no sound after fast switching between logged in users

[nadavkav]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

suddenly, after several "fast switching" between users
(that are logged in for several days)
sound breaks and there is no sound.

no specific consistence and not a specific application causing this
i just suddenly notice i can not play sounds from within flash objects in FF3
of play sound from totem or mplayer ...

restarting the alsa sound drivers does not help
/etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart
 * Shutting down ALSA... [ OK ]
 * Setting up ALSA... [ OK ]

( i am a root user, but also from a simple user that is the same case)
killall pulseaudio
pulseaudio: no process killed
root@family:~# /usr/bin/pulseaudio --system -D
W: ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.

also...
/usr/bin/pulseaudio --system
W: ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.
E: pid.c: Daemon already running.
E: main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.

some times those commands work and i get sound
but most of the time... those same commands does not
work and i have to reboot (if i wish to hear sound)

=========================
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10

=========================
apt-cache policy pulseaudio
pulseaudio:
  Installed: 0.9.10-2ubuntu9.1
  Candidate: 0.9.10-2ubuntu9.1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.10-2ubuntu9.1 0
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.9.10-2ubuntu9 0
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages

[nadavkav (nadavkav)]

i found out that...
only after closing firefox (3) on all user's sessions
i am able to start pulseaudio and have sound again.
(/usr/bin/pulseaudio --system -D)

i have flash 10 installed inside FF that hangs the sound. (i guess)

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom reproducible if you do NOT use a system-wide pulseaudio daemon instance (which is UNsupported by upstream for desktop usage)?

[nadavkav (nadavkav)]

how can i disable system-wide feature from pulseaudio's initial startup options ?
when i open system-monitor, i see several pulseaudio instances all started with "-D --system"

to workaround this isssue i "killall pulseaudio" and start a current user's pulseaudio --system

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

nadavkav, don't supply the "--system" switch when you start pulseaudio.

Also, I guess PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START should be 0 in /etc/init.d/pulseaudio, can this setting have been changed on your machine?

[nadavkav (nadavkav)]

you are right :-)

PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START is 0
and i should not start it system wide.

i checked (just now) the system wide running process, after a clear boot
and pulseaudio only had "-D --log-target=syslog" for each of the instances.
(my mistake, oups)

[Mike McCune (mjmccune-gmail)]

System wide pulseaudio not supported. Turning off system wide pulseaudio fixes the problem.

[LimCore (limcore)]

This bug still happens for me;

I am logged as 2 desktop users A and B. If I am in user's B VT (VT-9) then the sound from user A does not play and vice-versa.

Effects mplayer, kaffeine, totem.
Does NOT affect cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp

Ubuntu 9.04 amd 64

ps aux | grep pulseaudio
rafal 4639 0.3 0.2 241376 4752 ? Ssl 08:55 0:40 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start
rafal 4640 0.0 0.0 68048 1368 ? S 08:55 0:00 /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper
2850 18254 1.3 0.2 315112 5016 ? Ssl 10:36 1:18 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start
2850 18269 0.0 0.0 68048 2012 ? S 10:36 0:00 /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper

PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0 (it was this way all the time)

[LimCore (limcore)]

It seems that this is this way by design (thanks chowmeined for the hint)?

If yes, then some users do NOT want this sound to auto-stop.

Then sound system should allow simultaneous playback from VT-7, VT-9 etc desktops,
and should give an option to auto-mute or not.

[LimCore (limcore)]

Ok the solution (to have sound from all users at once, if you are logged in several desktop sessions at once) is:

1) edit as root /etc/default/pulseaudio
and set there:
PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1

2) add all users that use sound to groups: pulse-access and pulse-rt

3) restart computer

I also did remove /home/*/.pulse* and added to group pulse also - but this was probably not needed and a bad idea

[krul (krul)]

Hi LimCore,

I did this but without any success. I still got an instances of pulse per user. Did you do anything else? Which Ubuntu version are you using, 9.04?

[LimCore (limcore)]

Yes, Im on 9.04 (amd64)

Btw, in system-wide mode the sounds works badly for me :/ distortions, skips, crackling sound.

[Alexia Death (alexiade)]

User switching breaks pulseaudio for me now all the time. If I kill all pulseaudio sessions and start my own again with pulse-session I get sound again. For firefox to regain sound i need to kill it too. However, this is not the intended muting of curently inactive user, or if it is, its broken. My problem is that my session loses all sound if there is another users session live, but not active.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

See bug 433654

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 8.10 (intrepid) reached end-of-life on April 30, 2010.

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

Please upgrade to the latest version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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