Pulseaudio Fedora 8 Howto

[idiosync]

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First we need to check your soundcard is active:

cat /proc/asound/cards

NOTE: should see something like this

0 [S16 ]: SB16 - Sound Blaster 16
Sound Blaster 16 at 0x220, irq 5, dma 1&5


system-->administration-->souncard_detection or in terminal su to root and type system-config-soundcard

NOTE: My soundcard would not load the drivers to find your driver name you must use the alsa matrix
at http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main click your brand find your chipset name.
for example mine is creative go through the matrix and find it says as under chipset sb16.

gedit /etc/modprobe.conf (and add the following if it is not already there note this is specific to my soundcard only.)

alias snd-card-0 snd-sb16
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-sb16 index=0

so you would replace snd-sb16 with your alsa matrix identity so instead of snd-sb16 you would have snd-XXXX.

NOTE: Hopefully fedora does all the work and the cat /proc/asound/cards produces a configured soundcard for you.
Just make sure it does if you had to use reload-drivers in system-config-soundcard everytime you rebooted then just put this

gedit /etc/rc.local

(put in the line) /sbin/modprobe snd-xxxx i.e /sbin/modprobe snd-sb16

i tried using fancy stuff in /etc/modprobe.conf like install { snd-sb16 /sbin/modprobe --first-time --ignore-install snd-sb16 }
but i could not get it too load so i just used /etc/rc.local worked straight off the bat.

NOTE: Okay your sound card correctly loaded still not sure
in the terminal: su to root and type lsmod | grep snd
should see something like this if not your sound module is still not loaded REBOOT !! and then recheck it all.

snd_sb16 17101 3
snd_opl3_lib 11713 1 snd_sb16
snd_hwdep 10309 1 snd_opl3_lib
snd_sb16_dsp 11457 1 snd_sb16
snd_sb_common 17857 2 snd_sb16,snd_sb16_dsp
snd_mpu401_uart 10177 1 snd_sb16
snd_rawmidi 21185 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_dummy 6725 0
snd_seq_oss 29889 0
snd_seq_midi_event 9793 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 44849 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 10061 5 snd_opl3_lib,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss ,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 37569 0
snd_mixer_oss 16705 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 63685 4 snd_sb16,snd_sb16_dsp,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 20549 4 snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 43461 18 snd_sb16,snd_opl3_lib,snd_hwdep,snd_sb16_dsp,snd_s b_common,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,s nd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,sn d_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9633 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 11337 1 snd_pcm



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If you have more than one soundcard you might have too look at blacklisting one of them but this is out of scope for this doc.

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Second:

NOTE: We have to check that all required binaries are installed.

as root (su) in terminal

yum -y install pulseaudio-libs-glib2 pulseaudio-module-gconf pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf pulseaudio-libs pulseaudio-core-libs pulseaudio-esound-compat pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-module-zeroconf pulseaudio pulseaudio-utils

Next
yum -y install pavumeter paman padevchooser paprefs

To check all is installed

rpm -qa pulse*

pulseaudio-libs-glib2-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-libs-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-core-libs-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.7-0.17.svn20071017.fc8


For pavumeter,paman ,padevchooser ,paprefs

Go to Applications-->sound and video (you should see)

padevchooser = Pulseaudio Device Chooser
paman = Pulseaudio Manager
pavumeter = Pulseaudio volume meter
paprefs = Pulseaudio Preferences

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as root (su) in terminal

cp /etc/pulse/default.pa /etc/pulse/default.bakup #<<--- just incase

gedit /etc/pulse/default.pa

control+A then delete #<<--- delete the contents of the file not the file itself.

select all the text below and paste it in the blank open file /etc/pulse/default.pa

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/pulseaudio -nF

#
# This file is part of pulseaudio.
#
# pulseaudio is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# pulseaudio is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
# along with pulseaudio; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
# Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.


# Load audio drivers statically

#load-module module-alsa-sink sink device=dmix
#load-module module-alsa-source device=plughw:1,0
#load-module module-oss device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input
#load-module module-oss-mmap device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input
load-module module-null-sink
#load-module module-pipe-sink

# Load audio drivers automatically on access

# ALSA
add-autoload-sink output module-alsa-sink sink_name=output device=dmix
add-autoload-source input module-alsa-source source_name=input

# OSS
add-autoload-sink output module-oss device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input
add-autoload-source input module-oss device="/dev/dsp" source_name=input sink_name=output

#add-autoload-sink output module-oss-mmap device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input
#add-autoload-source input module-oss-mmap device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input

# Load several protocols
load-module module-esound-protocol-unix
#load-module module-esound-protocol-tcp
load-module module-native-protocol-unix
#load-module module-simple-protocol-tcp
#load-module module-cli-protocol-unix

# Load the CLI module
load-module module-cli

# Make some devices default
set-default-sink output
set-default-source input

.nofail

# Load something to the sample cache
load-sample x11-bell /usr/share/sounds/generic.wav
#load-sample-dir-lazy /usr/share/sounds/*.wav

# Load X11 bell module
load-module module-x11-bell sample=x11-bell sink=output

# Publish connection data in the X11 root window
load-module module-x11-publish

#load-module module-pipe-source
#load-module module-pipe-sink

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

then click save and close the file /etc/pulse/default.pa

[idiosync]

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as root (su) in terminal

gedit /etc/pulse/client.conf #<<<------------- check that autospawn is commented out...

example: ; autospawn = 0 #<<<------------- note the ; at the beginning of the line.

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as root (su) in terminal

gedit /etc/asound.conf #<<<------------ this is a global file for sound for all users including root on your pc

or

gedit /home/username/.asoundrc #<<<----------- this is set just for the user also if your running as root you will also have to do:
chown username.username /home/username/.asoundrc , i.e chown fred.fred /home/fred/.asoundrc......

NOTE: I used /etc/asound.conf

NOTE: copy and paste the below either to an empty /home/username/.asoundrc or /etc/asound.conf

NOTE: if using /etc/asound.conf for global directive do not use system-config-sound as this will overwrite this file.....
(Your soundcard must be loading automatically so you do not need to use system-condfig-soundcard, if not see beginning of post.)

NOTE: the hw:0,0 and type hw 0 is for single soundcard configuration if your not sure type
cat /proc/asound/cards (as root) mine does this
[fred@localhost ~]$ cat /proc/asound/cards

0 [S16 ]: SB16 - Sound Blaster 16
Sound Blaster 16 at 0x220, irq 5, dma 1&5

see the 0 is the cards configuration number.


#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pcm.dmixed {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:0,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 8192
#format "S32_LE"
#periods 128
rate 44100
}
}

pcm.dsp0 {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixed"
}

# This following device can fool some applications into using pulseaudio
pcm.dsp1 {
type plug
slave.pcm "pulse"
}

ctl.mixer0 {
type hw
card 0
}

# Part II directly from Pulseaudio Wiki

pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}

ctl.pulse {
type pulse
}

# Optional, set defaults

pcm.!default {
type pulse
}

ctl.!default {
type pulse
}

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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as root (su) in terminal

gedit /etc/security/console.perms.d/50-default.perms

add the text below to the file:

<sound>=/dev/dsp* /dev/snd/*

<console> 0666 <sound> 0600 root

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# EXAMPLE ONLY look for the <<<---------- here
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# device classes -- these are shell-style globs
<pilot>=/dev/pilot
<scanner>=/dev/scanner* /dev/usb/scanner*
<rio500>=/dev/usb/rio500
<fb>=/dev/fb /dev/fb[0-9]* \
/dev/fb/*
<kbd>=/dev/kbd
<joystick>=/dev/js[0-9]*
<gpm>=/dev/gpmctl
<dri>=/dev/nvidia* /dev/3dfx* /dev/dri/card*
<mainboard>=/dev/apm_bios
<pmu>=/dev/pmu
<bluetooth>=/dev/rfcomm*
<irda>=/dev/ircomm*
<dvb>=/dev/dvb/adapter*/*
<sound>=/dev/dsp* /dev/snd/* #<<<-------------------here

# permission definitions
<console> 0666 <sound> 0600 root #<<<--------------------here
<console> 0600 <pilot> 0660 root.uucp
<console> 0660 <scanner> 0660 root.lp
<console> 0600 <fb> 0600 root
<console> 0600 <kbd> 0600 root

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Reboot the pc..........

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Go to system-->>preferences-->>hardware-->>sound

Under Devices Tab

sound events = pulseaudio server
music movies = pulseaudio server
audio conferencing = pulseaudio server
default mixer tracks = sound blaster16 alsa mixer <<---I just left this as is not too sure about all the configs

Under Sounds

enables software sound mixing esd
play system sounds

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Go to Applications-->sound and video-->Pulseaudio Device Chooser and select

you should see pulseaudio applet at top right corner right click it go to 'preferences' select 'start applet on session login' then close.


Next go to manager on the pulse audio applet and you should see :

NOTE: The below is pulseaudio running as user fred.

Servername : pulseaudio
Server Version: 0.9.7
Default sample type: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Hostname: localhost.localdomain
Username: fred
Default sink: output
Default Source: input

NOTE: The below is pulseaudio failing to start.

Servername : n/a
Server Version: n/a
Default sample type: n/a
Hostname: n/a
Username: n/a
Default sink: n/a
Default Source: n/a


If pulseaudio is failing too start go to the terminal

a: Check too see root user is running su too root and type:

pulseaudio -vv

FAILED--->>> [root@localhost fred]# pulseaudio -vv
W: main.c: This program is not intended to be run as root (unless --system is specified).
E: pid.c: Daemon already running.
E: main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.

TRY THIS-->> [root@localhost fred]# pulseaudio --kill
[root@localhost fred]# pulseaudio -vv


b: Check too see that regular user x is working open a terminal and type:

pulseaudio -vv

FAILED--->>> [fred@localhost ~]$ pulseaudio -vv
E: main.c: Failed to create '/tmp/pulse-fred': Operation not permitted

TRY THIS-->> su to root then type: chown -R username.username /tmp/pulse-username
i.e [root@localhost fred]#chown -R fred.fred /tmp/pulse-fred then exit and type
[fred@localhost ~]$ pulseaudio -vv

SUCCESS-->>> c: Both should return this value

[fred@localhost ~]$ pulseaudio -vv
I: main.c: Page size is 4096 bytes
I: main.c: Fresh high-resolution timers available! Bon appetit!
I: sink.c: Created sink 0 "null" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
I: source.c: Created source 0 "null.monitor" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
D: module-null-sink.c: Thread starting up
D: rtpoll.c: Acquired POSIX realtime signal SIGRTMIN+30
I: module.c: Loaded "module-null-sink" (index: #0; argument: "").
I: module.c: Loaded "module-esound-protocol-unix" (index: #1; argument: "").
I: protocol-native.c: loading cookie from disk.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-native-protocol-unix" (index: #2; argument: "").
I: client.c: Created 0 "STDIN/STDOUT client"
I: module.c: Loaded "module-cli" (index: #3; argument: "").
D: sound-file.c: POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL succeeded.
D: memblock.c: Memory block too large for pool: 20192 > 16376
D: core-scache.c: Created sample "x11-bell" (#0), 20192 bytes with sample spec s16le 1ch 44100Hz
I: module.c: Loaded "module-x11-bell" (index: #4; argument: "sample=x11-bell sink=output").
D: module-x11-publish.c: using already loaded auth cookie.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-x11-publish" (index: #5; argument: "").
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Successfully enabled mmap() mode.
ALSA lib control.c:909snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL dmix
W: alsa-util.c: Unable to attach to mixer dmix: No such file or directory
I: sink.c: Created sink 1 "output" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
I: source.c: Created source 1 "output.monitor" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Using 4 fragments of size 4096 bytes.
D: module-alsa-sink.c: Thread starting up
D: rtpoll.c: Acquired POSIX realtime signal SIGRTMIN+29
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Starting playback.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-alsa-sink" (index: #6; argument: "sink_name=output device=dmix").
I: main.c: Daemon startup complete.
Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information.
>>>

Press control+c to exit................

now reboot the computer!!!

you should now be able to open pulseaudio manager and see something like this.................

Servername : pulseaudio
Server Version: 0.9.7
Default sample type: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Hostname: localhost.localdomain
Username: fred
Default sink: output
Default Source: input


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If all else fails reboot the computer...! sometimes it just needed to reconfigure itself.

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References:

http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=171083
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...ght=pulseaudio
http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/rhsound.html
http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/SystemWideInstance
http://gentoo-wiki.com/PulseAudio
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=12497

[sboot]

I had problems with PulseAudio when upgrading from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8 and banged my head up the wall for almost a week and then I found this article. I followed the steps exactly and now the magic of sound has re-entered my life. Thanks so much and good work idiosync!

[tkoco]

Quick question: What if I do not want PulseAudio running? Can I just "yum erase" it?

[Jongi]

Quick question: What if I do not want PulseAudio running? Can I just "yum erase" it?

yep how do i go about disabling it it? If not possible to disable then removing it?

[Jongi]

yep how do i go about disabling it it? If not possible to disable then removing it?

Found this on another site

yum remove alsa-plugins-pulseaudio
(it took kde-settings-pulseaudio with it).

I also found for SDL based games you need to unset the
SDL_AUDIODRIVER environment variable (or remove the
/etc/profile.d/SDL_pulseaudio_hack.* files).

So far, those two things have done it for me.

[synic]

I appear to be having conflict between Pulseaudio and Xine / Kaffeine.

I was running xine, everything groovy; changed the setting / sound engine thingo to Pulseaudio and everything went crazy and crashed. I duplicated it by removing pulse and using ALSA (poor sound quality and heavy distorted base) but Xine would play music on an NTFS partition. I reinstalled Pulseaudio, change the sound engine selection in Xine and everything goes crazy again.

Any suggestions? want more info. There does appear to be conflicts reported if you google it.

[Jongi]

I tried to remove the files I installed above (in the howto). Now it wants to remove packages that were on my system before that install

[root:~#] smart remove pulseaudio-libs-glib2 pulseaudio-module-gconf pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf pulseaudio-libs pulseaudio-core-libs pulseaudio-esound-compat pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-module-zeroconf pulseaudio pulseaudio-utils
Loading cache...
Updating cache...                                             ####################################################################################### [100%]

Computing transaction...

Removing packages (35):
  akode-pulseaudio-2.0.2-4.fc8@x86_64                                          pulseaudio-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                                
  devede-3.6-1.lvn8@noarch                                                     pulseaudio-core-libs-0.9.8-5.fc8@i386                                        
  gnome-mplayer-0.6.0-1.lvn8@x86_64                                            pulseaudio-core-libs-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                      
  gstreamer-plugins-pulse-0.9.5-0.4.svn20070924.fc8@x86_64                     pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                  
  java-vlc-0.8.6e-1.lvn8@x86_64                                                pulseaudio-libs-0.9.8-5.fc8@i386                                             
  k9copy-1.2.2-1.lvn8@x86_64                                                   pulseaudio-libs-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                           
  libflashsupport-000-0.1.svn20070904@i386                                     pulseaudio-libs-glib2-0.9.8-5.fc8@i386                                       
  libflashsupport-000-0.1.svn20070904@x86_64                                   pulseaudio-libs-glib2-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                     
  mencoder-1.0-0.90.rc2.lvn8@x86_64                                            pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf-0.9.8-5.fc8@i386                                    
  mplayer-1.0-0.90.rc2.lvn8@x86_64                                             pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                  
  mplayer-gui-1.0-0.90.rc2.lvn8@x86_64                                         pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                   
  mplayerplug-in-3.45-2.lvn8@i386                                              pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                     
  mplayerplug-in-3.45-2.lvn8@x86_64                                            pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                
  padevchooser-0.9.4-0.3.svn20070925.fc8@x86_64                                pulseaudio-utils-0.9.8-5.fc8@x86_64                                          
  paman-0.9.4-0.1.svn20070816.fc8@x86_64                                       vlc-0.8.6e-1.lvn8@x86_64                                                     
  paprefs-0.9.6-0.2.svn20070925.fc8@x86_64                                     vlc-core-0.8.6e-1.lvn8@x86_64                                                
  pavucontrol-0.9.5-0.4.svn20070925.fc8@x86_64                                 xine-lib-extras-1.1.11-1.fc8@x86_64                                          
  pavumeter-0.9.3-0.2.svn20070925.fc8@x86_64

yum also wanted to remove the same packages.

[maarvarq]

I've also been beating my head against this problem for some time, and I now get sound without having to be logged on as root (or terminal as su). Only thing is even after two reboots, I still don't get PulseAudio as an option for

system-->>preferences-->>hardware-->>sound
Under Devices Tab

For want of better I've set these to OSS - Open Sound System instead.

Thanks,
Maarvarq

[matrs]

I have a secondary problem... all pulseaudio GUI(manager, device chooser, volume control, etc) haven't icons

I use fedora 8 and KDE.

[irbadguyzs]

ello, thank you and it nice and easy to follow, but as right now my sound didnt come out, before this it work but only with alsa server, hopefully anyone here could help

thank you in advance