I normally use the KDE5/Plasma desktop, along with ALSA only for audio. However, I have an application which only has support for pulseaudio, but I am having a profile problem, which is preventing pulseaudio from running correctly. When I start pulseaudio, the daemon appears to start and run correctly, however there is no audio on my primary sound card, which is a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium (emu20K2). The sound card is not even detected by pulse in KDE5, unless pulseaudio has autospawn enabled at boot. Otherwise, only my secondary card, an Nvidia HDMI connection is detected. The audio works properly with the Nvdia HDMI on my TV. The Creative X-Fi works properly with ALSA in all situations, and pulseaudio works properly with any other desktop environment, except KDE. After I discovered that pulseaudio works correctly in other desktop environments, I tried creating a new user profile just to test with, and that too also works correctly with pulseaudio in KDE5. So there must be a damaged config file or a corrupt file stored somewhere in my profile, but I have been unable to locate the problem file. The only files I have been able to locate with any pulseaudio data in it, has been the pulse folder itself, obviously, which is not the problem, and the kmixrc files, which also don’t seem to be the problem. I’d really like to locate the problem files and correct the issue, rather than having to wipe out my entire KDE profile, and redo all of my settings. So if anyone knows where KDE5 would store the relevant information, or if someone knows how I might correct the issue, without wiping my profile, I would greatly appreciate the help.
The only files I have been able to locate with any pulseaudio data in it, has been the pulse folder itself, obviously, which is not the problem, and the kmixrc files, which also don’t seem to be the problem.
I assume that you meant the user’s ~/.config/pulse/ directory?
You should try a smidgen to locate a right settings for you correct setup, however I would prescribe fantastic Arch Linux wiki on Pulse Audio, the Pulse Audio Configuration and Examples.
Subsequent to figuring the right directions, make a little shell contents and make passage for those in ~/.nearby/share/applications/(expecting that KDE 5 utilizes free work area particular to make launcher for applications - I am not by any stretch of the imagination beyond any doubt as I never utilized KDE).
Correct, sorry if it was unclear. I’m certain that the problem is not the ~/.config/pulse/ directory though, because I’ve deleted all of the auto-generated files in there, and even renamed the folder, to have a new one created, just for good measure. Plus, as I mentioned, pulseaudio is working correctly in every other desktop environment. I’ve checked it in Gnome, TDE, LXQt and Mate, and it works properly in all of them, and it’s even working fine in KDE5 with a different user profile. So it’s definitely something specific in my KDE5/Plasma user profile.
Well, that’s what I was clarifying.
Plus, as I mentioned, pulseaudio is working correctly in every other desktop environment. I’ve checked it in Gnome, TDE, LXQt and Mate, and it works properly in all of them, and it’s even working fine in KDE5 with a different user profile. So it’s definitely something specific in my KDE5/Plasma user profile.
Do you have the KDE desktop configured to restore the previous session, or does it start with an empty session for this particular user?
System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Desktop Session
It’s set to restore the previous session. I’m sure if I set it to a blank session, the problem would be gone, but then so would all of my other KDE profile settings as well, which is what I’m hoping to avoid. I may end up having to do that, but I’d rather do that as a last resort. If I can figure out where KDE stores any pulseaudio related information in the profile, I should be able to either, edit or delete, just the relevant files and save the rest of my profile settings. That’s what I’m hoping to be able to do anyway. I just haven’t been able to find any KDE/Plasma specific files, related to pulse or audio, except for the previously mentioned directories/files, which I’ve already been able to rule out. But I know KDE must be storing the data somewhere, I just can’t find it. My guess is that it’s probably a problem with some kind of broken restore data related to either the Audio Volume Plasma widget or perhaps Phonon, but that’s just my guess, and I haven’t been able to locate any files related to either.
Not true. Your user-specific settings will remain - just session-related activities/states will gone. Anyway, session-related information is saved in ~/.config/ksmserverrc.
More specifically session management in ~/.config/ksmserverrc, and saved states in the ~/.config/session/ directory.
Okay, well that’s actually very helpful to know. I’ve only started with a blank session once, and it was probably at least 10 years ago now, and I only remember it removing everything, even down the system tray and all. So I’ve been hesitant to try it again. But as long as it retains all of the settings, then it’s probably the best option. Thank you for the info.
I renamed both the ~/.config/session folder and ~/.config/ksmserverrc, then changed the settings to start with a blank session. Changing it to start with a blank session, definitely behaved differently, than the last time I tried it in an old version of KDE, which I was rather relieved about. However, after making the changes and rebooting, pulse is still not working on the primary sound card. Also, the card was no longer even detected by pulse after the reboot, even with the pulseaudio autospawn setting enabled, as it was previously. After looking into it further, I discovered that unless KMix is running at startup, along with the pulse autospawn enabled, the X-Fi is not detected by Pulse. Seems a little odd to me, since if I am not mistaken, KMix doesn’t even normally run in KDE5 anymore by default. The same problem with detection occurs if I try to start pulseaudio manually in a console. This problem doesn’t occur in any other desktop environment either, so I’m guessing it’s probably directly related to the source of the problem.
Either way, even when the card is properly detected, and everything looks as though it’s running correctly, there is still no audio through pulse on the X-Fi in KDE. The only problem I can find in the pulseaudio log, is when I try playing a sound file using VLC, I see that it is corking and uncorking continuously, during the attempted playback, like something else is locking the card up, but there are no other running streams, ALSA works fine, and of course pulseaudio works fine in every other desktop environment. If you have any other suggestions, I would greatly appreciate any help you are able to provide.
Plasma 5 uses the ‘Audio Volume’ applet by default. Does that not display on your dektop in the system tray at login?
Do you have the ‘KMixD Mixer Service’ enabled and running in KDE ‘Background Services’?
The “Audio Volume” applet only works with pulseaudio. I normally only use ALSA without pulseaudio, which is the primary reason I use KMix, since it works with both ALSA and pulse, and it also has a lot more features. The Audio Volume applet is running though, I’m not even sure it’s possible to close it. I just keep it hidden in the tray, since it’s only functional whenever pulseaudio is started up, which I rarely use, and I don’t need two volume controls displayed in the tray.
However, when I went to check on the KMixD Mixer Service, I also noticed that I still had a tiny script to start JACK, that I had added into the autostart-scripts directory quite a long time ago, which turns out was the problem. After removing it and killing JACK, pulseaudio is working normally now, so the issue is resolved. I do appreciate your time and effort, and sorry for asking for help with a nearly impossible to solve, “user error” problem lol.
Right, I forgot you trying not to use PA. Anyway, the applet can be from the system tray if desired. Right-click in the the sytem tray triangle to get ‘System Tray Settings’ and uncheck the ‘Audio Volume’ entry, then ‘Apply’. It will then be removed from the system tray.
However, when I went to check on the KMixD Mixer Service, I also noticed that I still had a tiny script to start JACK, that I had added into the autostart-scripts directory quite a long time ago, which turns out was the problem. After removing it and killing JACK, pulseaudio is working normally now, so the issue is resolved. I do appreciate your time and effort, and sorry for asking for help with a nearly impossible to solve, “user error” problem lol.
No worries. I knew it was not normal behaviour, but at least you’ve now identified the problem and removed your custom addition. 