[pulseaudio-discuss] Accessing audio as root

[Colin Guthrie]

'Twas brillig, and Bill Cox at 02/01/10 04:29 did gyre and gimble:
> On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Colin Guthrie <gmane at colin.guthr.ie> wrote:
>> 'Twas brillig, and Markus Rechberger at 24/12/09 14:02 did gyre and gimble:
>>> I think it's pretty clear what the problem is.
>>> PA does not support multiple users on one system..
>>> I told you if you intend to replace the existing audio system and
>>> build up compatibility layers
>>> add try to do it right.
>>
>> But for you "right" === "the exact same way it used to work".
> 
> Hi, Colin.  I think it is important to understand where people like
> Markus come from.  I suspect he's completely blind.  "Right" for him
> means his system talks to him at boot, in both speakup and Orca and
> probably a few other apps. 

He's not blind as far as I know, but one think he definitely doesn't
like is change or changes to things that used to work in his sphere of
interest. In this case I he was talking about doing things "right" but
what he actually wanted was to do things the way it has been done in the
past to the exclusion of all other things. I was merely making the
observation that just because something worked in one way at one point
in time that it does not make it inherently "right". I did not deal with
the opposite case.... (e.g. just because something is different it's not
automatically wrong - of course it *could* be wrong, but it's not implied).

> "Wrong" is when the sound system stops speakup or Orca from talking.  

Yes I agree in principle - the system should have the necessary
infrastructure in place to make this all work, but that's not to say
that keeping things modeled on the old behaviour is "right".


> It's the ultimate show-stopper bug for
> the blind.  Losing sound for a blind person is about as scary as a
> hard-disk crash - maybe worse!  A blind person often has to track down
> a sighted person with the skills to repair his software in person.
> This can be a lot harder than installing a new hard drive and OS.

Yes, I appreciate this and certainly do not disagree.

> I want to help constructively.  I want to track down the problem and
> suggest a patch.  Any guidance as to the approach to take would be
> very welcome - I really don't know the PulseAudio system well enough
> to determine the best approach.  Eventually, I'll just pick one and do
> it, but it's worth begging for advice if I can get it!

Indeed and having these discussions and getting input from people here
is certainly the right start to this approach. I can tell from your
messages and general approach that you are very open to suggestions.

It's sad that the current state of affairs is one in which certain
subsystems are not working too well, but it's one of the natural parts
of FOSS development. Even if before PA had landed in distros we have
reached out to every corner of development and said "there is a change
coming, please be ready", we'd still be in the same position as we are
now. Developers always need a stick rather than a carrot when dealing
with separate parts of a shared infrastructure. It's the reason KDE 4
was released when it was - there was massive outcry by users saying "it
isn't ready" etc regardless of numerous warnings from developers that
4.0 was more of a developer release designed to encourage various app
developers to step up their porting efforts (i.e. the stick rather than
the carrot). Other software projects have had the same issue too, and
while it's not ideal, the disparate nature of FOSS work means that the
coordination is generally not possible to get things all nicely working
before adoption - the audience is simply not big enough. So sometimes
things suck, but then they get better. Hopefully you're one of the
people who will help this particular sucky thing get better :)

Take care

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/]