ALSA vs Pulse Audio

English Multimedia
1

:)I’m so happy with Linux, but I’m frustrated with Linux Audio. My question is at the end.

openSUSE 13.1, HP Presario CQ56 laptop w/AMD 64bit, 2GB ram, ATI video.

new O2+ODAC usb dac (uac1 dac) worked out of the box, oS picked it up right away.

Dead Beef (bit perfect configured), Audacious both working playing inserted cd’s and wave ripped collection.

Mplayer plays internet streams including Youtube. The Youtube browser works as always. The uac1 dac plays the audio.

I can’t set Clementine to use the uac1 dac I couldn’t find a setting nor command line option for it.

Firefox and Opera audio not playing streams with uac1 dac but analog playback ok.

Kmix set to uac1 dac as master channel.

uac1 dac set to primary (0) in yast sound setup, analog secondary (1).

tried JACK but couldn’t get it configured, tried to uninstall to reinstall but found dependency problems.

JACK uninstalled with lesser components first then JACKD last avoided breaking dependencies I think.

I could set JACK to use the uac1 dac. It would connect but it didn’t give the expected messages and wouldn’t do anything.

Phonon is set to use the uac1 dac, but the test file quit playing somewhere along the way - it did before I changed anything. The analog test file will play. The “Front Left” and “Front Right” tests play.

Gstreamer is the backend.

aplay reveals: (I’m just using stereo at first)

tony@linux-fkwj:~> aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=DAC
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=DAC,DEV=0
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=DAC,DEV=0
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=DAC,DEV=0
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=DAC,DEV=0
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=DAC,DEV=0
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=DAC,DEV=0
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=DAC,DEV=0
UAC1 DAC, USB Audio
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
sysdefault:CARD=SB
HDA ATI SB, ALC270 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=SB,DEV=0
HDA ATI SB, ALC270 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=SB,DEV=0
HDA ATI SB, ALC270 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=SB,DEV=0
HDA ATI SB, ALC270 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=SB,DEV=0
HDA ATI SB, ALC270 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=SB,DEV=0
HDA ATI SB, ALC270 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=SB,DEV=0
HDA ATI SB, ALC270 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
tony@linux-fkwj:~>

I’m asking if I can dump pulse audio and just use alsa? I don’t care about the animated volume control if I could just adjust volume on my ext dac. Would this break anything or would I need a different sound server? Couldn’t JACKD satisfy that? I scoured Firefox and about:config but couldn’t recognize anything relevant. Can I take out PulseAudio and make everything work?

Thanks in advance for anything you can contribute. I’ve been reading and working on this for several days.:slight_smile:

2

Yes. I don’t have it installed on any of my systems, and I don’t use jack either.
ALSA is perfectly capable of mixing the sound of several applications via its “dmix” plugin (which is enabled by default on openSUSE since years, probably even before PulseAudio even existed).

You basically have two options to get rid of PA:

  • disable PulseAudio in YaST->Hardware->Sound->Other->PulseAudio Configuration (logout/login for full effect)
  • uninstall “pulseaudio” and friends (libpulse has to stay, but that’s no problem)
3

I prefer the ALSA to Pulse Audio. PA just make the sound messy. You disable the PA

4

Thank you wolfi323. I did your first suggestion, but haven’t uninstalled pulseaudio yet. Will taking out pulseaudio break any other audio in the system? I read that it is tied to other parts. Not exactly a Linux expert yet, I just want to make sure I don’t make more work than necessary. Right now I have the uac1 dac playing my cd’s and ripped copies from the HDD. But I have no sound when playing movies, trailers, youtube, etc in Firefox (34). Do I need to install different plugins for say, Xine, or Adobe Flash if that’s possible, so that it supports the online playback. Mplayer, and the youtube browser work fine because I was able to configure Mplayer for the uac1 dac, and I guess because it’s not tied to the browser.

In the Multimedia audio settings I get a playback test sound with the uac1 dac but not with the built-in analog. The Kmix volume for playback streams is turned up. In the Kmix Select Master Channel I have ALSA checked (no other choice) for Playback Streams. Still no online sounds.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

5

No, it shouldn’t.
The only thing I’m aware of that requires PulseAudio is Skype.

Do I need to install different plugins for say, Xine, or Adobe Flash if that’s possible, so that it supports the online playback.

No. Actually it is the other way round, at least for Xine and some other things: you have to install plugins so that they can use PulseAudio.

In the Multimedia audio settings I get a playback test sound with the uac1 dac but not with the built-in analog. The Kmix volume for playback streams is turned up. In the Kmix Select Master Channel I have ALSA checked (no other choice) for Playback Streams. Still no online sounds.

Well, “Playback Streams” only works with PulseAudio.

So it sounds that just Flashplayer is not working?
Maybe it uses the wrong sond card?
Try to set the correct one as “Primary” in YaST->Hardware->Sound.

I never had any problem with Flash here, but then I never had an additional sound card either.
Unfortunately I have also no idea how to tell Flash which sound card to use.
Does HTML5 work?

6

As noted elsewhere in this thread, it is possible to mostly configure one’s audio in GNU/Linux by disabling pulse audio, and there are some users who claim it necessary.

I think thou, the vast majority keep pulse audio enabled and use applications such as pavucontrol to obtain superb control over their audio configuration. I have pulse audio enabled on a number of different PCs (all with different hardware) and for the applications I use, and hardware I have, it works well. Presumeably the expression YMMV applies here.

Some links to forum blogs/guides on pulse audio are:

Good luck with your efforts in configuring sound with pulse disabled.

7

On 2014-12-23 15:46, oldcpu wrote:

> I think thou, the vast majority keep pulse audio enabled and use
> applications such as pavucontrol to obtain superb control over their
> audio configuration.

Pulse works fine here.

Years ago I used alsa, and I had the problem that an application would
capture the sound device, and other applications could not play
anything. For instance, having a firefox play a video, let it finish,
forget the tab opened, then try another sound application, and it would
not play at all because FF or flash kept the media device.

Pulse solved this silliness, so I’m happy :slight_smile:

Maybe alsa can now allow several simultaneous sources, but either it did
not some years ago, or it depends on the hardware and mine did not allow
it (which is what I was told at the time). But pulse did allow it on
that same hardware…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)