[pulseaudio-discuss] Multiple users (kde) on Debian

[Colin Guthrie]

'Twas brillig, and Mark Cross at 26/07/10 04:54 did gyre and gimble:
> In a situation where there is a single physical seat (i.e. one keyboard 
> and monitor) but there are multiple logical seats, the PA logic is to cork 
> (mute) the first user, and enable sound for the next logged-in user.
> 
> However, with CTRL-ALT-F7 CTRL-ALT-F8, etc it is possible to switch user's 
> X screens without "logging in".
> 
> Furthermore, if one user starts a console session to a different user with 
> "sudo -i -u user2 bash", there is no log-in process, and the second user 
> (user2) does not get to activate sound.
> 
> Assuming no user is in the "audio" group.
> 
> Is there a way to allow concurrent (local) sounds for both users?

There is always a way :D

The problem is that this is not the normal setup (imaging User A setting
up their Brittany Spears Discog on a loop and locking the screen! How
evil can a human be?!?)

But ultimately you can run PA in system mode. Lots of things don't work
as nicely (such as module loading and such like) and efficiency
mechanisms (i.e. using SHM for data passing which is much faster) will
be lost.

But the short answer is:
 1. Create a "pulse" user and add it to the "audio" group.
 2. Run pulseaudio in system mode (pulseaudio --system)
 3. Put your users in the "pulse-access" groups.


Col

-- 

Colin Guthrie
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http://colin.guthr.ie/

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