[pulseaudio-discuss] Issues with tcp sink and JACK sink

[Tanu Kaskinen]

On Sun, 2017-08-20 at 10:41 +0000, Mark Raynsford wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> I've been using Pulse's network support for about a year now. My main
> desktop machine acts as a server and I pipe the audio from various
> devices (laptops, etc) into the server using module-tunnel-sink. I
> work on software that produces audio and this setup allows me to have a
> single pair of headphones without having to plug everything into a
> hardware mixer.
> 
> Today, I decided that I was going to give the JACK audio server another
> look. The intention is to have JACK be the main audio server on my
> machine, and to connect Pulse to it as a client. This means that
> programs that use JACK natively get a JACK server, and programs that
> only speak Pulse (or ALSA) get transparently piped into the JACK server.
> 
> I'm on Arch Linux. I installed the jack2 and pulseaudio-jack packages,
> followed the instructions, and everything is working correctly. 
> pavucontrol shows a "PulseAudio JACK Sink" that Pulse programs use 
> without issue. JACK applications work properly. All good!
> 
> One problem: My TCP tunnels no longer work. When a device connects to
> the Pulse server on my desktop, this is what I see:
> 
> > > > list-sink-inputs
> 
> 1 sink input(s) available.
>     index: 10
> 	driver: <protocol-native.c>
> 	flags: DONT_MOVE 
> 	state: DRAINED
> 	sink: 0 <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>
> 	volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
> 	        balance 0.00
> 	muted: no
> 	current latency: 150.00 ms
> 	requested latency: 24.99 ms
> 	sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
> 	channel map: front-left,front-right
> 	             Stereo
> 	resample method: copy
> 	module: 10
> 	client: 15 <pulseaudio>
> 	properties:
> 		media.name = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo for someone at pseudechis"
> 		media.role = "abstract"
> 		application.name = "pulseaudio"
> 		native-protocol.peer = "TCP/IP client from 10.2.21.1:33166"
> 		native-protocol.version = "32"
> 		application.id = "org.PulseAudio.PulseAudio"
> 		application.version = "10.0"
> 		application.process.id = "19038"
> 		application.process.user = "someone"
> 		application.process.host = "pseudechis"
> 		application.process.binary = "pulseaudio"
> 		application.language = "en_GB.UTF-8"
> 		window.x11.display = ":0"
> 		application.process.machine_id = "b5289f58652b413a8b3b8d465ad7d696"
> 		module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:abstract"
> 
> In the Playback section of pavucontrol, there's an entry for 
> "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo for someone at pseudechis" and the small drop-down menu
> that is supposed to allow me to select an output lists 
> "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" and "Jack sink (PulseAudio JACK Sink)". Unfortunately,
> trying to select the JACK sink from the menu has no effect - the output stays
> as "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo". In effect I get silence, as the audio from the
> client is not being sent to the JACK sink. I'm not familiar with the internal workings
> of Pulse, but I'm guessing the DONT_MOVE flag has something to do with this.
> 
> What's the correct way to get my network audio working again?

I would guess that you're loading module-tunnel-sink without the "sink"
parameter, so it will connect to the default sink of the remote server,
in this case the alsa sink. Pass "sink=NAME" to module-tunnel-sink when
you load it. Replace NAME with the name of the jack sink.

-- 
Tanu

https://www.patreon.com/tanuk