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

[Ng Oon-Ee]

On Mon, 2010-01-04 at 11:02 -0500, Bill Cox wrote:
> 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
> ______________________________

Are you starting pulseaudio as --system? It may be started as the root
user (which is different from system-wide mode).