pulseaudio working from times to times

[Tom]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I have a fresh 8.10 install and Pulseaudio isn't working reliably for me. Sometimes it plays sound, sometimes it doesn't. Some music/video players work with it, others don't. YouTube sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't (I do have the flash plugin). And this doesn't just happen on one machine, it happens on several different 8.10 installs. The configuration tools for pulseaudio are confusing, give way too many options, and have way too many ways in which audio can be accidentally disabled. Pulseaudio problems often simply manifest by something hanging. SDL programs were waiting for minutes for some pulseaudio connection to time out.

I know this kind of bug report isn't very helpful in tracking down a specific problem with pulseaudio, but the problems with pulseaudio aren't specific problems, they seem to be bad quality control and a bad user interface. I don't think pulseaudio should have been included in Ubuntu in this form; it simply isn't ready for prime time. Furthermore, the decision to provide backwards compatibility seems to have made the problem worse: instead of simply failing, applications now hang or behave unpredictably.

Audio is absolutely essential for modern desktop environments, and these issues are a serious problem for Ubuntu 8.10 adoption.