PulseAudio: macOS ↔ OrbStack Linux Audio

Audio from Linux apps in an OrbStack VM routes over TCP to PulseAudio on macOS, which outputs via CoreAudio.

Linux app → PulseAudio client → TCP:4713 → PulseAudio server (macOS) → CoreAudio → speakers

macOS Setup

1. Install PulseAudio

brew install pulseaudio

2. Configure the daemon

Create ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf:

# Don't exit when idle — keep running for OrbStack VM connections
exit-idle-time = -1

3. Configure TCP listener

Create ~/.config/pulse/default.pa:

# Include the system default configuration
.include /opt/homebrew/etc/pulse/default.pa

# Allow TCP connections from OrbStack VMs (anonymous auth for local use)
load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1 listen=0.0.0.0 port=4713
load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1 listen=:: port=4713

The module is loaded twice — once for IPv4 (0.0.0.0) and once for IPv6 (::) — because OrbStack resolves host.orb.internal to an IPv6 address.

4. Start the service

brew services start pulseaudio

This auto-starts PulseAudio on login. To manually restart:

brew services restart pulseaudio

Verify

pactl info                    # should show server info
lsof -nP -iTCP:4713          # should show LISTEN on both IPv4 and IPv6

Linux (OrbStack VM) Setup

1. Install PulseAudio client packages

sudo apt install pulseaudio-utils libpulse0

2. Set PULSE_SERVER globally

echo "PULSE_SERVER=tcp:host.orb.internal:4713" | sudo tee -a /etc/environment

This takes effect on next login. For the current shell:

export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:host.orb.internal:4713

Verify

pactl info        # should show Server Name: pulseaudio, Default Sink: 1__2

Test audio

# Play white noise for 1 second
paplay --raw /dev/urandom &
sleep 1
kill %1

Claude Code: peon-ping plugin

OrbStack sets SSH_CONNECTION in the environment, which causes peon to assume audio should not be played locally. Override this with:

peon ssh-audio local

Security Note

auth-anonymous=1 means any process that can reach port 4713 can play audio. This is fine for a local OrbStack setup but not suitable for shared networks. For stricter auth, use cookie-based authentication instead (copy ~/.config/pulse/cookie to the Linux VM and remove auth-anonymous=1).