[pulseaudio-discuss] Sound in different X sessions

[Colin Guthrie]

Max Lynch wrote:
> I was wondering if there is a way to keep my music that is playing in
> display :0 while in :1 or even while in another console
> (ctrl-alt-Ffoo).  Whenever I play something in :0 it stops playing if I
> switch consoles or start another X session (over xdmcp, for example).

Assuming you are using policy kit:


polkit-action --action org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.sound

Will show you the current setup, the tag you are interested in is
"default_inactive".

To change is such that you can still access the sound h/w when inactive
do (as root):
polkit-action --set-defaults-inactive
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.sound yes


To reset to the default do:
polkit-action --reset-defaults org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.sound

This will break the standard user switching capabilities tho' (e.g. a
new user will not be able to start their own pulseaudio daemon as the
old one could still be hogging the device.

HTHs

Col