....but mostly audio. All of this relates to audio, but there are several different topics concerning how different packages relate.
I originally had no audio after installing ALSA. I thought it had to do with the Beats Audio system on my laptop, but it was simply an ALSA configuration thing that got fixed. I now have audio and can play files and CD's. However, the sound is weak and thready. This is the point at which Beats Audio comes in. ALSA apparently assumes a "default" use of laptop speakers, and this "default" is not true with the Beats Audio system installed. And, as a result, the sound is "weak and thready." I don't know if any other laptops have it, but HP laptops do. This situation can be "fixed" by changing the "pin out" in the "snd_hda_intel" driver. There is an application called "hda_jack_retask" that can do it. To date, I have not been successful in getting the changes applied. Right now, because I don't know how this "retasking" works, I'm in a "trial and error" situation. This application was developed in Ubuntu, and possibly Debian, both of which install PulseAudio as a default. I believe that "hda_jack_retask" depends on PulseAudio because when I ran it and tried to apply the changes I got this message: > Failed to create file /root/.pulse/client.conf/<alpha-numeric name> I think xfce4 starts the PulseAudio daemon, but I don't know how to verify that. So, I think I get that message either because the daemon is not running or that I don't have PulseAudio configured correctly. The first question is, then, how do I tell if the PulseAudio daemon is running? The second question comes from configuring PulseAudio. The PulseAudio configuration page at http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/PerfectSetup/ Says that for a system like mine in which udev and ConsoleKit give access to the sound card but override it with the "audio" group, should make sure no users are in the "audio" group. It says that "fast switching" won't occur with people in the "audio" group. This is a big deviation from what the book says during the installation of ALSA. I don't like deviating from the book without bringing it to the list. I can do it, but what are the pros and cons? What are the benefits of PulseAudio anyway? Dan -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page