[pulseaudio-discuss] Help in setting up PA... SOLVED

[Richard Geddes]

Hi,

I'm back again.  I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04 which uses PA as the default 
sound server and new hardware(AMD Athlon X2)  The PA server is version 
0.9.10.  My /etc/default.pa looks like this:

.nofail
load-sample-lazy pulse-hotplug /usr/share/sounds/startup3.wav
.fail
load-module module-alsa-sink sink_name=intel_hda_out device=hw:0
load-module module-alsa-source source_name=intel_hda_in device=hw:0
load-module module-alsa-sink sink_name=delta_out device=hw:1 channels=10 
channel_map=left,right,aux0,aux1,aux2,aux3,aux4,aux5,aux6,aux7
load-module module-alsa-source source_name=delta_in device=hw:1 
channels=12 
channel_map=left,right,aux0,aux1,aux2,aux3,aux4,aux5,aux6,aux7,aux8,aux9
set-default-sink delta_out
set-default-source delta_in
.ifexists module-esound-protocol-unix.so
load-module module-esound-protocol-unix
.endif
load-module module-native-protocol-unix
load-module module-volume-restore
load-module module-default-device-restore
load-module module-rescue-streams
load-module module-suspend-on-idle
.ifexists module-gconf.so
.nofail
load-module module-gconf
.fail
.endif
.ifexists module-x11-publish.so
.nofail
load-module module-x11-publish
.fail
.endif

To get feedback from the PA server I used paman (pulseaudio sound 
manager in ubuntu) and it said that the intel_hda_out device is the 
default sink.  I tried to force the default sink to be delta_out with 
pacmd, but that stopped the PA server... I didn't realize that when I 
exit paman, it shuts the pa server down.  I was a little confused by 
that... expecting the server to stay alive.

I noticed that I could "play-sample" to the delta_out and it sounded 
fine.  It looked like I can get my Delta 66 card and PA to work but only 
in that "play-sample" mode. 

I did not realize that I had the volume-restore enabled, and it had 
quite a few settings from the past that were all related to 
intel_hda_out... also my ~/.pulse/default-sink file was also set to 
intel_hda_out... anyway even though the global config 
file(/etc/pulse/default.pa) set the default sink to delta_out, there are 
local config files in ~/.pulse/ that can also modify the defaults.  It's 
probably in the literature somewhere, and it makes sense for clients 
that are sharing a server.

Anyway, I after changing *all* (local and global) the config files, the 
system works... and pretty well.  Hope this helps someone with their 
M-Audio Delta setup.

R

Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 03:02:40PM -0500, Richard Geddes wrote:
>   
>> You are correct... latest release Ubuntu 7.10 comes with PA 0.9.6.  
>> I'll look into getting the latest version of PA.
>>
>> My goal was to use PA as a replacement for esound server...  I'd like to
>> be able to record/mix different sound sources (midi, analog, sound from
>> files (mp3, wav, ogg, etc)) and be able to create different file
>> formats, including sound delivered in flash (I'm not a fan of flash as
>> it consumes alot of cpu time, but it is in demand).  I played with jackd
>> for a while and was impressed with it's technical capabilities, but
>> unfortunately, I haven't found a way to play flash sound through
>> jackd... that is, flash in firefox.  I found a how-to in the Ubuntu
>> forum that seemed to patch together a solution the involved PA:
>>
>> http://ubuntu-utah.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=548178
>>     
>
> If you want to record midi and do other "pro-audio" stuff,
> then jack is the way to go. If you also want to do "desktop"
> stuff (like have every media player just work), then the
> best solution in my experience is to run pulseaudio on top
> of jack (like instructed in that link).
>
> A summary of what you'll have to do at minimum:
> - Get pulseaudio version >= 0.9.7
> - Remove device loading from /etc/pulse/default.pa and add
>   the jack modules instead
> - Edit /etc/security/limits.conf as instructed in the link
> - Edit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to enable realtime scheduling
> - Run jackd with -R parameter (i.e. in realtime mode)
> - Other stuff that I have forgot ;)
>
> If you are going to record midi, that probably means that
> you have some midi instrument that you want to be able to
> play live. That requires quite low latency. That's
> completely possible to achieve. Unfortunately it may require
> extensive tuning (mostly kernel, but you may need to tweak
> irq priorities as well). Vanilla kernels are AFAIK getting
> better and better regarding latency, so first try with your
> current kernel. The actual latency is controlled by jackd
> parameters -n and -p (read man jackd). If your kernel isn't
> able to provide low enough latency, you'll get drop-outs and
> xruns (the former being the audible consequence of the
> latter).
>
> If you have problems with setting pulseaudio to work in
> combination with jack, or anything else pulseaudio related,
> then feel free to ask further questions.
>
> If it turns out that your system needs latency-tuning, here
> are a few kernel options you could try without compiling an
> -rt patched kernel:
> CONFIG_NO_HZ=y
> CONFIG_HZ_1000=y
> CONFIG_HZ=1000
> CONFIG_HIGH_RES_TIMERS=y (AFAIK this requires a rather recent kernel)
>
> There may be others that I'm not aware of. These are
> beneficial to pulseaudio regardless of what kind of setup
> you need (jack or not).
>
> If you end up needing a patched kernel, here's the wiki of
> the patchset: http://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
>
> If you have further questions about latency stuff, I
> recommend searching the linux-audio-user at linuxaudio.org list
> archives, and if that doesn't help, then send questions
> there. That's a very good list to subscribe to anyway, if
> you're going to do any audio work on Linux.
>
> And then a note on flash. Flash requires a thing called
> libflashsupport due to Adobe's plugin's bugginess. AFAIK it
> will be packaged eventually, but currently you have to
> compile it yourself. The link you gave refers to an outdated
> version of the "thing". More recent information is available
> at http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup#FlashPlayer9.
> In short: get the one that's hosted at git.0pointer.de, not
> the revolutionlinux one.
>
> An alternative to the flash plugin is http://keepvid.com,
> which allows you to download the .flv files in Youtube and
> several other supported services. Then just play the file on
> your favourite media player. Keepvid.com is enough for me,
> but YMMV. Note the white button saying "Drag this button..."
> etc. It talks about a "links toolbar" but bookmarking the
> script does the same thing.
>
>   
>> Question:   PA, esound, jackd, etc.. are all called sound servers,
>> implying that you can replace one with another... like apache vs iis....
>>     
>
> I'd say that being a sound server implies only that the
> server is somehow capable of software mixing.
>
>   
>> is the main difference that they use different client/server
>> communication protocols?
>>     
>
> The main difference of pulseaudio and jack is their
> different designs and goals. Maybe the communication
> protocols somehow reflect that, I don't know. Esound's
> distinctive feature is being dead, I don't know much else
> about that thing.
>
>   
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