PulseAudio in-/output device confusion

[Adam Williamson]

On Tue, 2009-10-13 at 12:28 -0600, Petrus de Calguarium wrote:
> Adam Williamson wrote:
> 
> > Where are you seeing this, exactly? Are you using 
> KDE?
> > 
> Of course I use KDE :-)
> 
> I see this in systemsettings/multimedia/device 
> preference.
> 
> The reason I would like to finally understand this is 
> that I have 2 computers (desk- and laptop) and the 
> priority of preference is often different, or sometimes 
> my laptop tells me that such and such a device does not 
> exist and asks whether I would like to remove it, etc. 
> Often it tells me that PulseAudio is not working, so it 
> will default to PulseAudio Sound Server. Huh? Yes, I 
> see that there are 2 entries, but this is all very, 
> very confusing and I just want to know what the 
> intended order of all these devices is supposed to be, 
> from the perspective of someone who wants to use 
> PulseAudio correctly to achieve optimal sound without 
> glitches and hitches, etc.

I think this is something specific to the interface between KDE / Phonon
and PulseAudio. In GNOME with gnome-volume-control, you don't see any
'virtual' devices like that, you only see the actual hardware devices.
So probably Kevin Kofler is the best to answer the question, and it may
actually be best directed to the KDE list - I think this stuff
originates in the Phonon / PA interface layer, not in PA itself.

-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Fedora Talk: adamwill AT fedoraproject DOT org
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