Getting PulseAudio to cooperate

[joost]

Yesterday Ian and me spend some time working out a fix.

This resulted in getting a patch for kmix from upstream (its in Entropy now)

kde-base/kmix-4.4.0-r11

Then we looked at the default config. I repackaged pulseaudio (to give it a revision) and it will deploy the new config after you merge the config files.

media-sound/pulseaudio-0.9.21.1 (revision 3)

http://main.v00d00.net/pulseaudio-and-k ... -sabayon-5

[tomekwalowski]

I have another problem - with skype - when I try turn on skype - I see this:

skype: pcm_null.c:130: snd_pcm_null_start: Assertion `null->state == SND_PCM_STATE_PREPARED' failed.
Segmentation fault

[Fitzcarraldo]

Never seen that error message; Skype's working fine for me.

I'm using Skype version 2.1.0.47-r1. I don't use Entropy on this laptop but I see from the SL Web page for Entropy packages (http://www.sabayon.org/packages) that the version of Skype in the Entropy repository is 2.1.0.81 so, if you're using that version, there is a possibility that that version is the cause of your problem (although I don't recall anyone else reporting that error message).

I'm not sure, but it looks to me like a problem with either Skype or ALSA, not PulseAudio. Are you using PulseAudio, or have you disabled it by using RParade's hack of renaming the PulseAudio binary? What have you configured Skype's sound devices as?

If you are using PulseAudio and have configured it as per my previous post then try reinstalling ALSA and Skype:

media-libs/alsa-lib
media-plugins/alsa-plugins
media-plugins/gst-plugins-alsa
media-sound/alsa-firmware
media-sound/alsa-headers
media-sound/alsa-tools
media-sound/alsa-utils
net-im/skype

and then run alsaconf as root user in a Konsole/Terminal window, followed by alsamixer as root user, then alsamixer under your normal user account. Then check that PulseAudio is configured as per my previous post. If you still get the same error message then I suggest that you file a bug report for Skype in the SL Bugzilla (see the link 'Bugs' at the top right of this page).

[Fitzcarraldo]

Just merged skype-2.1.0.81 via Portage and it works fine on my laptop, so it's unlikely that the problem you have is due to Skype. My bet is still on the ALSA configuration on your PC, so I would still try what I wrote in my previous post (including submitting a bug report if you still get the error message after). You might also want to give joost's latest suggestion a try afterwards: Problems with pulse, try it like this:, but I still suspect the cause of your problem lies elsewhere.

[nomad]

Yesterday Ian and me spend some time working out a fix.

This resulted in getting a patch for kmix from upstream (its in Entropy now)

kde-base/kmix-4.4.0-r11

Then we looked at the default config. I repackaged pulseaudio (to give it a revision) and it will deploy the new config after you merge the config files.

media-sound/pulseaudio-0.9.21.1 (revision 3)

http://main.v00d00.net/pulseaudio-and-k ... -sabayon-5

This did not help. Also reinstalled Amarok. Now not only does Amarok not play any sound but when I tried the script manager to install Shoutcast, I received an error saying Amarok: "Loading of providers from file: http://download.kde.org/ocs/providers.xml failed".

===
OK...This is not good...Now Dolphin is not showing anything in my home dir or any dir.

===
Whatever it was it just totally borked up my PC. Could not login. Safe mode will login and all /home dir and files are still there. Am now updating this from a Win box. Should have known better to leave things alone, even when an app is broke.

[Mercyful]

I've been having a related problem with PulseAudio and QuakeLive, Once I start TeamSpeak 3 - Or I'm just playing Quakelive for so many minutes the whole system is in the gutter with Audio and FPS..

If i kill PulseAudio, then restart both apps, everything works perfect, but Kmix no longer shows any options or volume slider,, which i can live without.. but still seems like a troubling issue, took me all night to figure out and kill pulseaudio and see what everyone else was finding on this problem too.

It seems to be an issue in Ubuntu as well.

Never had problems with Gentoo for the past 8 years and just running ALSA straight, so it seems to be a PulseAudio Issue going on here as well.

----
Full Install from Latest 5.1 K Live DVD x86
(But Running AMD 64 X2 4800 CPU / Nforce4 Mb)
Update to Date on All Packages as of Date.
SBLive XGamer Card.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Mercyful, what do you get when you enter the following command as root user in a Konsole/Terminal window?:

Code: Select all

cat /var/log/messages | grep alsa

Also, what is your audio harware, precisely?:

Code: Select all

lscpi
lsmod

As you can see from the post Re: alsa not working, not all audio hardware works with the combination of latest version of the in-kernel ALSA driver and PulseAudio, at least not under x86 Linux.

[tekwyzrd]

For some time now I have been dealing with the sound problems the same as everyone else. There wasn't much I could add to what others have said so I just patiently watched for progress. Just a few minutes ago I quit kmix and installed the newly available update to. After starting kmix I checked the available controls and found my dtv tuner was the device displayed. I set the master channel to the soundblaster master channel and kmix is once again displaying the controls for the soundblaster rather than the single audio control that was there prior to the update. After a reboot it all seems to be working properly.

[Richlion]

Pulseaudio is still one big crap!

After using SL5.2 and KDE for the past month I came to a point when nothing works with Pulseaudio.
Only when I go to System Settings and disable Pulseaudio and use my HDA Nvidia (ALC887 Analog) device I can
have Amarok playing and other things working. However Skype is not working because it still thinks
I have Pulseaudio, so Skype is screwed up.
I've seen numerous posts on how to fix the problem, some people say - remove Pulseaudio.
So I go to Sulfur and click - "remove" or "purge" and it comes asking me to remove 50 other packages including Amule.
The threads with suggestions how to fix Pulseaudio are like 20 pages long.

Finally this has worked:

Code: Select all

mv /usr/bin/pulseaudio /usr/bin/pulsesucks

I've set all my audio to Nvidia. Skype now can see my sound card. Both sound and microphone work.
Kmix works, at the same time I can use Amarok and watch streaming news in the web browser.

Also attached my Kmix settings.

[Fitzcarraldo]

So if my sound system is working in terms of basics (applications don't block each other), but once in a while I start an application - Amarok, VLC, Kaffeine and the sound system produces screechy/scratchy noises and I have to restart an application - how do we fix this?

^I've just read the following in the excellent post "Multiple Sound Solution (ALSA w Pulseaudio)" over in the Ubuntu Forums:

Scratchy, glitchy sound
If you have an HDA-Intel device try turning up the PCM slider in the volume control. If PCM is set to 0 it makes the sound scratchy for some of those devices.

Otherwise if your sound is scratchy or stuttering you can edit these lines in the file /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to look like this

Code: Select all

default-fragments = 5
default-fragment-size =25

There are also some sound cards/chips that can only be fixed with an ALSA upgrade so you may want to consider that if this does not work for you.

Seems that some tuning of PulseAudio may help (if it's not an ALSA problem, that is).