[pulseaudio-discuss] Proper PulseAudio use on accessible computers?

[Colin Guthrie]

Milan Zamazal wrote:
> I'm not sure how to manage PulseAudio instances on a computer with
> accessible environment, namely speech synthesis.  Imagine the following
> scenario:
> 
> - The computer boots up and gdm login screen gets displayed.  This gdm
>   login screen must be accessible to a blind user who uses the computer
>   so it speaks through Speech Dispatcher connected to a PulseAudio
>   server.
> 
> - A blind user logs in and wants to use Speech Dispatcher, audio
>   applications and desktop sounds (esd emulation), all connected to a
>   PulseAudio server.
> 
> - The blind user leaves and a sighted user comes to the computer.  He
>   switches to his own desktop (let's say by using the GNOME switch user
>   function).  He doesn't want to listen to speech synthesis and he wants
>   to run his own PulseAudio server for desktop sounds and audio
>   applications.
> 
> What's the proper way to implement such environment?  Using a system
> wide daemon may not be the best idea.  But if the PulseAudio doesn't run
> globally, should it run as several different instances?  For instance:
> 
> - A PulseAudio server started from gdm setup scripts.
> 
> - A PulseAudio server started by the blind user's session.  What to do
>   with Speech Dispatcher output?  Should the gdm PulseAudio server
>   continue running and redirect the Speech Dispatcher output to the
>   user's server?  Or should Speech Dispatcher reconnect to the new
>   server once the gdm server disappears?
> 
> - A PulseAudio server started by the sighted user's session.  This is
>   probably a standard situation handled by suspending the previous
>   PulseAudio server and activating new PulseAudio server.
> 
> - How about Speech Dispatcher output from Linux text consoles before gdm
>   starts?  Should another PulseAudio server be run for the purpose??

HOw about the speech Dispatcher uses ALSA:default at all times, under
GDM this (via global asound.conf) will just be the default (local) sound
device. When any user logs in their ~/.asoundrc file is written which
sets the default sound device to be the pulse plugin for alsa, and a
user-specific pulseaudio daemon is started.

I think that is the cleanest, but others may feel differently.

Col