rdesktop no sound on local computer

[Dennis Seleznyov]

Binary package hint: rdesktop

There is no sound forwarded to my local PC, local OS is Ubuntu 8.10, remote OS is Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1

rdesktop version is rdesktop-1.6.0-2ubuntu1

Tried with '-r sound:local', '-r sound:local:alsa', and '-r sound:local:oss'. But there was no effect. Remote pc plays any sound file as usual, without any errors, but I can't hear anything on local pc.

[James (james-redhat-bugs)]

When using rdesktop 1.6 to connect to Windows XP hosts, if I use the "-r sound" option, sound redirection works just fine.

However, if I connect to a host running Windows Server 2008 instead, sound redirection does not work.

The strange thing, though, is that the Windows Server 2008 host thinks that sound redirection *is* working. Specifically, it claims that the audio driver is:

    Microsoft RDP Audio Transport

...and *appears* to play sounds successfully. (That is, if you load up a sound file and start playing it, Windows Server 2008 plays the file with no errors.) The Microsoft RDP Audio Transport audio control is not muted, and the volume is turned the whole way up.

But nonetheless, rdesktop produces no sounds.

From searching the web, I see other people reporting that sound redirection isn't working with rdesktop 1.6 and Windows Server 2008 / Vista, but I couldn't find any mention of it in the rdesktop mailing list archives.

Versions:

0:rdesktop-1.6.0-4.fc11.x86_64

[Bug (bug-redhat-bugs)]

This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 11 development cycle.
Changing version to '11'.

More information and reason for this action is here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

[brian mullan (bmullan)]

I am having a problem with this also but looking at the rdesktop man page and multiple examples I am still puzzled about the -r option.

many examples show its use as

rdesktop -rsound

no space btwn -r and sound

man page shows a space?

I am running SeamlessRDP on a Windows 2003 server and doing rdesktop -rsound -A -s "c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe iexplore.bat" <host id>

the iexplore.bat use is something I picked up where if you create a .bat file on windows for each app you want to execute you can run the actual program from the batch file... followed by the windows Logoff command. That keeps the Windows RDP from locking you out because you've used up your sessions.

Everything works but still no sound. I did try substituting Cendio's sound driver (from their downloadable server CD) on the Windows side but that's still not made a difference.

I am still not sure where the problem lies (with windows seamlessrdp side or with Linux rdesktop side). Sound does work on the Linux side tho' when browsing to the same web site (I just test by running browser to cnn.com and picking one of their short news video's).

[brian mullan (bmullan)]

I did just prove to myself that the man page is correct. rdesktop -r sound (with a space) is correct and the various web examples w/out one are wrong so always verify what you see on the web still holds true

[Claus Frein (cfrein)]

rdesktop with no sound? Sounds familiar to me.

But recently I found following post:
"For some bizarre reason you seem to have to redirect another device in addition to sound." (http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Rdesktop%3Dno-sound-p22223981.html)

And suddenly - after additionally redirecting my local disk - local sound starts working!

Hope this works for you too.

Nevertheless still remains a bug.

[Siddharth (siddharth-redhat-bugs)]

I'm surprised how this worked with Windows XP. This seems to be an issue with Fedora 11 moving to pulseaudio while rdesktop is still expecting the old /dev/dsp for sound.

See here:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2806356&group_id=24366&atid=381347

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[James (james-redhat-bugs)]

This is still an issue with Fedora 13 (rdesktop-1.6.0-7).

@Siddharth: this is a different bug. The problem with rdesktop wanting /dev/dsp can be worked-around by using padsp. E.g.:

$ padsp rdesktop -r sound win2008-server.example.org

But anyway, I tracked down the problem: per upstream, audio redirection doesn't work on Windows Server 2008 unless a disk redirection is also used:

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_name=a7eb578e0908201652l6aa5645cu4373ea7fea0d794f%40mail.gmail.com

Meaning, this won't work:

$ padsp rdesktop -r sound win2008-server.example.org

You have to do (e.g.):

$ padsp rdesktop -r sound -r disk:home=/home win2008-server.example.org

(It doesn't matter what disk path you redirect; you just have to redirect *something*.)

This seemed totally non-intuitive to me, but from my testing, upstream is correct: sound redirection works perfectly if and only if I redirect a disk path.

[James (james-redhat-bugs)]

Closing as NOTABUG, because (per upstream) this is a limitation/restriction of Windows Server 2008.

[eksatx (errolsiegel)]

I can confirm that this issue still exists and the same workaround still works.

I am running Ubuntu 10.10 on an Asus eee 1005pe-pu17 netbook and connecting to Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit).

Desktop interaction worked fine, but no sound was being forwarded.

Taking the advice of the above post, I selected the option to redirect my local disk and sound is now forwarding from the remote system just fine.

[Catalin Patulea (cpatulea)]

Possibly related bug: No sound on rdesktop 1.6.0 connecting to Windows _XP_ 64-bit.

Turning on -r disk:tmp=/tmp didn't fix sound.

At least in my case, the sound drivers on the Windows box did get set to Microsoft RDP Audio Driver, so it seems to be a client-side issue.

[Catalin Patulea (cpatulea)]

Disregard that - turns out I had my sound device forced to the hardware device in the application that was playing the sound. As soon as I changed the output device to the RDP driver, I got sound!

[Mau (maugarta-cc)]

This issue also exists in Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS (x64) connecting to a windows 2008 R2 and the same workaround still works. If I redirect another device, in addition to sound, sound redirection works fine.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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