how to disable pulseaudio

[Nigel Henry]

On Thursday 18 December 2008 16:47, H.S. wrote:
> Sonal Santan wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > You can try the following two steps to /sideline/ pulse audio on 8.10
> >
> > [1]
> > Open /etc/pulse/default.pa in an editor. Look for lines similar to the
> > following two commented out lines:
> >
> > #load-module module-alsa-sink
> > #load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:1,0
> >
> > Add the following two lines after these two lines:
> >
> > load-module module-alsa-sink device=dmix
> > load-module module-alsa-source device=dsnoop
> >
> > The above change will force PA to use dmix/dsnoop and not take exclusive
> > control of sound hardware.
> >
> > [2]
> > Open /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf in an editor. Comment out the line which
> > says /usr/share/alsa/pulse.conf by inserting a # in the beginning. After
> > the change, the @hooks section would look something like the following.
> >
> > @hooks [
> >     {
> >         func load
> >         files [
> > #           "/usr/share/alsa/pulse.conf"
> >             "/usr/share/alsa/bluetooth.conf"
> >             "/etc/asound.conf"
> >             "~/.asoundrc"
> >         ]
> >         errors false
> >     }
> > ]
> >
> > This will prevent PA from presenting itself as default output/input for
> > all sound applications. Hence the other applications can continue to use
> > ALSA as if there is no PA.
> >
> > The above two changes fix all PA nuisance and all my sound applications
> > work fine. You will need to select ALSA as sound device in
> > System->Preferences->Sound. With these changes PA is rendered useless
> > but it continues to run though nobody would use it. It doesn't consume
> > any system resources. I still do not know what needs to be changed so
> > that PA is not even started.
> >
> > Sonal
>
> Interesting. I will give this a shot. Though I note that doing the above
> stuff to pulseaudio would still require a user's intervention to change
> everything in Preferences->Sound to Alsa. I find this uncomfortable in
> the sense that Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly. Just choosing
> "Default" should work when pulseaudio is deactivated. Again, all these
> kludges just make Ubuntu the same as Debian. Debian is my default OS but
> I always push Ubuntu for novice users who want to try Linux trumpeting
> its easy of use.
>
> BTW, when pulse audio is running, is alsamixer (the console level
> controls) supposed to work? In a laptop running Intrepid, it works, but
> on a computer running Hardy it doesn't. On the hardy machine, I get
> something like this:
> $> alsamixer
> *** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to connect: Connection refused
>
> alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: Connection refused
>
>
> So how does alsamixer related to pulseaudio?
>
> Thanks.

It may be due to later versions of pulseaudio being able to display the one 
control, when opening alsamixer. I've only got 1 Ubuntu install, which is 
Intrepid 8.10, and the rest are Kubuntu, which don't have Pulseaudio.

I have seen what you mention above on one of my Fedora installs, F8, or F9 
(probably F8, as that was the first time pulseaudio turned up on Fedora), but 
as I've disabled pulseaudio on them, now I see all mixer controls for the 
soundcard when opening alsamixer.

Try opening alsamixer as below on your Hardy install, and you should see all 
alsamixer controls for your soundcard.

alsamixer -D hw:0

This assumes your soundcard is using slot 0.

Thinking about it, I believe I saw that message on Fedora 8, and on the 
machine with the audigy2 soundblaster card, the sounds were not working, 
until I disabled Pulseaudio. Do you have sounds working on your Ubuntu Hardy, 
even though alsamixer shows that message?

Fedora 8 installed on a machine with an hda intel card, showed the single 
control when opening alsamixer (post getting all latest package updates), but 
this was some time later, and there may well of been updates for pulseaudio 
packages on the other machine which have resolved the alsamixer problem, and 
alsamixer may well show the single control, if I re-enabled pulseaudio again.

Sorry for the bit of a ramble, which are just some observations. I think it 
all comes down to this. If all your audio apps are working with pulseaudio 
installed, and you think it's usefull having separate volume controls for 
your audio apps, then use pulseaudio. If on the other hand you are having 
problems getting sounds working with some audio apps, with pulseaudio 
enabled/installed, then disable/remove it, and you will find that your audio 
apps are now using alsa directly, as before pulseaudio came on the scene.

All the best.

Nigel.