Client crashes because of Invalid output device (no default output device)

[sunarowicz]

Hi,

I'm getting theInvalid output device (no default output device)error and client crash when running client both on Google Colab and on local headless server.

I installed WhisperLive following the steps here: https://github.com/collabora/WhisperLive

WhisperLive version: v0.6.2

Client:

from whisper_live.client import TranscriptionClient
client = TranscriptionClient(
  "localhost",
  9090,
  lang="en",
  translate=False,
  model="small",                                                                       # also support hf_model => `Systran/faster-whisper-small`
  use_vad=False,
  save_output_recording=True,                                              # Only used for microphone input, False by Default
  output_recording_filename="./output_recording.wav", # Only used for microphone input
  max_clients=4,
  max_connection_time=600,
  mute_audio_playback=True,                                                # Only used for file input, False by Default
)

client("./sample.wav")

End of the client output:

[WARN]: Unable to access microphone. [Errno -9996] Invalid input device (no default output device)
[INFO]: Waiting for server ready ...
[INFO]: Opened connection
[INFO]: Server Running with backend faster_whisper
[INFO]: Server Ready!
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/ai/APPS/whisperlive.py", line 16, in <module>
    client("/home/ai/Documents/FRANK/Nahravky/Komcentra/original_wavs/2025_S_2541_118.wav")
  File "/home/ai/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/whisper_live/client.py", line 348, in __call__
    self.play_file(resampled_file)
  File "/home/ai/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/whisper_live/client.py", line 393, in play_file
    self.stream = self.p.open(
  File "/home/ai/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pyaudio/__init__.py", line 639, in open
    stream = PyAudio.Stream(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/ai/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pyaudio/__init__.py", line 441, in __init__
    self._stream = pa.open(**arguments)
OSError: [Errno -9996] Invalid output device (no default output device)

Seems to me that the missing output device needs to be fixed like missing input device has been already fixed earlier, see #167 and #235.

Thx for looking at this.