blocks audio output for other applications

[Franz M. Safar]

On Ubuntu 16.04 squeezelite is working fine but it prevents all other application from playing sounds.
I tried it on an 32-Bit system too and the same problem occurs.
After uninstalling of squeezelite audio output works properly again but I would like to use squeezlite without installing and uninstalling before and after each use.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: squeezelite 1.8-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-45.66-generic 4.4.21
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-45-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Oct 24 18:33:30 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-21 (185 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_AT:de
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_AT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: squeezelite
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[seanlano (seanlano)]

I'm seeing this on a 14.04 system as well, with version 1.4-1.
After a reboot with squeezelite installed, no audio devices show up in the system Sound window, and no other applications make sound.

[seanlano (seanlano)]

Try to disable the squeezelite service, with:

    sudo systemctl stop squeezelite.service
    sudo systemctl disable squeezelite.service

This will prevent it from loading on reboot. For me, this fixes the problem.
You will need to start it manually when you want to use it, by opening a terminal and running the command "squeezelite". Press Ctrl+C to terminate it when done.

This seems to be some problem with the init scripts.

[Chris Boot (bootc)]

The bug, as such, is that the ALSA sound stack in Linux only allows one process to hold it open. In your case, it's either squeezelite or the rest of your desktop.

Desktops get around this by using PulseAudio or similar to multiplex the audio devices. Being a system service, squeezelite can't make use of that infrastructure. I'll see if there's anything that can be done but I suspect not.

[seanlano (seanlano)]

OK, thanks - that makes sense.

If I run `squeezelite` from a terminal when logged it, it correctly uses (I'm assuming) PulseAudio, because I can hear both system sounds and squeezelite music. Could it just be a matter of having squeezelite wait until PulseAudio is loaded before starting itself? I'll have a go writing a systemd init config that tries to do this.

[Kristian Andreas Vaksdal (vaksdal)]

Perhaps add a configuration option question/prompt during installation whether the user wants the service enabled (and explain the consequences)?

I was affected by this bug because I wasn't aware that 1) a system service was installed and 2) that this service would block my user session pulseaudio from playing audio. I figured it out after five or ten minutes, but other users might have a harder time figuring out why their audio is suddenly broken. Then again, for other users this system service is exactly the desired behaviour (say, with single purpose RPi-like computers).

[Derm (derm123)]

Looking at lsof /dev/snd/* I can see that the soundcard is locked by the squeezelite process. In the past I could release the lock by turning off the player in the gui. This no longer works, regardless of whether the player is powered on (gui terminology) the lock remains.