[pulseaudio-discuss] pulseaudio and remote desktop

[Arun Raghavan]

On Mon, 2012-03-12 at 15:42 -0700, LK Rashinkar wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Background:
> Xrdp is an open source RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) server that
> runs on Unices.  It allows RDP clients running on Windows and Unices
> to connect to it and presents a Unix desktop on the client computer.
> So for example from a Windows 7 computer I can connect to an Xrdp
> server running on my Ubuntu system and I will then have access to
> my Ubuntu desktop on the Windows 7 computer.
> 
> The problem:
> Xrdp does not yet support audio redirection, which means that RDP
> clients that connect to it cannot cannot hear any music/sound that is
> played on the server.
> 
> RDP protocol has built in features that supports audio redirection.
> What I need to understand is how to use Pulseaudio to read audio data
> on a per user login basis, without playing any of the sound on the physical
> speaker on the server. For example, lets say I am logged into my ubuntu
> system and I'm playing a youtube video. User A  and User B login via
> xrdp and they both start playing different youtube videos. The audio
> from User A and B should not be played on the speaker on the server
> and I need a way to read the audio data from User A and B and
> using Pulseaudio.
> 
> I'm sure PA has support for this, but if someone can guide me in the
> right direction, it will be helpful.

You could make a null sink and make it the default (preferably only
sink, so users can't play anything locally). You could then use the
monitor source to feed data to RDP.

-- Arun