[pulseaudio-discuss] installing header files

[Colin Guthrie]

'Twas brillig, and Patrick Shirkey at 09/08/09 15:43 did gyre and gimble:
>> I don't know how you managed to get in such a position but I mess 
>> around with 64 and 32 bit combos all the time and it's really not any 
>> hassle with pulse.
> 
> Well in this case I have to disagree. However not because I don't think 
> it's not possible but because I definitely found it to be a hassle 
> before upgrading because the default Fedora 11 didn't install the 32 bit 
> libs and since upgrading because I haven't yet built the 32 bit version.

Yeah I guess a default install will probably not install 32 bit libs. I 
doubt that is any different in other distros either. We did have 
specific deps added for our flash package (typically run as a 32 bit 
processes - it's only recently gone native as you know).

> As you are the Mandrake packager your knowledge of the build process is 
> definitely more advanced than mine. However I have been working with 
> Linux Audio for 10 years so I'm not exactly a novice. 

This is true, but it's more about knowing how 64 and 32 bit systems work 
together. Even before pulse there needed to be a 32 bit version of 
libasound for things to work. Now we need a 32 bit libpulse (and a 32 
bit alsa->pulse plugin) so things aren't so very different than they 
used to be in all honesty. I don't think anything major went wrong in 
your case, just some bizarre hiccups that were compounded to become 
rather confusing overall. I suspect most users would not have been so 
unlucky (otherwise we'd see far more questions on this list :))

> I hazard a guess 
> that this is one thing that would cause people a lot of difficulty and 
> contribute to the general bad press that pulseaudio recieves online and 
> in turn Linux Audio on the desktop.

I think the poor rollout/integration by some distros which shall remain 
nameless is the main reason for this.

The 64/32 bit issue could certainly have played some part here. If 32 X 
applications can run flawlessly, then there is no excuse if the sound 
does not "just work" too.

Col

-- 

Colin Guthrie
gmane(at)colin.guthr.ie
http://colin.guthr.ie/

Day Job:
   Tribalogic Limited [http://www.tribalogic.net/]
Open Source:
   Mandriva Linux Contributor [http://www.mandriva.com/]
   PulseAudio Hacker [http://www.pulseaudio.org/]
   Trac Hacker [http://trac.edgewall.org/]