVERS==""
KERNELS=="skl_hda_dsp_generic"
DRIVERS=="skl_hda_dsp_generic"
KERNELS=="0000:00:1f.3"
DRIVERS=="sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl"
KERNELS=="pci0000:00"
DRIVERS==""
Behind this event12 is sof-hda-dsp Headphone, and evtest confirms that:
% sudo evtest No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event* Available devices: /dev/input/event0: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard /dev/input/event1: Sleep Button /dev/input/event10: ThinkPad Extra Buttons /dev/input/event11: sof-hda-dsp Mic /dev/input/event12: sof-hda-dsp Headphone /dev/input/event13: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=3 /dev/input/event14: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=4 /dev/input/event15: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=5 /dev/input/event16: Yubico YubiKey OTP+FIDO+CCID /dev/input/event17: Apple Inc. Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad /dev/input/event18: Apple Inc. Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad [...] Select the device event number [0-24]: ^C
We can even get further information:
% sudo evtest /dev/input/event12
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x0 vendor 0x0 product 0x0 version 0x0
Input device name: "sof-hda-dsp Headphone"
Supported events:
Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
Event code 114 (KEY_VOLUMEDOWN)
Event code 115 (KEY_VOLUMEUP)
Event code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE)
Event code 582 (KEY_VOICECOMMAND)
Event type 5 (EV_SW)
Event code 2 (SW_HEADPHONE_INSERT) state 0
Properties:
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Event: time 1779295060.175766, type 5 (EV_SW), code 2 (SW_HEADPHONE_INSERT), value 1
Event: time 1779295060.175766, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295061.951168, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295061.951168, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295061.951194, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295061.951194, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295064.548671, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295064.548671, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295064.548689, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295064.548689, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295067.437172, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295067.437172, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295067.437187, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295067.437187, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295070.323775, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295070.323775, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295070.323790, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295070.323790, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295073.200350, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295073.200350, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295073.200373, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295073.200373, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295076.076228, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295076.076228, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295076.076250, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295076.076250, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295078.961740, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295078.961740, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295078.961754, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295078.961754, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295081.850156, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 1
Event: time 1779295081.850156, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295081.850175, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1779295081.850175, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1779295083.306612, type 5 (EV_SW), code 2 (SW_HEADPHONE_INSERT), value 0
Event: time 1779295083.306612, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
So when I plug in my headphone (see the `SW_HEADPHONE_INSERT` event), the unexpected behavior starts, unplugging stops the problem.
Good! But what was totally unexpected for me: my headphone, being a Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro, does not have any keys. 8-)
As it turned out, the headphone jack seemed to have been not entirely clean. The analog side of the jack triggers a behavior within the audio codec, where it seems to interpret the fluctuating impedance as a play button of the headset, being pressed, again and again.
I cleaned the jack of my headphone and my XF86AudioPlay problem is gone, case closed.
20 May 2026 5:19pm GMT
Daniel Baumann: Debian: Linux Vulnerability Mitigation (pintheft)
Following the series of various Linux exploits of the last three weeks, the bug of today is pintheft [no CVE yet] which is local root privilege escalations.
The vulnerability can be mitigated by unloading and blocking rds modules, linux-vulnerability-mitigation as of 20260519-1 (uploaded to sid, trixie-fastforward-backports and people.debian.org/~daniel) does that automatically for you.
Updates:
default Debian kernels (bullseye, bookworm, trixie, and testing/unstable, experimental) are not directly affected because autoloading of the rds modules is disabled by rds-Disable-auto-loading-as-mitigation-against-local.patch.
20 May 2026 2:27pm GMT
19 May 2026
Planet Debian
Jonathan Dowland: HMS Blueberry
HMS Blueberry
Royals are my favourite ships in No Man's Sky. The HMS Blueberry is not my first Exotic/Royal ship (that was the Gravity Hirakao XVI, and a story for another time).
After years of on-off playing, I recently found my first Royal multitool: Blue, with gold detailing. I have a Royal-style jetpack (I don't remember where I got that). I thought I'd try and colour-match my multitool, ship, jetpack and outfit. Since I only had one multitool, I matched the others to it. And the HMS Blueberry (credit for the name goes to Beatrice) was the Exotic in my collection which matched.
The HMS Blueberry is in viewable in my showroom, Honest Jon's Lightly-Used Starships.
19 May 2026 8:15am GMT