Duplicate socat processes causing connection instability on Flatpak/Bazzite

[bvnderb]

System: Bazzite (immutable Fedora-based), KDE Wayland
StreamController version: Latest (running on end-of-life GNOME 48 runtime)
Discord: Flatpak version

Issue:
StreamController repeatedly spawns new socat processes without killing existing ones, causing duplicate IPC connections that result in delayed or completely unresponsive Discord actions (deafen, mute, etc).

To reproduce:

1. Set up StreamController with Discord plugin on Flatpak
2. Use Discord actions for a while
3. Run: lsof $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/discord-ipc-0
4. Multiple socat processes will be visible, all connected to the same socket

Expected: One socat process managing the IPC bridge
Actual: Multiple socat processes accumulate over time causing instability

Workaround: Manually killing duplicate socat processes with pkill -f socat
temporarily restores functionality but duplicates reappear over time.

[bvnderb]

2026-04-12 23:53:13.679 | INFO     | src.backend.PluginManager.PluginBase:launch_backend:636 - Launching backend: . /home/Natsu/.var/app/com.core447.StreamController/data/plugins/com_imdevinc_StreamControllerDiscordPlugin/.venv/bin/activate && python3 /home/Natsu/.var/app/com.core447.StreamController/data/plugins/com_imdevinc_StreamControllerDiscordPlugin/backend.py --port=39907
2026-04-12 23:53:13.778 | SUCCESS  | streamcontroller_plugin_tools.BackendBase:start_server:33 - Started server
2026-04-12 23:53:13.781 | DEBUG    | discordrpc.asyncdiscord:connect:44 - Attempting to connect to socket, attempt 1/5
2026-04-12 23:53:13.781 | DEBUG    | discordrpc.sockets:connect:40 - Attempting to connect to socket at path: /run/user/1000/discord-ipc-0
2026-04-12 23:53:13.781 | DEBUG    | discordrpc.sockets:connect:54 - Connected to socket at path: /run/user/1000/discord-ipc-0
2026-04-12 23:53:14.067 | WARNING  | src.backend.PluginManager.EventHolder:add_listener:22 - Callback _update_display is already subscribed to: com_imdevinc_StreamControllerDiscordPlugin::VOICE_SETTINGS_UPDATE
2026-04-12 23:53:14.111 | WARNING  | src.backend.PluginManager.EventHolder:add_listener:22 - Callback _update_display is already subscribed to: com_imdevinc_StreamControllerDiscordPlugin::VOICE_SETTINGS_UPDATE
2026-04-13 00:25:57.108 | ERROR    | __main__:discord_callback:30 - failed to parse discord event: the JSON object must be str, bytes or bytearray, not dict

[ImDevinC]

I don't actually think this is a StreamController issue, I can reproduce this issue with Discord socat being spawned constantly when I'm not running StreamController. Can you check the same just tovalidate?

[bvnderb]

Tested both scenarios:

1. StreamController closed: Only one socat process present for several minutes,
   no new ones spawned.

2. StreamController open: A second socat process (duplicate) appeared within
   minutes of StreamController running.

This confirms the duplicate socat processes are caused by StreamController, not Discord. At least, on my end.

[bvnderb]

Every 5.0s: lsof $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/discord-ipc-0                        localhost-live: Mon Apr 13 01:22:33 2026

COMMAND  PID  USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF   NODE NAME
socat   3327 Natsu    5u  unix 0x00000000066c88ec      0t0  26577 /run/user/1000/app/com.discordapp.Discord/dis
cord-ipc-0 type=STREAM (LISTEN)
Discord 3605 Natsu   39u  unix 0x0000000050776cbf      0t0  32171 /run/user/1000/discord-ipc-0 type=STREAM (LIS
TEN)
Discord 3605 Natsu  134u  unix 0x00000000e0232183      0t0 127960 /run/user/1000/discord-ipc-0 type=STREAM (CON
NECTED)
socat   7121 Natsu    6u  unix 0x00000000f13f755d      0t0 125609 /run/user/1000/app/com.discordapp.Discord/dis
cord-ipc-0 type=STREAM (CONNECTED)

[ImDevinC]

Thanks. Any chance you can try the following to see if it helps (since I can't reproduce locally)

1. Open the Store, and uninstall the Discord plugin (your settings will be saved)
2. Go to Settings -> Store and enable Custom Plugins
3. Add a custom plugin with Repository URL https://github.com/ImDevinC/StreamControllerDiscordPlugin and branch fix/duplicate-socat-processes-74
4. Close the settings, go back to the store
5. Find the Discord plugin that has a red WARNING annotation on it and install it
6. Restart StreamController
7. Use the plugin and see what happens

I did discover a second issue while troubleshooting this that could prevent reconnects from working. If you have trouble getting anything to work, please do the following:

1. Quit StreamController entirely
2. Quit Discord entirely
3. Launch Discord
4. Launch StreamController
5. Go to Settings -> Plugins -> Open Settings for Discord
6. Click Validate to reauthenticate with Discord

[bvnderb]

Hi Devin

Thank you for the quick replies and updates to the plugin, I really appreciate your effort.
I followed the steps described above and it seemingly started working instantly after installing the custom plugin! I shall test further and return with feedback over the next couple of days.