It sounds like something else is using alsa, and PulseAudio can't access the sound device, as pulseaudio talks to the hardware directly, instead of using dmix.
Check that you have no other sound related apps running, excluding the mixer applet. One way to do this is to check whether any device nodes are open in /dev/snd. -- PulseAudio Sound Server: Failed to connect: Connection refused https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/207312 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
