Pulseaudio not properly shutdown on logout

[Corey Kearney]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I have two systems with multiple users, this one I'm reporting on and and AMD 64 desktop. On both systems when I logout of one user and into another. the PA daemon is not shutdown and restarted as the new user so sound stops working. I can shutdown the old instance of PA from the terminal as the former user or sudo, and PA will automagicly restart with the correct user id. I had this problem in karmic as well but was unsure of the cause due to other PA issues and fixes I'd tried, this system however has not been messed with.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
AplayDevices:
 Home directory /home/vgadmin not ours.
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 Home directory /home/vgadmin not ours.
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: cherished 1483 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x58340000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC272'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0272,1025022f,00100001'
   Controls : 14
   Simple ctrls : 8
Date: Fri May 28 16:15:39 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429.4)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_CA.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
dmi.bios.date: 06/24/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V1.07
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Aspire one
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: V1.07
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V1.07
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV1.07:bd06/24/2009:svnAcer:pnAspireone:pvrV1.07:rvnAcer:rnAspireone:rvrV1.07:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV1.07:
dmi.product.name: Aspire one
dmi.product.version: V1.07
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[Corey Kearney (snkiz-deactivatedaccount)]

I found the problem, it seems the xsmp module wasn't set to load in the default.pa see:

### Register ourselves in the X11 session manager
#load-module module-x11-xsmp

I uncommented the line above and now pulse ownership is transfered when I logout and back in as a different user.
Why was this setting commented in the fist place??? How did this get through QA? Its so simple. If there is no reason to have that line commented, then all thats left to do is create a diff for pulse to change the setting. That beyond my abilities guys, a little help?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

The lines above it explain why the x11 modules are commented out. :)
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/lucid/pulseaudio/lucid/annotate/head:/src/daemon/default.pa.in

Furthermore, the xsmp module is actually loaded from the xdg autostart
desktop file.
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/lucid/pulseaudio/lucid/annotate/head:/src/daemon/start-pulseaudio-x11.in

The search really should be to determine why your session manager is racing.

[Corey Kearney (snkiz-deactivatedaccount)]

Your refering to this:

# X11 modules should not be started from default.pa so that one daemon
# can be shared by multiple sessions.

I saw that thought it was only for the bell module. But I see your point, because now I can logout to change users, but fast user switching isn't getting sound. Since My original problem borked fast switching anyway, a half fix is better than no fix.
You say my session is racing? Then its a session bug right? where did you see that? I'd like to get this fixed right.

[Corey Kearney (snkiz-deactivatedaccount)]

A little more digging it seems that this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/309724 and the one linked in the comments of that bug are somehow related. I tried removing all users from the audio group without success though, so at this point I'm totally lost.

@ Daniel, I'll leave it to you to decide if they are related, and how to mark this. Though I am pretty sure it isn't a local issue, as I have the same problem on two systems (fresh installs before I stared digging into this.) with newly created users. If there is anything else I can offer, or another package I should file with let me know, glad to help in any way I can.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Nicolas Palix (npalix)]

When I logout, pulseaudio, indicator-sound-service and indicator-bluetooth-service are still running.
Lightdm gets confused and my last account is noted as still active, like when fast-switching is used.

[Nicolas Palix (npalix)]

Affects Ubuntu 13.10.

[Matthew Gregg (mcg)]

Looks like this or a similar issue is still around in 14.04. "/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog" is left running when users logout.

[Matthew Gregg (mcg)]

Looks like if you enable "load-module module-x11-xsmp" in "/etc/pulse/default.pa" the daemon will properly shutdown at logout. However, unity-greeter(lightdm) also tries to spawn pulseaudio and doesn't have a session-manager attached which causes the daemon to continually crash and respawn with "module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed."

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Corey,

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid) reached end-of-life on May 9, 2013.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Please upgrade to the latest version and re-test.

Others: If you have ongoing issues please log separate bugs.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]