Hello Alexandre and Christian! thank you very much for all your precious suggestions, now something is moving. This is the current status quo:
1. sndiod for ubuntu compiled and installed; had to manually create the user/group sndiod like this: sndiod:x:1002:1002::/run/sndiod:/usr/sbin/nologin also, the make install did not create a unit for systemctl, so right now I am launching the service manually with: # sndiod -dd -m play (no "-L localhost" listen feature as recommended, will eventually work out a service) 2. I changed .profile on the openbsd user with the following: AUDIODEVICE=snd@localhost/default 3. I started sndiod on openbsd server as mpg123 was giving a specific error about that. btw connection is still without "-fN" as I am still debugging, and, also, I'd like to have the interactive window so that I can decide what music I run either by CLI or GUI. So right now connection from ubuntu is: $ ssh -R 11025:/tmp/sndio/sock0 -p port -X [email protected] WHAT I GOT: on ubuntu *finally* something is moving, there is some talking: # sndiod -dd -m play default: alt -> rsnd/0 default: play 0:1, dup, vol = 8388608 0: alt -> rsnd/0 0: play 0:1, dup, vol = 8388608 1: alt -> rsnd/1 1: play 0:1, dup, vol = 8388608 2: alt -> rsnd/2 2: play 0:1, dup, vol = 8388608 3: alt -> rsnd/3 3: play 0:1, dup, vol = 8388608 ctl1: 3/server.mode[play] = 1 at opt_mode:3/play: added ctl2: 3/server.mode[rec] = 0 at opt_mode:3/rec: added ctl3: 3/server.mode[mon] = 0 at opt_mode:3/mon: added ctl4: 2/server.mode[play] = 1 at opt_mode:2/play: added ctl5: 2/server.mode[rec] = 0 at opt_mode:2/rec: added ctl6: 2/server.mode[mon] = 0 at opt_mode:2/mon: added ctl7: 1/server.mode[play] = 1 at opt_mode:1/play: added ctl8: 1/server.mode[rec] = 0 at opt_mode:1/rec: added ctl9: 1/server.mode[mon] = 0 at opt_mode:1/mon: added ctl10: 0/server.mode[play] = 1 at opt_mode:0/play: added ctl11: 0/server.mode[rec] = 0 at opt_mode:0/rec: added ctl12: 0/server.mode[mon] = 0 at opt_mode:0/mon: added ctl13: default/server.mode[play] = 1 at opt_mode:default/play: added ctl14: default/server.mode[rec] = 0 at opt_mode:default/rec: added ctl15: default/server.mode[mon] = 0 at opt_mode:default/mon: added THIS IS WHAT READS WHEN I START mpv/mpg123 on openbsd: Failed to create secure directory (/root/.config/pulse): Permission denied <---- VERY STRANGE, user is root! ALSA lib confmisc.c:165:(snd_config_get_card) Cannot get card index for 0 couldn't open play stream: No such file or directory ALSA lib confmisc.c:165:(snd_config_get_card) Cannot get card index for 0 couldn't open play stream: No such file or directory ALSA lib confmisc.c:165:(snd_config_get_card) Cannot get card index for 0 couldn't open rec stream: No such file or directory ctl16: app/mpv.level = 127 at app_level:default/mpv: added rsnd/0: failed to open audio device this is their CLI output on openbsd: $ AUDIODEVICE=snd@localhost/default mpv test.mp3 ● Audio --aid=1 (mp3 2ch 48000 Hz 128 kbps) [ao/sndio] Can't open audio device default. [ao] Failed to initialize audio driver 'sndio' Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound. Audio: no audio : 00:00:00 / 00:03:14 (0%) Exiting... (Errors when loading file) $ AUDIODEVICE=snd@localhost/default 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 connect to /tmp/sndio/sock0 port -2 failed: Connection refused [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 I feel that we are very close, but still cannot get the very last glitch where the mechanism is getting blocked. I got a sensation like the sndiod daemon on ubuntu is not really talking with the soundcard, but maybe I am wrong. Any further suggestions? Thanks! P On Fri, Oct 23, 2026 at 4:40 PM Christian Weisgerber <[email protected]> wrote: > Paolo Aglialoro: > > > 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. > > > > # sndiod -dd -L localhost -m play > > BTW, sndiod doesn't need to listen on a network port ... > > > SSH tunnel is established this way: > > $ ssh -R 11025:localhost:11025 -X [email protected] > > ... you can forward the remote port to sndiod's Unix domain socket: > > $ ssh -fN -R 11025:/tmp/sndio/sock0 [email protected] > > -- > Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected] >
