pulseaudio causing crashing of applications

[Les Mikesell]

Alan Cox wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 07:54:15AM -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
>>> Because the device changes ownership
>> Traditional unix behavior is that open file descriptors stay open and 
>> working even if access permissions change.
> 
> Actually no. The tty behaviour has been different since the earliest days
> for precisely these reasons

But your /dev/tty is different from my /dev/tty and they stay that way 
if we are both logged in.

>> turn instead of rudely breaking a working process).  I can see where 
>> this might make sense on the VT keyboard since that device is 
>> necessarily shared during the procedure.  But it doesn't make any more 
>> sense to interrupt a running phone or music player session because 
>> someone else is temporarily using a certain keybord than it would to 
>> break a running tape backup for the same circumstance.  Or at least this 
>> should be left as an easily chosen local policy.
> 
> And local policy should defalt to security first.

That's fine if there is a sane, documented method to manage policy.

>> the first session being interrupted has root access anyway and could 
>> bypass the access restrictions the switch tries to impose.  Wouldn't it 
>> be better to kernel locking or some mechanism that can really ensure 
>> exclusive access for situations like a phone session?
> 
> VT switch locking policy is handled by X, and by X clients, the kernel just
> implements the rules.

How does this relate to sessions not tied to a local keyboard?  That is, 
if my session is via freenx, will a console login break access to the 
audio devices?

> Your objections really make no rational sense anyway, you don't "accidentally"
> switch sessions to another user.

The accidental part is the idea that a certain keyboard is somehow 
related to other devices.  That might be true in some cases, but it is 
just circumstantial.   If someone is listening to music through speakers 
or has a phone call going he may not be near the keyboard, and someone 
else logging in to check their mail would have no relationship at all to 
the audio devices.

-- 
    Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com