PulseAudio sound issues
Hi, I'm using Debian Wheezy Testing on both my desktop computer and my Laptop. On the Laptop the sound works fine, but on the desktop I can't play two or more sounds at the same time, for example while watching a video on VLC, hitting pause, then opening a video on YouTube. Other problem is: after watching a video on VLC and closing VLC, I have to wait 20 seconds to open a new VLC program since otherwise the sound coming out of the speakers will be garbage. Since after killing the PulseAudio daemon with pulseaudio -k the problems goes away, it is my strong opinion that this is a PulseAudio issue. My workaround so far was to remove the execution permissions on PulseAdio with: chmod a-x /usr/bin/pulseaudio I have two questions: 1. How can I debug this problem? I'd like to file an appropiate bug on the corresponding bug tracker. 2. I can't purge the package with aptitude purge pulseaudio since the package pulseaudio is a dependency on gnome-core. After killing PulseAudio, the sound works fine. I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? -- Alejandro Santos -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CAKMi1Tzpqc4+txeahjKggqn6+s--X4u9-YFC=mgpja_scmx...@mail.gmail.com
Re: PulseAudio sound issues
On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 10:21:54AM -0300, Alejandro Santos wrote: Hi, I'm using Debian Wheezy Testing on both my desktop computer and my Laptop. On the Laptop the sound works fine, but on the desktop I can't play two or more sounds at the same time, for example while watching a video on VLC, hitting pause, then opening a video on YouTube. Other problem is: after watching a video on VLC and closing VLC, I have to wait 20 seconds to open a new VLC program since otherwise the sound coming out of the speakers will be garbage. Is your VLC configured to use Pulseaudio? You'll get best results with Pulseaudio using an all-or-nothing approach. Since after killing the PulseAudio daemon with pulseaudio -k the problems goes away, it is my strong opinion that this is a PulseAudio issue. My workaround so far was to remove the execution permissions on PulseAdio with: chmod a-x /usr/bin/pulseaudio I have two questions: 1. How can I debug this problem? I'd like to file an appropiate bug on the corresponding bug tracker. Probably your first action is to determine which package is at fault. Try playing a sound with paplay and then playing it again within 20 seconds. If you hear garbage the second time, then it's probably a pulseaudio problem. If you don't hear problems, then it probably IS a VLC issue. 2. I can't purge the package with aptitude purge pulseaudio since the package pulseaudio is a dependency on gnome-core. After killing PulseAudio, the sound works fine. I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? Due to various differences of opinion gnome-core isn't as minimal as its title might have you believe. If you need Gnome without pulseaudio, try removing the gnome-core package, but add everything it depends on. In answer to your other question, though, Pulseaudio is a networked sound server. It has a lot more capability than ALSA does such as the ability to stream audio over a network, the ability to (fairly) easily manage multiple sources AND sinks (that is, you can replicate 4.0 surround sound using two sound cards, or even two computers). See the wikipedia article for a nice intro: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PulseAudio signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: PulseAudio sound issues
On Thu 11 Oct 2012 at 10:21:54 -0300, Alejandro Santos wrote: Since after killing the PulseAudio daemon with pulseaudio -k the problems goes away, it is my strong opinion that this is a PulseAudio issue. My workaround so far was to remove the execution permissions on PulseAdio with: chmod a-x /usr/bin/pulseaudio The Debian way: update-rc.d pulseaudio disable 2. I can't purge the package with aptitude purge pulseaudio since the package pulseaudio is a dependency on gnome-core. After killing PulseAudio, the sound works fine. I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? I'm just a user and I ask myself, why install gnome-core when all the bits and pieces to make a customised GNOME are in the archive? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20121011144527.GN30872@desktop
Re: PulseAudio sound issues
On 11/10/2012 15:21, Alejandro Santos wrote: Hi, I'm using Debian Wheezy Testing on both my desktop computer and my Laptop. On the Laptop the sound works fine, but on the desktop I can't play two or more sounds at the same time, for example while watching a video on VLC, hitting pause, then opening a video on YouTube. Other problem is: after watching a video on VLC and closing VLC, I have to wait 20 seconds to open a new VLC program since otherwise the sound coming out of the speakers will be garbage. Hi, on Wheezy/Sid here I use Pulseaudio without problem. VLC is configured to output to pulse (vlc-plugin-pulse installed), works fine here, vlc and flash or anything else. I use KDE, did nothing special to make it work, only timidity gave me trouble but it was easily solved. User belongs to pulse group. Since after killing the PulseAudio daemon with pulseaudio -k the problems goes away, it is my strong opinion that this is a PulseAudio issue. My workaround so far was to remove the execution permissions on PulseAdio with: chmod a-x /usr/bin/pulseaudio I have two questions: 1. How can I debug this problem? I'd like to file an appropiate bug on the corresponding bug tracker. Make sure the problem really lies with Pulse. You could start by dumping pulse config with --dump-conf, change log level (--log-level). Install debug packages. 2. I can't purge the package with aptitude purge pulseaudio since the package pulseaudio is a dependency on gnome-core. After killing PulseAudio, the sound works fine. I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? I can play a flash video or listen to the bbc player and watch a video in vlc at the same time. I can throw Amarok into the mix or use at the same time Tuxguitar outputting through timidity and vlc (nice to write tabs from a concert video ;-). I can just click on the kde mixer applet and adjust output volume for each application separately. Record with a lightweight device and stream the sound to another powerful computer over the LAN to process it, and I am not even scratching the surface of what can be done with Pulse. I have been defiant toward anything pulse for a long time as it used to screw things up out of the box more than often (in KDE in my case). I adopted it not long ago, and I would be sad going back. My only complaint is that it isn't trivial to make it play with jackd, but given the nature of jack and the rarity of this setup it's not surprising. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5076dc4f.3050...@googlemail.com
Re: PulseAudio sound issues
On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:45 AM, Brian a...@cityscape.co.uk wrote: On Thu 11 Oct 2012 at 10:21:54 -0300, Alejandro Santos wrote: My workaround so far was to remove the execution permissions on PulseAdio with: chmod a-x /usr/bin/pulseaudio The Debian way: update-rc.d pulseaudio disable By default, PulseAudio is on Debian Wheezy configured not to start as an init.d SysV daemon. That won't work. 2. I can't purge the package with aptitude purge pulseaudio since the package pulseaudio is a dependency on gnome-core. After killing PulseAudio, the sound works fine. I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? I'm just a user and I ask myself, why install gnome-core when all the bits and pieces to make a customised GNOME are in the archive? Since I am not a native English speaker I must be missing something in the translation on my head. Can you explain further this comment? Thanks, -- Alejandro Santos -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CAKMi1Tx_Y1-3KneMN1qjvkPkcgDtHoRRtpqM6_Cga8nD=ma...@mail.gmail.com
Re: PulseAudio sound issues
On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:48 AM, tv.deb...@googlemail.com
tv.deb...@googlemail.com wrote:
Hi, on Wheezy/Sid here I use Pulseaudio without problem. VLC is configured
to output to pulse (vlc-plugin-pulse installed), works fine here, vlc and
flash or anything else. I use KDE, did nothing special to make it work, only
timidity gave me trouble but it was easily solved. User belongs to pulse
group.
Before posting my initial message, I have actually read the
debian-user mailing list archives, and I know for a fact that
PulseAudio can generate some heated discussions.
I do know that PulseAudio works for most people. Thanks for your vote
of confidence. But please, don't transform this thread on
yet-anoter-X-software-is-{awesome/crap}. I want my sound working, and
I want to fix PulseAudio.
Thanks again,
--
Alejandro Santos
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Re: PulseAudio sound issues
On 11/10/2012 18:12, Alejandro Santos wrote:
On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:48 AM, tv.deb...@googlemail.com
tv.deb...@googlemail.com wrote:
Hi, on Wheezy/Sid here I use Pulseaudio without problem. VLC is configured
to output to pulse (vlc-plugin-pulse installed), works fine here, vlc and
flash or anything else. I use KDE, did nothing special to make it work, only
timidity gave me trouble but it was easily solved. User belongs to pulse
group.
Before posting my initial message, I have actually read the
debian-user mailing list archives, and I know for a fact that
PulseAudio can generate some heated discussions.
I do know that PulseAudio works for most people. Thanks for your vote
of confidence. But please, don't transform this thread on
yet-anoter-X-software-is-{awesome/crap}. I want my sound working, and
I want to fix PulseAudio.
Thanks again,
Wasn't my intention, was responding to :
I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself,
why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does
^^^
PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA?
Kind of sounds as an invite for yet another a heated discussion over the
merits of pulse... I tried to be factual, give clues of what could be
missing in your setup, and did say in another part of the message that I
wasn't a pulseaudio fanboy, just a currently happy user.
Sorry for polluting your thread with silly attempts to help you.
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Re: PulseAudio sound issues
On 11/10/2012 18:07, Alejandro Santos wrote: On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:45 AM, Briana...@cityscape.co.uk wrote: On Thu 11 Oct 2012 at 10:21:54 -0300, Alejandro Santos wrote: [snip] 2. I can't purge the package with aptitude purge pulseaudio since the package pulseaudio is a dependency on gnome-core. After killing PulseAudio, the sound works fine. I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? I'm just a user and I ask myself, why install gnome-core when all the bits and pieces to make a customised GNOME are in the archive? Since I am not a native English speaker I must be missing something in the translation on my head. Can you explain further this comment? Thanks, Not a native English speaker either, but what I understand is: don't install metapackages and then complain that they are crap-bags, use them as guidance to install what you really need among their dependencies. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5076fd6c@googlemail.com
Re: PulseAudio sound issues
Alejandro Santos lis...@alejolp.com writes: […] 1. How can I debug this problem? I'd like to file an appropiate bug on the corresponding bug tracker. While I'm not a PulseAudio user myself, some of those I know use it, so I'm somewhat interested in that, too. (Thanks to Darac Marjal for his hints on P-A debugging elsewhere in this thread, BTW.) […] I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? I remember playing with both GNOME and KDE back in 2000 or so. Honestly, I still don't get what advantages do they give to me over the good old “bunch of X applications” approach. (Though I've discovered somewhat recently that there're a few interesting Qt-based applications in Debian. Previously, anything depending on Qt was out of consideration for me.) -- FSF associate member #7257 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/861uh4hqj2@gray.siamics.net
Re: PulseAudio sound issues
[received personally, forwarding to list] On 11/10/2012 19:20, Yaro Kasear wrote: On 10/11/2012 12:10 PM, tv.deb...@googlemail.com wrote: On 11/10/2012 18:07, Alejandro Santos wrote: On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:45 AM, Briana...@cityscape.co.uk wrote: On Thu 11 Oct 2012 at 10:21:54 -0300, Alejandro Santos wrote: [snip] 2. I can't purge the package with aptitude purge pulseaudio since the package pulseaudio is a dependency on gnome-core. After killing PulseAudio, the sound works fine. I'm a software developer myself, and I can't help keep asking myself, why is PulseAudio an strong dependency on Gnome? What advantages does PulseAudio gives me as a user over good ol' ALSA? I'm just a user and I ask myself, why install gnome-core when all the bits and pieces to make a customised GNOME are in the archive? Since I am not a native English speaker I must be missing something in the translation on my head. Can you explain further this comment? Thanks, Not a native English speaker either, but what I understand is: don't install metapackages and then complain that they are crap-bags, use them as guidance to install what you really need among their dependencies. Fortunately if you don't use GNOME (Why anyone subjects themselves to GNOME 3 willingly is beyond me, but a different topic altogether. There's a very good reason why MATE forked off.), then you don't have to put up with Pulseaudio usually. It really is a pain to work with if you don't accept its default configurations, which have a 50% chance of guessing the ideal settings for your system wrong. Frankly I've always found that bare ALSA works fine in almost all cases, a far higher functionality rate than PA. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/50770fbe.2060...@googlemail.com
