On Thu, Oct 22, 2026 at 11:21:44PM +0200, Paolo Aglialoro wrote: > Hello! > > I'm trying to forward audio from an OpenBSD 8.0 VM running on a remote > server (NO SOUNDCARD) to an Ubuntu laptop over an SSH tunnel leveraging > sndiod. > > > ON UBUNTU: > Starting sndiod gives no .sndio/cookie both in user home and in root home;
The cookie is created by the client and stored on the client. To create a cookie, just run any client, ex. sndioctl on one machine (ex. the same as the server) and copy it to all other machines. > I start it in debug mode and get just this (working, no apparent issue) and > no more output: > > # sndiod -dd -L localhost -m play > > snd0.default: play=0:1 vol=32768 dup > snd1.default: play=0:1 vol=32768 dup > snd2.default: play=0:1 vol=32768 dup > snd3.default: play=0:1 vol=32768 dup > > SSH tunnel is established this way: > $ ssh -R 11025:localhost:11025 -X [email protected] > > > ON OPENBSD: > > sndiod is stopped and disabled, as the app should send audio directly to > localhost:11025 port, in fact in .profile I wrote: > export AUDIODEVICE=snd@localhost/0 > > in fact: > $ env | grep AUDIO > AUDIODEVICE=snd@localhost/0 > > tunnel works: > $ nc -zv 127.0.0.1 11025 > Connection to 127.0.0.1 11025 port [tcp/*] succeeded! > > I remove ~/.sndio/cookie: > $ rm -rf .sndio/cookie > > BUT EVERYTHING I TRY FAILS: > $ SNDIO_DEBUG=2 AUDIODEVICE=snd@localhost/0 mpg123 test.mp3 > High Performance MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 Audio Player for Layers 1, 2 and 3 > version 1.33.7; written and copyright by Michael Hipp and others > free software (LGPL) without any warranty but with best wishes > _aucat_open: host=127.0.0.1 unit=0 opt=3 > _aucat_rmsg: eof > aucat_init: mode refused The sndiod server running on ubuntu may be too old, you could update it as follows: apt install libbsd-dev libasound2-dev git clone https://sndio.org/git/sndio cd sndio ./configure CFLAGS=-O2 make sudo make install ldconfig and restart sndiod. > [src/libout123/modules/sndio.c:open_sndio():133] error: Got nothing from > sio_open(). > [src/libout123/libout123.c:check_output_module():1167] error: Module > 'sndio' device open failed. > [src/libout123/libout123.c:out123_open():485] error: Found no driver out of > [sndio] working with device <default>. > main: [src/mpg123.c:check_fatal_output():338] error: out123 error 3: > failure loading driver module > > ALSO, no output appears on the Ubuntu sndiod CLI side when the client > connects, so sound stream doesn't even make it to ubuntu (which might > explain the lack of .sndiod/cookie and of output on ubuntu CLI): problem > looks like to be on openbsd VM side. > > I tried too: > -enabling sndiod on openbsd side > -removed again ~/.sndio, then restarted sndiod on Ubuntu > -tried 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost in AUDIODEVICE > -tried devices /1, /2 and /3 in AUDIODEVICE > > Any useful clues? Please don't tell me that this is because there is no > soundcard on the server.... Thanks in advance! > Paolo Anyway, the approach is right; I use it all the time between an OpenBSD server and Linux clients. Few off-topic remarks: - for VMs, you could save few CPU cycles by not encrypting the audio traffic, provided that no other system can access the (virtual) network traffic. - I'd suggest using "snd@host/default" in place of "snd@host/0", this is what local clients do and is more flexible.
