## Summary

After updating WirePlumber from 0.5.15 to 0.5.17 on Arch Linux, the Omarchy equalizer component (`filter.sink.omarchy-equalizer`) fails to load, causing **WirePlumber to terminate entirely** and all audio to disappear. Rolling back WirePlumber to 0.5.15 restores audio immediately.

## Environment

| Component | Version |
|-----------|---------|
| Omarchy | 4.0.3-1 |
| WirePlumber (broken) | 0.5.17-1 |
| WirePlumber (working) | 0.5.15-1 |
| PipeWire | 1:1.6.8-1 (unchanged) |
| Kernel | 7.1.9.arch1-2 |
| Distribution | Arch Linux |

## Error

WirePlumber logs a fatal error on startup:

```
failed to load required component
'filter.sink.omarchy-equalizer [pw-module: libpipewire-module-filter-chain]':
Failed to load pipewire module libpipewire-module-filter-chain:
No such file or directory
```

WirePlumber exits with `78/CONFIG`, reaches the systemd restart limit. All ALSA nodes fail to activate — **no audio devices appear** anywhere in the system.

Note: `/usr/lib/pipewire-0.3/libpipewire-module-filter-chain.so` is **present**, package-verified, and has no missing dynamic dependencies (`ldd` clean). The "No such file or directory" error originates inside WirePlumber's module loading path, not from a missing `.so`.

## Root Cause

The Omarchy equalizer config at `~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/omarchy-equalizer.conf` marks the component as `required`:

```ini
wireplumber.profiles = {
  main = {
    filter.sink.omarchy-equalizer = required
  }
}

wireplumber.components = [
  {
    name = libpipewire-module-filter-chain, type = pw-module
    ...
    provides = filter.sink.omarchy-equalizer
  }
]
```

When WirePlumber 0.5.17 fails to load this `pw-module` — due to what appears to be a regression in the `WpClientContext`-based in-process module loading introduced in 0.5.16 — it treats the missing `required` feature as fatal and terminates. **This turns a filter-chain loading failure into a complete system-wide audio outage.**

There are two separate issues here:

1. **WirePlumber regression** (to be reported upstream at gitlab.freedesktop.org): the ENOENT for a present file in 0.5.17.
2. **Omarchy design issue** (this report): `required` for an equalizer is too aggressive. An equalizer failure should never kill all audio.

## Impact

- Complete loss of all audio output and input after WirePlumber update
- No useful diagnostic message pointing at the real cause
- Affects any Omarchy installation with the equalizer active

## Proposed Fix

Change `filter.sink.omarchy-equalizer = required` to `= optional` in the generated equalizer config. An equalizer failure should degrade gracefully — not kill all audio.

## Reproduction

1. Install Omarchy equalizer (standard setup)
2. Update WirePlumber to 0.5.17
3. Log out / reboot
4. Result: no audio devices, WirePlumber dead

## Workaround

Downgrade WirePlumber to 0.5.15, or temporarily remove `~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/omarchy-equalizer.conf` and restart WirePlumber.