[pulseaudio-discuss] Fedora's default installation seems ... uh... Quite Different!

[Richard]

Hi Pulse Audiophiles,

I'm trying to do about what the Pulse Whole Home Audio project was trying 
to do (did?), but the link to that is non-functional, and I presume it's 
defunct. So, I'm trying to do it on my own.

However, I'm a bit stymied right "out of the gate" because my installation 
"looks nothing like" what the documentation says I should find.

To be clear, all the systems but two lowly Windows boxes are on Fedora, 
and most of these on the new 38 server release that came out a couple of 
months ago - I'm starting with one of these. The pulse packages are:

pulseaudio-libs-16.1-4.fc38.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-glib2-16.1-4.fc38.x86_64
pulseaudio-utils-16.1-4.fc38.x86_64
pipewire-pulseaudio-0.3.71-2.fc38.x86_64
pavucontrol-5.0-8.fc38.x86_64

...And if I try and install paprefs, it complains:

  Problem: problem with installed package pipewire-pulseaudio-0.3.71-2.fc38.x86_64

(I've also tried installing "pulse-audio*" with similar results.)

That said, though there's no reference to Fedora in the FAQ, I PRESUME 
there's some web page somewhere to help folks like me figure out the 
differences of this distribution?! I say that because I can't be alone in 
these experiences:

When I try and look for things, there is no /usr/bin/pulseaudio binary,
for example, though in /etc/pulse are client.conf and default.pa. 
(default.pa has one active line and one comment line - I don't recall 
editing it but MAYBE I did some weeks back?! The file is dated June 17.)

When I try pacmd list-modules, I get:

No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.

And there doesn't appear to be any obvious way to even start a daemon - no 
executable?!

If I try launching pavucontrol, I get a white pop-up that says, 
"Establishing a connection to PulseAudio. Please wait..." and it never 
returns even though music is playing!

Etc.

A gentle push in the right direction, please?!

Thanks,
Richard