disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

frankb · 2016-08-05 03:46:49

What is the best way to not use pulseaudio and use alsa instead (with the mixers and tools etc. ) Seems like pulseaudio takes everything over... Thanks

hhh · 2016-08-05 05:03:44

This should work, but I need 20 minutes to test it, I'm not on BL atm...

sudo apt purge pulseaudio pavucontrol && sudo apt install alsa-base && sudo apt-get --purge autoremove

Make sure autoremove isn't removing anything critical, cancel if in doubt. Reboot, run alsamixer, unmute any channels and raise volumes as needed.

hhh · 2016-08-05 05:29:06

^ Yes, this works. Headphones were muted for me, "m" to unmute and then arrow-up to raise the volume.

I also managed to restore volume/mute notifications, but that will depend on your setup and hardware, I can't give detailed instructions.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-08-14 13:25:12

Just as an after thought, what's the real benefit in during this? Going straight with ALSA doesn't that prevent some key features like more feature rich mixing of programs, streams etc? Aren't you just passing the work, previously divided between ALSA and pulse, and now just putting all of the functionality on ALSA?

Snap · 2016-08-15 06:27:10

^ Reasons for a change aside, pulse doesn't replace ALSA. It typically lives on top of it. I guess this would clarify all this a bit.

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=294

Last edited by Snap (2016-08-15 06:29:19)

Horizon_Brave · 2016-08-15 15:36:10

Snap wrote:

^ Reasons for a change aside, pulse doesn't replace ALSA. It typically lives on top of it. I guess this would clarify all this a bit.
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=294

Exactly my thoughts. Seems like you'd loose a lot of functionality that a dedicated mixer would provide.

tynman · 2016-08-16 04:55:10

I'd be interested in hearing what features pulseaudio provides. What we would expect to be missing when it is un-installed?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-08-16 07:27:43

tynman wrote:

what features pulseaudio provides

The most important feature in the BunsenLabs desktop is selecting the default soundcard when there is more than one such device (eg, laptops with HDMI outputs).

If users with such machines remove PA, they may find themselves without any sound at all.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-08-16 15:01:02

tynman wrote:

I'd be interested in hearing what features pulseaudio provides. What we would expect to be missing when it is un-installed?

I point you to Snap's excellent write up on the sound architecture, which I've been referencing lately:

Sound in Bunsen

Snap · 2016-08-17 06:38:16

^^ Essentially and in short, multiclient capabilities are lost. Pulseaudio solves some functionality lacks but introducing (or at the cost of) significant drawbacks too.

Personally I just use alsa. If I need to expand alsa in specific systems I use jack instead of pulse. Typically with the help of Cadence. I prefer this arrangement over qjackctl, which is simpler (it's in the repos) and does a great job too if you don't really need the array of tools Cadence brings in. A GUI front-end for Jack is not really needed. It's a CLI program actually, but these two tools make you life easier.

barnabyh · 2016-08-17 09:57:44

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

tynman wrote:
what features pulseaudio provides
The most important feature in the BunsenLabs desktop is selecting the default soundcard when there is more than one such device (eg, laptops with HDMI outputs).
If users with such machines remove PA, they may find themselves without any sound at all.

Makes sense, but there's ways around that by setting the default sound card in the init sequence in rc.local. Wait, we don't have these any longer . It used to work in Slackware at least. The point is, there are other ways to accomplish this.
The only need I ever found for PA is when Skype started depending on it without good reason, just because most distributions had adopted it. That then also led to the necessity to add pavucontrol.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-08-17 14:41:54

Hmm what I love (hate) about linux, Always more than 1 way to skin a cat! Good to know that the Alsa > PulseAudio>Volumeicon stack isn't the only audio heirarchary that works.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-08-17 16:55:36

barnabyh wrote:

but there's ways around that by setting the default sound card

Yes indeed, I use https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ad … sound_card

The problem is that BunsenLabs has to work on all machines and configuration tweaks such as /etc/modprobe.d tend to be machine-specific so PA then becomes almost invaluable.

It has a bad reputation but Pulseaudio is a mature and well-tested piece of software these days with no major bugs.

Snap · 2016-08-19 08:02:08

Good to know that the Alsa > PulseAudio>Volumeicon stack isn't the only audio heirarchary that works.

Thankfully not! pulse is a workaround on it's own. Dealing with ALSA is tricky, but you can do directly in ALSA most things that pulse can do "easier", excepting the aforementioned multi-client capabilities. pulse is intended to make linux sound easier for the masses. It's not really needed at all. It's just convenient.

#1 2016-08-05 03:46:49

disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#2 2016-08-05 05:03:44

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#3 2016-08-05 05:29:06

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#4 2016-08-14 13:25:12

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#5 2016-08-15 06:27:10

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#6 2016-08-15 15:36:10

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#7 2016-08-16 04:55:10

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#8 2016-08-16 07:27:43

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#9 2016-08-16 15:01:02

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#10 2016-08-17 06:38:16

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#11 2016-08-17 09:57:44

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#12 2016-08-17 14:41:54

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#13 2016-08-17 16:55:36

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

#14 2016-08-19 08:02:08

Re: disabling pulseaudio and using alsa

Board footer