tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post6001703431671753025..comments2023-03-25T08:30:26.602-04:00Comments on A Moment of Zen: PulseAudio: A Solution In Search of a ProblemJeffrey Stedfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271561115384429651noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-44140765217285698342009-05-26T10:37:29.825-04:002009-05-26T10:37:29.825-04:00PulseAudio also killed my sound. My sound did, in...PulseAudio also killed my sound. My sound did, indeed, work wonderfully for the last couple of years before my distro forced it on me.<br /><br />Maybe it's distro specific. I don't care. %99 of most users don't care. If the PulseAudio dev doesn't want the grief of people slamming his/her work, I'm not sure writing nasty letters to everyone that complains is an efficient solution.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-74615328010519757722009-05-04T14:29:00.000-04:002009-05-04T14:29:00.000-04:00Pulse audio does indeed suck.
I do have sympathy ...Pulse audio does indeed suck.<br /><br />I do have sympathy for the developers (as that is also my profession) however I don't think it's ready to be a default install on any distro. No offence intended but when your software breaks an otherwise functional stack you need to take a look at what you are doing.<br /><br />Misconfiguration is a pathetic excuse for a poor choice of default behaviour.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-55067565778387983622009-04-23T21:05:00.000-04:002009-04-23T21:05:00.000-04:00i'm fully convinced pulseaudio exists because linu...i'm fully convinced pulseaudio exists because linux was in danger of becoming too popular. <br /><br />nothing like "why the hell doesn't my fucking audio work??" to sour people on the whole experience.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-68163035256530191262009-04-16T11:24:00.000-04:002009-04-16T11:24:00.000-04:00i just switched from ubuntu to debian because puls...i just switched from ubuntu to debian because pulseaudio killed all audio output. i'm much happier now and everything is faster. pulseaudio sucks.Jack Withttp://jackwit.ionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-62746789460560365672009-03-03T17:19:00.000-05:002009-03-03T17:19:00.000-05:00Ever since Fedora started shipping PulseAudio, sou...Ever since Fedora started shipping PulseAudio, sound on my laptop sucks. I can't listen to music without pauses and jumps all the time-- presumably because some other app is trying to play a 'beep' or make some 'cool' sound. I can't have a browser open if I want to make a skype call. Sound on Linux has just gone backwards like everything for the past 5 years. I'm going back to X and E16 screw GNOME, I'm sick and tired of its slow decent to become Windoze.scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04395883900866718343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-37716763299949362802009-01-21T19:08:00.000-05:002009-01-21T19:08:00.000-05:00I liked the part about pulseaudio being a clusterf...I liked the part about pulseaudio being a clusterfuck cuz I was just thinking the same thing when I googled it.<BR/>pulseaudio has been having issues on almost a dozen laptops I personally work with. It's a wonder I never had sound problems before..<BR/>So yea, your rant is in place.<BR/>I don't care about nifty features if it's not stable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-1900833373646789652009-01-15T10:53:00.000-05:002009-01-15T10:53:00.000-05:00Good ol' free speach, mate. Who cares if you offen...Good ol' free speach, mate. Who cares if you offended the developer? I'm <I>sorry</I>, but that's just... wrong. I feel you on some of the frustrations of PulseAudio, but I guess there are some features I really like about it.<BR/><BR/>~AnonymousAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-65723663171573116552008-12-28T19:12:00.000-05:002008-12-28T19:12:00.000-05:00I had problems with /dev in the good old times.The...I had problems with /dev in the good old times.<BR/>Then came OSS which didn't "work"<BR/>then came ALSA which still didn't "work"<BR/><BR/>So yes, I use 2 user accounts logged in at the same time. And the second account also wants to play his youtube videos and java game sounds.<BR/><BR/>It was a headache to make ALSA understand this. At some point it worked with an .asoundrc of 50 lines or more.<BR/><BR/>Comes ubuntu 8.04 to which I simply upgraded. A bit bumpy for the sound (hangs, no sound...) so I remove the aoss from firefox start. Even messier and removing my ALSA configuration didn't help.<BR/><BR/>Instead of removing pulseaudio, I hoped that if I can manage the second user to play it's sound via the pulseaudio socket, I will finally be in sound heaven.<BR/>Unfortunately Hardy seems to come with a half baked pulseaudio setup. Some googling yielded some packages to install. Starts to work half way. More googling and more packages to install (half of pulseaudio stuff in the repository is not installed?) and a config of alsa to use pulse. And more clicking around... (and working around a broken DEB package) and now it works.<BR/>So yeah... pulseaudio solves MY problem, but the problems on the way towards the solution are only solvable by linux gurus. Current ubuntu status: <B>not</B> ready for the desktop :-)<BR/><BR/>There are 100 pages on <A HREF="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789578" REL="nofollow">this pulseaudio thread</A> WOW!Gunstickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18139996334697127740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-8117935761364438192008-11-17T14:04:00.000-05:002008-11-17T14:04:00.000-05:00@ both anons:> Is the good intention automatica...@ both anons:<BR/><BR/>> Is the good intention automatically fixed all the bugs in their software?<BR/><BR/>No, but people producing software are not responsible if some other distro decides to take their alpha-quality release, package it, and make it the default on their distro.<BR/><BR/>PA claims to fix problems, yes, but it also admits that it's alpha. Look at the version number. It's not 1.0 yet. That means they haven't hit their roadmap goals, which usually include stability.<BR/><BR/>Placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the PA devs makes about as much sense as blaming company A, a developer of new networking hardware, for a major network failure at company B simply because company B replaced their backbone with new prototype models from company A.Chris Howiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15577698166201021773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-83446732964511847582008-11-16T22:39:00.000-05:002008-11-16T22:39:00.000-05:00@Chris:Sorry, in my many years of software develop...@Chris:<BR/><BR/>Sorry, in my many years of software development, the blame on developers is the most effective way to let them fix the bug.<BR/><BR/>And of course it is VALID to blame them because thing DOES NOT work with their BAD software now.(no matter how good it could be in the future).<BR/><BR/>Why in FOSS community, everything is getting so complicated?? Is the good intention automatically fixed all the bugs in their software?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-76069769434399257492008-11-16T22:32:00.000-05:002008-11-16T22:32:00.000-05:00"I am only defending Pulse insofar as people are c..."I am only defending Pulse insofar as people are claiming that this whole mess is Pulse's fault. "<BR/><BR/><BR/>Yes, it is PA's fault... This is<BR/>a valid answer, not false because PA claims to fix something which most people just do not want to give a damn about. What people see is now they have totally unusable audio playback.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-15918715185703904762008-10-07T20:07:00.000-04:002008-10-07T20:07:00.000-04:00Right on and sorry, didn't intend an ad hominem. ...Right on and sorry, didn't intend an ad hominem. My rant got carried away, but I wasn't aiming the thing at you. ;)<BR/><BR/>ATB-Zebedeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05905616805213807757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-36510300653872510712008-10-06T12:06:00.000-04:002008-10-06T12:06:00.000-04:00@Zebedee:I am only defending Pulse insofar as peop...@Zebedee:<BR/><BR/>I am only defending Pulse insofar as people are claiming that this whole mess is Pulse's fault. Maybe the devs pushed for Pulse to get accepted into distros, I don't know. But sticking blame on the developers is completely inappropriate, and is not going to convince them to fix bugs. It's (rightly) going to piss them off.<BR/><BR/>P.S. Ad hominem is tacky.Chris Howiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15577698166201021773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-85487462325797840992008-10-06T11:11:00.000-04:002008-10-06T11:11:00.000-04:00@ Chris HowieI don't feel you need to defend Pulse...@ Chris Howie<BR/><BR/>I don't feel you need to defend Pulse Audio dude, makes you look like a 'bot. I'm sure the developers (perhaps you're one of them?) are a great bunch of guys with fantastic motives.<BR/><BR/>But it doesn't make anyone "fail" to observe that something sucked. Our dissatisfaction comes from our negative experience with a less than ready package being shoved upon us. If I want individual volume for each application (I don't) I'd go get it. If I wanted to pump my sound across a network (I don't) I'd go get it. Nice features maybe, but we didn't ask for them and don't need them in our daily lives.<BR/><BR/>And seriously - despite several arcane nuances in the audio Dev world - the ONE thing that has been functioning fairly well on most computers for the last 10 years is Audio. It's really shocking when this fundamental piece of the computing experience fails.<BR/><BR/>So again, it's no problem that Pulse is Alpha/Beta - the problem is that it shipped in many excellent distributions before it was time. Placing fault is moot - it's just one more of those stupid things that further prevents guys like me from ever promoting Linux out to the end users we look after in the corporate world. <BR/><BR/>Also, your attitude that it's so easy to remove Pulse is bogus on the simple premise that NOBODY in the mainstream world of users gives a damn - they just want audio. They simply will NOT read how to fix it - they will yell at guys like me and then format and install XP. They will then spend the next decade saying Linux sucks because their speakers didn't work when they tried it.<BR/><BR/>And this leads into the general health of the Linux community mindset. We have a huge opportunity guys! Vista is FAIL, my users hate it. Oddly, most also hate Macs but are requesting them in droves (and we are buying them) because they're better than Vista on many levels that average users respond to in a positive way. Pre-downgraded XP is also popular but that's a dead end logistically.<BR/><BR/>So where is the Linux Distro that can step into this vacuum of missing end user satisfaction?<BR/><BR/>It DOESN'T EXIST. Why? Accidents like the premature release of Pulse Audio don't help build confidence amongst decision makers like me. This little boo-boo hurt the Distros much more than it hurt the Pulse project. These kinds of malfunctions are sadly quite common and are why Linux is FAIL for a vast majority of casual computer users.<BR/><BR/>So I must say as a bit of an outsider to the Dev community: This cavalier attitude in the Linux world needs to be checked and balanced. Everyone needs to own up and work together better to prevent this crap from hitting end users. Sure the Distros could have said "No, Pulse isn't ready" but Pulse could have also said "No, WE aren't ready."<BR/><BR/>To conclude - everyone would be well served to raise their standards and stop defending software that malfunctions. In the long run defending accidents helps nobody. Fix the stuff and convert your critics into advocates by earning it. <BR/><BR/>Believe me, I'd much rather be singing the praises of Pulse Audio than writing online to warn others. I have much better ways of spending my time.Zebedeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05905616805213807757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-33464847631544990872008-10-05T10:19:00.000-04:002008-10-05T10:19:00.000-04:00I love how the pulse groupies say "It works perfec...I love how the pulse groupies say "It works perfect in my distro" but never say what distro that is. hmmm....<BR/><BR/>Pulse is broken in;<BR/>Fedora<BR/>Ubuntu<BR/>Suse<BR/>Mandriva<BR/>Just to name a few. <BR/><BR/>I have them all in virtuals, all work with ALSA and JACK, all segfault with pulse.<BR/><BR/>Is it totally broken? No.<BR/>Is it more usefull than ALSA and JACK?<BR/>YGTBK. It never will be.<BR/>Is it usable for most in it's present state? No, the recommendation from all distros above is to remove pulse to solve audio problems.<BR/><BR/>Every feature listed as useful for pulse can be solved better by other existing software.<BR/><BR/>Network audio support should not be installed on the masses of machines that have sound cards. <BR/>Why not install CNC software on all distros? Gee, there's a few people that need that feature.<BR/><BR/>Pulse is trying to solve a problem (mutlistream, multivolume) by adding a broken, high latency layer instead of fixing what's already there. <BR/><BR/>I have nothing against the programmers. They are free to do as they wish, but please quit marketing broken software to distros. <BR/><BR/>If half the effort of pulse went into solving asound.rc configuration and jack configuration we'd be light years ahead of where we are now. Which is broken.<BR/><BR/>So far because of pushing KDE4 and Pulse, this years releases are and will be the buggiest in years.<BR/>Fedora 10<BR/>Suse 11<BR/>Mandriva 2009Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-37214786360595693962008-09-24T17:08:00.000-04:002008-09-24T17:08:00.000-04:00It seems people are having problems on Fedora as w...It seems people are having problems on Fedora as well:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-September/msg00982.html" REL="nofollow">https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-September/msg00982.html</A><BR/><BR/>so you are not aloneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-9847509488614000112008-08-28T11:08:00.000-04:002008-08-28T11:08:00.000-04:00@Anonymous:Everything sucks before it is stable. ...@Anonymous:<BR/><BR/>Everything sucks before it is stable. You're certainly not going to encourage people to make their software better by claiming that an alpha/beta release sucks.<BR/><BR/>Do you have any unfinished projects that I can troll too?Chris Howiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15577698166201021773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-75528892308782526222008-08-27T22:18:00.000-04:002008-08-27T22:18:00.000-04:00You shouldn't have backed off your original post.....You shouldn't have backed off your original post... PulseAudio sucks. That's as plain as I can put it. It breaks applications that worked under Alsa, and therefore it is broken. In my (previous) distro of choice (Ubuntu), it was added as the default sound option and the forums were flooded by people who couldn't even play a cd any more, let alone do any kind of audio editing or multimedia multitasking. But what more can you expect from people that thought it was OK to ship a beta web browser with a broken implementation of flash. As for me, I'm either going back to Solaris or trying FreeBSD - I need to work on a computer and I need an OS maintained by engineers, not enthusiasts. Engineers never would have shipped PulseAudio.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-49192326340206664712008-08-09T14:49:00.000-04:002008-08-09T14:49:00.000-04:00I'm running Mandriva 2008.1. PulseAudio just doesn...I'm running Mandriva 2008.1. PulseAudio just doesn't work right. If I try to run nearly any kind of media player, xine, mplayer, kaffeine, amarok, things stop working before long. They won't work again until I reboot. <BR/><BR/>Stuff used to work with alsa it doesn't with pulse. Lots of distros seem to have problems, so it's hard to see blaming one brain-dead distro. It's fine to say an application is broken if it hangs a pulse connection. If I completely kill the application and new applications still can't connect to pulse, that's a pulse problem. Applications, even broken ones, shouldn't be able to make operating system level stuff unusable by other applications, especially not permanently until reboot.<BR/><BR/>Whether it's broken pulse, broken alsa compatibility interface, broken apps, or broken distros doesn't really matter,<BR/>Message is it's broken. Stay away. I don't really care why. Call me back when it works.<BR/><BR/>Mandriva's drak tools were broken until just a day or so ago, so it wasn't even easy to turn pulse off. At least that is fixed now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-59345835627763914212008-07-19T10:28:00.000-04:002008-07-19T10:28:00.000-04:00I suggest you try with other distribution like Man...I suggest you try with other distribution like Mandriva, I don't suffer most of this problems with it<BR/><BR/>Good luckAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-49707269420698623822008-07-08T17:25:00.000-04:002008-07-08T17:25:00.000-04:00I have to agree with ZeBeDee - desktop distros sho...I have to agree with ZeBeDee - desktop distros should have waited for PA to become a bit more solid before dumping it on their users.<BR/><BR/>The other night I was over at the VMWare offices to watch the fireworks and the developers there commented that they too (running Fedora) had problems with PA and so just removed it. As with me, they never had any audio problems using ALSA and so wondered what the whole point of moving to PA was.<BR/><BR/>In a lot of people's minds, PA is an epic fail.<BR/><BR/>Maybe in a few years, PA will be the wonderful "solves all audio problems" solution, but for now it is clearly not.Jeffrey Stedfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12271561115384429651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-53215147966752540932008-07-08T16:35:00.000-04:002008-07-08T16:35:00.000-04:00@Zebedee:Your comment is fail. OSS is not shipped...@Zebedee:<BR/><BR/>Your comment is fail. OSS is not shipped, distributions package it when they feel like it. As I have said before, gripe to them. Kthxbye.Chris Howiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15577698166201021773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-70018552122209694552008-07-08T16:25:00.000-04:002008-07-08T16:25:00.000-04:00To all you Pulse Audio fetishists - it doesn't mat...To all you Pulse Audio fetishists - it doesn't matter how clever and great something is if it is sent out BROKEN. Don't distribute until ripe, robust and rockin' cool - and instead of complaints you will get praise.<BR/><BR/>So instead of claiming that the exploding Pinto automobiles are the fault of the drivers - RECALL the dud and re-ship it when the bugs are eliminated. <BR/><BR/>What is this - 1995? Do we really need bulls**t problems with applications not being able to make noise??? Please. I really didn't need to lose several hours of my life screwing with sound drivers - ripping PulseAudio out by the nuts and then trouble shooting the resulting mess in my OS.<BR/><BR/>This fiasco has hurt the Pulse Audio effort, because if given the choice now I will avoid it like the plague just to be on the safe side.<BR/><BR/>Ta ta-Zebedeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05905616805213807757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-89885286285001229082008-06-30T06:51:00.000-04:002008-06-30T06:51:00.000-04:00Seems to me this is a rehash of what's always been...Seems to me this is a rehash of what's always been wrong with Linux audio. OSS sucked because only one program had access to audio, ESD sucked because it had latency, ALSA sucked because it works differently on different devices, and now Pulseaudio sucks because its different to what was done before.<BR/><BR/>Or in other words, the audio APIs under Linux have always been substandard and programs can't cope with new uses or new hardware because of this. Just try and use Bluetooth headsets, for example.<BR/><BR/>In my mind, Pulseaudio is the only framework around which might actually be able to solve the problem (for now), and get Linux to the level where computers should be (and where Mac and Windows for the most part have been for years). Yes, it's painful now, because it requires something new, and because most programs can't yet deal with it correctly. It's a transition that has to be done to go forward, though, and having been working with audio APIs as a general application developer (not an audio specialist) for, what, 15-20 years now, I can't see how it could be done smoother than this -- and that's not because of PA, but because of the APIs that preceded it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203063759820106893.post-12822859717301075992008-06-28T00:49:00.000-04:002008-06-28T00:49:00.000-04:00Audio playback on a remote host is not a solution ...Audio playback on a remote host is not a solution without a problem.<BR/><BR/>I used to look for a long time for a solution like that when I wanted to be able to control the music going out through my good speakers on my desktop from the comfort of my bed with my laptop (which had horrible speakers).<BR/><BR/>And I remember being quite disappointed that I wasn't able to find a simple solution. I thought that of all places I'd be able to on Linux, home of the network transparent desktop.<BR/><BR/>(Off-topic: I hate how Blogger.com penalize you with CAPTCHA checks each time you preview your comment)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com