Bug#737083: pulseaudio: ALSA cannot be used directly when pulseaudio is installed

2014-01-29 Thread G.raud
package pulseaudio
retitle 737083 pulseaudio: let ALSA alone be still easy to use by non 
administrators 
severity 737083 normal
thanks

On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 03:42:09AM +0100, G.raud wrote:
> Note that the function loaded by the afore-mentioned file is named
> 'conf_load_if_running', which suggests that it should load the files
> that set pulse as the default ouput device only if pulseaudio is already
> running, but in fact it starts pulseaudio itself.

Setting 'autospawn = no' in $HOME/.pulse/client.conf (or
/etc/pulse/client.conf) changes the behaviour of the ALSA hook to not
autostart pulseaudio.  This should be the default as it allows one to
still use ALSA as before when pulseaudio has not been started and
because most users requiring pulseaudio either know how to start it or
will have it started by an X session or GNOME.

There should still be a way to clear the config of
'/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d/pulse.conf' by a user without
administrative privileges, for those who know that they do not want to run
pulseaudio and would not want to find themselves using it without
knowing.

> PS. Please add to README.Debian an explanation of how to do disable
> pulseaudio: how to disbale the autostart of the X session
> (both system-wide and per user) and how to disable the automatic
> switching of ALSA to pulseaudio.

Whether you change the default config of client.conf or not, you should
document 'autospawn = no' too.


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Bug#737083: pulseaudio: ALSA cannot be used directly when pulseaudio is installed

2014-01-29 Thread G.raud
Package: pulseaudio
Version: 2.0-6.1
Severity: important

When pulseaudio is installed, the file
'/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d/pulse.conf' is loaded and it seems that the
result is that pulseaudio is automatically started (when it is not
already running) whenever ALSA is used.  Thus if a user explicitly
requested an ALSA device outputting to a hardware card (other than
pulse), this device cannot be opened anymore because the hardware device
is already opened by pulseaudio.  The ALSA device null still works but
pulseaudio is started nonetheless!

To my knowledge, the only way to make ALSA usable again, is to put the
file '/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d/pulse.conf' aside, which requires
administrative privileges.  This is unacceptable since a normal user
should still have the option not to use pulseaudio.  I would suggest
that you devise a way to clear the config of 'pulse.conf' from a user
'.asoundrc' or disable the file 'pulse.conf' by default or maybe ask
about it in debconf.

Note that the function loaded by the afore-mentioned file is named
'conf_load_if_running', which suggests that it should load the files
that set pulse as the default ouput device only if pulseaudio is already
running, but in fact it starts pulseaudio itself.

PS. Please add to README.Debian an explanation of how to do disable
pulseaudio: how to disbale the autostart of the X session
(both system-wide and per user) and how to disable the automatic
switching of ALSA to pulseaudio.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.3
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (800, 'stable'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (300, 'testing'), (99, 
'unstable'), (10, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages pulseaudio depends on:
ii  adduser   3.113+nmu3
ii  consolekit0.4.5-3.1
ii  libasound21.0.25-4
ii  libasound2-plugins1.0.25-2
ii  libc6 2.13-38
ii  libcap2   1:2.22-1.2
ii  libdbus-1-3   1.6.8-1+deb7u1
ii  libfftw3-33.3.2-3.1
ii  libgcc1   1:4.7.2-5
ii  libice6   2:1.0.8-2
ii  libltdl7  2.4.2-1.1
ii  liborc-0.4-0  1:0.4.16-2
ii  libpulse0 2.0-6.1
ii  libsamplerate00.1.8-5
ii  libsm62:1.2.1-2
ii  libsndfile1   1.0.25-5
ii  libspeexdsp1  1.2~rc1-7
ii  libstdc++64.7.2-5
ii  libsystemd-daemon044-11+deb7u4
ii  libsystemd-login0 44-11+deb7u4
ii  libtdb1   1.2.10-2
ii  libudev0  175-7.2
ii  libwebrtc-audio-processing-0  0.1-2
ii  libx11-6  2:1.5.0-1+deb7u1
ii  libx11-xcb1   2:1.5.0-1+deb7u1
ii  libxcb1   1.8.1-2+deb7u1
ii  libxtst6  2:1.2.1-1+deb7u1
ii  lsb-base  4.1+Debian8+deb7u1
ii  udev  175-7.2

Versions of packages pulseaudio recommends:
ii  gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio  0.10.31-3+nmu1
pn  pulseaudio-module-x11 
pn  rtkit 

Versions of packages pulseaudio suggests:
ii  paman 0.9.4-1
ii  paprefs   0.9.10-1
ii  pavucontrol   1.0-1
ii  pavumeter 0.9.3-4
ii  pulseaudio-utils  2.0-6.1

-- no debconf information


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