pulseaudio deeply unreliable (Fedora 10)

Nigel Henry cave.dnb2m97pp at aliceadsl.fr
Sun Mar 8 22:15:50 UTC 2009


On Sunday 08 March 2009 18:38, Antti J. Huhtala wrote:
> Hello Nigel,
>
> could/would you please stop advertising "remove pulseaudio" as the
> panacea for all audio-related problems? Please? It is not as simple as
> that.
> I've been with Fedora since FC4 in June, 2005. I've had my share of
> "snap, crackle and pop" type audio problems and, if I'm not mistaken,
> you and I have exchanged a couple of posts around the subject.
>
> I have now an F9 system with one MOBO sound card that utilises the
> snd_intel8x0 module, an additional Ensoniq ES 1371 (CT-4810) sound card,
> and C-media USB Headphones. I want and need to be able to use all of
> them.
>
> In my present system, every audio application works flawlessly from
> "hearing what and how you want" point of view - and I'm using PulseAudio
> all the time. "Many moons ago" I was also dissatisfied with the
> emergency of PA (and there *were* bugs when it first appeared on
> Fedora). Now I'm very pleased with it, and I'll tell you why.
>
> I've temporarily installed another sound card, an SB Live!, into my box.
> Pulseaudio lets me direct the audio stream to any of the three, ie. USB
> headphones, the Ensonic card, or the SB card. (It seems like the mobo
> sound card is always disabled when an external sound card is installed.)
> Anyway, the fact that I can arbitrarily choose which sound card will be
> used to output the sound is something I could not achieve with ALSA.
>
> To me, PulseAudio was a definite improvement over ALSA - for my purposes
> anyway. Therefore, I'd like to recommend that you wouldn't be too eager
> to suggest removing PulseAudio to anyone with sound problems. For some
> of us, PulseAudio - if and when it works impeccably - is indeed an
> improvement.
>
> I understand that you are a friendly sort of chap who wants to help
> others. However, helping people to get their PulseAudio work might be a
> better way of solving their audio problems than single-mindedly
> suggesting them they should remove PA.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Antti

I do not advocate the removal of pulseaudio to resolve all audio problems.

When I see audio related probelms, which may,or may not be related to 
pulseaudio, I suggest disabling pulseaudio to see if that resolves the audio 
problem, and that's as far as it goes. if disabling pulseaudio resolves a 
sound related problem, then all well and good.

If the user now has his/her sounds working, that is all that I'm trying to 
help with. Personally I have no interest in pulseaudio, as on all my 3 
machines the sound works without pulseaudio entering the equation.

I will continue to try and help folks with sound related problems. I do not 
believe that pulseaudio is necessary for sounds to work, and sounds worked 
with Alsa long before pulseaudio existed (FC1).

No doubt this will start some flame or other, but is the way I answer sound 
related problems, whether on Fedora, Debian, or Kubuntu/Ubuntu lists. So so 
be it.

Nigel.




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