Talk:PulseAudio

Bugs or Out-Dated Configs within Gentoo PulseAudio Wiki?
My system is up to date as of 2012.11.30 and was previously configured to use Alsa. I'll also include some additional information during my installation of pulseaudio, such as my ease of installation experience and some preliminary information on other peoples' opinions and recommendations. References are also sited below.

1. Adding "load-module module-oss" to "/etc/pulse/default.pa" results in pulseaudio complaining about an unknown option during start. And, I think it's desired for a package to just work with default configs without editing such files -- for which I think is already implemented, but this wiki hasn't been updated to reflect a possible fixed bug requiring this config hack? Or, maybe pulseaudio requires the USE flag "oss" for this to load the oss module? (ie: echo "media-sound/pulseaudio oss" >> /etc/portage/package.use && emerge -q pulseaudio)

2. Adding ao=pulseaudio to /etc/mplayer.conf or $HOME/.mplayer/config seems not needed. But, indeed it is, as sometimes the pulseaudio service isn't started or used properly by the sound application. This can be verified with using pavucontrol to initially automatically start the pulseaudio service before using mplayer. Also, pavucontrol will show the active mplayer playing stream vs. when mplayer is started without the ao pulseaudio. (Another freakish note, mplayer isn't reading the properly from $HOME/.mplayer/config here properly before starting, but mplayer will complain when "ao" option has an incorrect syntax or argument specified. So the $HOME/.mplayer/config file is being read, just the "ao=" option isn't being used for some reason.  Hence, best to specify "ao=pulse" within the system wide /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf file.

3. Consolekit appears to be called or started already on a default Desktop Profile Gentoo system dated 2012.11.30 without the need for "rc-update add consolekit default" here. And adding or trying to start the consolekit service manually results in a failure -- likely because it's already called and running by another service? (ie. "ps ax |grep consolekit" already shows it running)

4. The Important Note about removing users from the audio group seemed not to work for me and doesn't really make sense as it appears to be more of a workaround for a past bug within pulseaudio. Removing users from the audio group here for a Gentoo system as of 2012.11.30 caused a permissions denied on /dev/dsp. Readding the user(s) to the audio group resolved this. And, it would make more sense if a group exists for both audio and pulse audio, so users can listen/play audio through /dev/dsp and chosen users can manage pulseaudio -- for which I think is already integrated, but I am no pulseaudio geek by far!

5. Something missing from this Wiki; Users should be advised sound programs automatically (somehow magically) call and start pulseaudio if it is not already started when the user logs in! (ie: "ps ax|grep pulseaudio") (But, now this seems flaky.  I'm no longer seeing mplayer start the pulseaudio service for some reason ... maybe because I compiled with USE=pulseaudio?  Again, how odd!)

6. I just noticed on a pretty much default mplayer config setup, mplayer is complaining about "[AO OSS] audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy" when playing more then one sound files at once. ao=pulse doesn't resolve it and mplayer is compiled with the pulseaudio USE Flag and it's dependencies. I've figured this out some-what. It would appear applications were not starting the pulseaudio service or properly starting the pulseaudio service, but using the pavucontrol (PulseAudio control frontend) to properly automatically start the pulseaudio service seems to have resolved this bug here. (This is related to my "Adding ao=pulseaudio to /etc/mplayer.conf or $HOME/.mplayer/config seems not needed. But indeed it is..." issue above.) Applications need the pulseadio USE Flag to properly start the pulseaudio service, as the pulseaudio service has not /etc/init.d service.

7. For those still enjoying the use of CLI/curses/ncurses use of alsamixer along side pulseaudio, you need to start alsamixer with "alsamixer -Dhw". (Alsamixer will get the cursor key up/down for volume up/down reversed when more the two mplayer streams are playing at the same time.)

8. I think it be worth mentioning as to why somebody would want to install pulseaudio. A vote on http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=70166&start=75 shows more then twice the people still prefer alsasound over the pulseaudio sound service. Those using professional Jack Sound Service, http://jackaudio.org/pulseaudio_and_jack provides insite on integrating PulseAudio Sound Service with the Jack Sound Service including Pros/Cons and side effects on performance.

Cons
 * Alsasound service just works to they've never had any problems with it.
 * Problems with configuring and using pulseaudo.
 * Alsasound has ncurses mixers and controls. (My note here. ;-)

Pros
 * Pulseaudio is a universal sound service allowing cross platform for developers developing applications using sound.
 * Pulseaudio provides network streaming.
 * Pulseaudio apparently remembers user peripheral and application sound mixer settings, while Alsasound only remembers the last set mixing level.
 * Major distributions now ship using/installing PulseAudio by default such as Fedora.

Wew! Seems I have now a properly working pulseaudio service. Clarification of the above by some of you audio geeks might help. Once the responses are filed here, I'll be glad to update the Wiki with the info within the troubleshooting section or elsewhere. Roger 23:41, 30 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Ad 1) Yes, you need the oss USE flag to get module-oss installed.
 * Ad 2) With ALSA mplayer works without ao=pulse (not ao=pulseaudio !!), because ALSA itself reroutes the sound to PA. But why reroute, when mplayer supports PA directly.
 * Ad 3) The instructions are conditional and are IMO correct.
 * Ad 4) Can't reproduce, because I'm not using OSS and /dev/dsp. But the note makes sense, because only CK should control the permissions (only supported configuration by upstream and Gentoo developers). Being part of the audio group overrides this control. Maybe there's a udev rule missing for OSS. I suggest to open a bug report.
 * Ad 5) For KDE and GNOME desktop applications it works out the box, because they start PA over D-Bus, I guess. For apps without D-Bus support, you have to start PA yourself, I guess (again). We should find out and enhance the article.
 * Ad 6) I don't use OSS, but my mplayer correctly reports "AO: [pulse] ..." with ao=pulse.
 * Ad 8) We have a short feature list on top and the linked Wikipedia article has some more. It doesn't matter, what random people think (there's still alot of hate against PA, because of early problems).
 * Ad Cons:
 * 1) It's not a cons of PA. It's just a pro of ALSA.
 * 2) That's what this article is about. The article should of course be complete and correct.


 * --Astaecker 09:08, 1 December 2012 (UTC)