[pulseaudio-discuss] Start condition failed - ConditionUser=!root not met

[Tanu Kaskinen]

Hi Colin!

On Thu, 2021-10-14 at 13:18 +0100, Colin Guthrie wrote:
> Tanu Kaskinen wrote on 13/10/2021 20:25:
> > On Wed, 2021-10-13 at 14:51 +0000, Joel wrote:
> > > Tanu -
> > > 
> > > Thank you.  I made the changes you suggested (removed
> > > pulseaudio.socket from two locations where I found the file:
> > > /etc/systemd/system/and /etc/systemd/system/sockets.targets.wants.
> > > In the file pulseaudio.service, I commented out the lines
> > > "Requires=pulseaudio.socket"; "ConditionUser=!root" and
> > > "Also=pulseaudio.socket".  Please note that there also two
> > > occurrences of this file: /etc/systemd/system/and
> > > /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.targets.wants. Perhaps the second
> > > occurrences are system-generated.
> > > 
> > > I then had sound from the web browser!  VLC was still providing sound
> > > as before (but I gather not using pulsesaudio).  After logging out
> > > then logging back in (not rebooting), there was no web browser sound
> > > and a new error:  Failed to load module "module-x11-publish".  This
> > > also occurred after rebooting and booting from a cold start. After
> > > the reboot, a further error arose: Error opening PCM device front:0:
> > > Device or resource busy.  Also, the /var/run/.pulse cookie does
> > > exist.  The systemctl status reports in full are at
> > > https://susepaste.org/99540079 .  I'm unable to determine what I did
> > > to cause these errors.
> > 
> > The module-x11-publish error is probably caused by
> > /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop, which is loaded on login,
> > causing /usr/bin/start-pulseaudio-x11 to be run. You could try removing
> > the pulseaudio.desktop file (take a backup if you want). You shouldn't
> > lose any essential functionality by doing that (and since PulseAudio
> > was unable to connect to X11, whatever PulseAudio wanted to do didn't
> > succeed anyway).
> > 
> > If you see "Device or resource busy", something else is using the ALSA
> > device. You can check with "lsof /dev/snd/*" what programs are using
> > the ALSA devices.
> 
> Forgive my ignorance since it's been *years* since I did any PA hacking 
> (just a drive by message on the list as I clicked on the folder in my 
> email client!) but do you really want your system-wide PA instance 
> running as root (that's what the systemd unit files suggests!)
> 
> Wouldn't you want a User=pulse in there in the system unit (and make 
> sure the user pulse can access the audio devices via suitable ACLs/group 
> ownerships)

PulseAudio does the user switch from root to pulse by itself, I don't
know if PulseAudio can handle it if you start it directly as the pulse
user.

> It would be fine to have a system-wide pulseaudio.socket here that 
> started up the system-wide pulseaudio.service?

Yes, it would be fine, if you configure it right.

> Or have things changed so much that the system-wide pulseaudio instance 
> no longer runs as the pulse user?

Nope, I don't think there has been much changes to the system-wide mode
at all :)

-- Tanu