[K12OSN] Discussion on sound (not meant as a rant)

[Petre Scheie]

Follow-up: The reason I suggested that the MS lab be built separately from the K12LTSP 
lab is that supporting it will be ten times the work, and afer a bit of time has passed, 
the K12LTSP lab will still be chugging along, while some of the Windows machines will 
not work at all or not work consistently or not work reliably, and the afflictions will 
all be different.  And I get the impression, Dave, that you're the sole computer support 
volunteer/tech/person.  So, the MS solution will work to begin with, but then will 
slowly degrade as each system slowly (or quickly) gets out of whack from the kids 
noodling around with them.  And where will the additional time to maintain, fix, and 
re-fix these machines come from?

I'm trying to not sound snooty here, but make sure your school knows that a lab of 10 
Windows boxes is TEN TIMES THE WORK of a K12LTSP server with ten thin clients.  Which 
means the MS lab is only 10% as reliable as the K12LTSP setup.

Petre

Petre Scheie wrote:
> What are you using for clients?  If you're using various old desktop 
> PCs, the challenges of sound are amplified (no pun intended) by the 
> various sound cards that are typically found in old PCs.  I like using 
> old PCs as clients because they're cheap--free, that is--but from a 
> management standpoint, buying dedicated thin clients for $150, in which 
> sound tends to work out of the box, may make a lot of sense.
> 
> I'm pretty sure UnitedStreaming video should be doable.  I seem to 
> recall that William Fragakis and Daniel Howard in Atlanta said they were 
> using it with their thin clients. Perhaps they can chime in on what app 
> they use for it.
> 
> If the school decides to go to an MS solution, I'd suggest building a 
> separate lab for that special, very expensive circumstance.  And not to 
> put too fine a point on it, but which teacher is going to take the pay 
> cut to pay for that MS solution?  (snooty rhetorical question).
> 
> Petre
> 
> David Hopkins wrote:
>> All,
>>
>> It appears that sound works for some and not for others.  
>> Unfortunately, I appear to be firmly in the 'not for others' camp most 
>> days.  Now, this issue has come to a head here at NCS.  I have been 
>> told to either get sound working by February 16th (flash, movies in 
>> various formats like real player, media player,etc) or else NCS will 
>> find a different approach. In other words, a MS-based solution.  What 
>> is pushing this is that teachers have decided (and management has 
>> agreed) that the school should be using UnitedStreaming and a contract 
>> has been signed.  Now, I have to have sound.
>>
>> So, I have a couple of weekends to try and get this fixed.  I am at 
>> FC5.  I can upgrade to FC6 is absolutely necessary, but even then 
>> there are issues with the installer recognizing my RAID card (2010s).
>>
>> Currently, I have sound with the edutainment apps.  It can be a little 
>> laggy at times, but ... it works.  I am re-installing mplayer, hoping 
>> that doing so will get the movies working (using info from the list 
>> and the wiki).  And that leaves flash and shockwave.  Shockwave is a 
>> non-starter (well, maybe with wine, but ... purchasing codeweavers 
>> might work, but is cost-prohibitive since doing so gets into the same 
>> price range as an MS-based solution).  As recent email to the list 
>> suggests, flash 9 is also having problems. So ... if anyone has 
>> success stories and are willing to take the time to add them to the 
>> wiki, I suspect alot of others on the list (besides just me) would 
>> find it very useful.
>>
>> Next, my version of LTSP still has the 'only works for first user' 
>> issue.  An upgrade is in order.  Is there a simple way to upgrade just 
>> LTSP without breaking the customizations which K12LTSP uses (and which 
>> make life alot simpler in many respects)?
>>
>> Finally, pulseaudio, asla, esd, nasd, gstreamer etc have been 
>> mentioned as possible solutions to the 'sound issue', but currently it 
>> appears that there isn't a firm solution.  I have been trying to get a 
>> solid solution for literally a few years now.  I have had sound 
>> working at varous times, but then it would lag so severely in videos 
>> as to be useless.  Powers-that-be want (demand) a solution by February 
>> 16th.  Since I can't work on the systems during the day, I have 
>> weekends and some evenings.  I am willing to try any suggestions this  
>> weekend.  I am not a Linux guru, but am also not completely new to this.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Dave Hopkins
>> NCS parent volunteer
>>
>>
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