6 ms·

PulseAudio still requires you to be a hacker to get sound over network - something it promised to do well, but oh doesnt.

by antocv 12y ago

clarry 12y ago
If you aren't blessed with luck, one might say that PulseAudio still requires you to be a hacker to get sound. Over and over again. Every time you think it's fixed for good, it'll prove you wrong.
- fragmede 12y ago
  On the large majority of laptops I've installed Ubuntu on recently, sound has just worked out of the box, so here's to hoping my lucky streak continues!
  - secstate 12y ago
    Sure, sound works fine for a bit, but wait until you want to plug a USB headset in. First time, great. Second time, fail. Log out, log back in, headset works again. Lame!
  - serf 12y ago
    It's all about having a common hardware profile. Add any external sound hardware, use a optical or SPDIF port instead, add some speakers. It'll break sooner-or-later, and in my own experiences it tends to be whenever my personal computer gets away from the 'typical' desktop profile.
  - antocv 12y ago
    Try to plug in headset and have the sound out of it, plug it out and have the sound on the laptop speakers, without going all hacker on it, or for example just try to use your bluetooth headset. Yeah. Nope.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  My current regular experience is: Pulse audio + reconnecting bluetooth speaker after it powers off = bad day
- anon4 12y ago
  Or if you're even less lucky, PulseAudio still requires you to mute the "system sounds" thing because once skype starts, you get persistent noise out of the audio jack, after which you try to email Lennart following the guide on his page, only to receive no reply.
dheera 12y ago
+1 I tried for an hour to get PulseAudio to work with Bluetooth and A2DP and use my phone as a sound source. Decided I wasn't going to waste time on this. Gave up and ended up buying an external A2DP box off Amazon and plugged it into my Line In port.
- pyre 12y ago
  Years ago it didn't take me that long to get PulseAudio setup to play from my HTPC through my laptop (so that I could use the headphone jack on the laptop). That said, it wasn't plug-and-play. I didn't use it too often because there were too many moving parts every time I wanted to get it setup (i.e. setup the laptop to receive audio, then get the HTPC to connect to the laptop and send audio... then disable it all to get things back to normal afterwards). What would have been preferable would be for the HTPC to advertise itself as a audio source, and the laptop to be able to list sources, and let the use select one.
- pjmlp 12y ago
  It is this little things that made me move away from GNU/Linux as main laptop OS. The OS is great when it works, but then those little things are always around the corner, turning weekend actions into weeks.
  - antocv 12y ago
    Indeed. But it is still my main OS everywhere, I refuse to bow to proprietary overlords. Despite these downsides.
    - pjmlp 12y ago
      I started working when proprietary overlords was the only option available, so it doesn't matter me that much.
      - antocv 12y ago
        What you mean? I too perform work for enterprises, getting payed to work with and in all things Linux, Java and Python. Just because its freedom software doesnt mean there is no money to be made or make.

PulseAudio still requires you to be a hacker to get sound over network - something it promised to do well, but oh doesnt.

by antocv 12y ago

PulseAudio still requires you to be a hacker to get sound over network - something it promised to do well, but oh doesnt.

clarry 12y ago

If you aren't blessed with luck, one might say that PulseAudio still requires you to be a hacker to get sound. Over and over again. Every time you think it's fixed for good, it'll prove you wrong.

fragmede 12y ago
On the large majority of laptops I've installed Ubuntu on recently, sound has just worked out of the box, so here's to hoping my lucky streak continues!
- secstate 12y ago
  Sure, sound works fine for a bit, but wait until you want to plug a USB headset in. First time, great. Second time, fail. Log out, log back in, headset works again. Lame!
- serf 12y ago
  It's all about having a common hardware profile. Add any external sound hardware, use a optical or SPDIF port instead, add some speakers. It'll break sooner-or-later, and in my own experiences it tends to be whenever my personal computer gets away from the 'typical' desktop profile.
- antocv 12y ago
  Try to plug in headset and have the sound out of it, plug it out and have the sound on the laptop speakers, without going all hacker on it, or for example just try to use your bluetooth headset. Yeah. Nope.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
My current regular experience is: Pulse audio + reconnecting bluetooth speaker after it powers off = bad day
anon4 12y ago
Or if you're even less lucky, PulseAudio still requires you to mute the "system sounds" thing because once skype starts, you get persistent noise out of the audio jack, after which you try to email Lennart following the guide on his page, only to receive no reply.

dheera 12y ago

+1 I tried for an hour to get PulseAudio to work with Bluetooth and A2DP and use my phone as a sound source. Decided I wasn't going to waste time on this. Gave up and ended up buying an external A2DP box off Amazon and plugged it into my Line In port.

pyre 12y ago
Years ago it didn't take me that long to get PulseAudio setup to play from my HTPC through my laptop (so that I could use the headphone jack on the laptop). That said, it wasn't plug-and-play. I didn't use it too often because there were too many moving parts every time I wanted to get it setup (i.e. setup the laptop to receive audio, then get the HTPC to connect to the laptop and send audio... then disable it all to get things back to normal afterwards). What would have been preferable would be for the HTPC to advertise itself as a audio source, and the laptop to be able to list sources, and let the use select one.
pjmlp 12y ago
It is this little things that made me move away from GNU/Linux as main laptop OS. The OS is great when it works, but then those little things are always around the corner, turning weekend actions into weeks.
- antocv 12y ago
  Indeed. But it is still my main OS everywhere, I refuse to bow to proprietary overlords. Despite these downsides.
  - pjmlp 12y ago
    I started working when proprietary overlords was the only option available, so it doesn't matter me that much.
    - antocv 12y ago
      What you mean? I too perform work for enterprises, getting payed to work with and in all things Linux, Java and Python. Just because its freedom software doesnt mean there is no money to be made or make.