[pulseaudio-discuss] Help needed for system-wide pulseaudio for blind users

[Bill Cox]

I'm trying to build a Vinux (blind-user Linux distro) release based on
Ubuntu/Lucid.  There's too much code to rewrite to have everything
working the "right" way with pulseaudio by May, so I want to release
Vinux/Ubuntu Lucid with the system-wide hack.

I've enabled PA to start in system wide mode by editing
/etc/defaults/pulseaudio, and enabling it there.  I've added gdm,
root, speech-dispatcher, and my user name to the pulse-access group.
Pulseaudio starts, and speech-dispatcher and speechd-up work with it
just fine at boot.  Since this is a distro for the blind, I boot into
a console, not gdm.  The login prompt is read nicely, as is text when
I log in.  However, if I try to play a .wav file, there is no sound.
None of the apps with PA back-ends will play sound for me.  When I
type 'startx', Gome comes up, but the sound preference dialog tells me
there's no sound card.  I suspect that rights to use it have been
granted to the speech-dispatcher user, and I'm not able to access it.

If there is anyone who can help me get such a settup working, I'd
really appreciate it!

Thanks,
Bill