Comment 14 for bug 447844

No, the correct (which also happens to be the easiest) resolution is to *use
one audio backend* for all Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives/remixes.

It has been an absolute nightmare to carry different configurations because
Kubuntu and Xubuntu don't want PulseAudio. Now, as a user, I understand
(note: I don't necessarily empathize with) the frustration that PA brings,
but with Ubuntu derivatives, this pain has been caused largely by some
packages (mplayer, libao, libsdl, xine-lib, phonon, etc.) shipping the ALSA
backend as default (instead of PA). We wouldn't want to screw up the user
experience of Kubuntu or Xubuntu now would we? Of course this reluctance to
use PA by default means that everyone loses. People who never install
anything that links to PA are fine. People who install Kubuntu or Xubuntu
(or Ubuntu and then kubuntu-desktop or xubuntu-desktop) suddenly get the
impression that everything audio-wise is awry. And it's because of this
desire not to use PA by default! Of course when ALSA apps are configured
such that nothing else could play with them exclusively, when PA tries to do
so, it fails. This is the precise case that I described with mpd and
bigbrovar.

Seriously, I spend a lot of my free time reading complaints instead of
fixing audio, which is originally what I intended to do when I became a core
developer. I waste a lot of time, in fact, explaining that people's concerns
would be addressed more quickly if they stopped resisting the inevitable use
of PA on the desktop. I waste a lot of time answering posts that are not
based in any sort of technical merit, just foolhardy vitriol that does
nothing to actually advance Linux desktop audio.

Well excuse me for trying to improve this situation!

On Nov 5, 2009 1:58 PM, "Dima Ryazanov" <email address hidden> wrote:

I don't know what mpd is, but I'm pretty sure I'm not using it. And yet,
I was still having problems - until I uninstalled PulseAudio.

I had problems with Amarok, Flash player, and even aplay. Ok, Phonon
might not have been configured correctly (which is still a bug!). Flash
player may be broken - it's closed-source, so we don't know what it
does. But aplay? What's the excuse here?

So far, the easiest solution to all these problems seems to be to
uninstall PulseAudio.

-- kubuntu Karmic can't output sound at the same time
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/447844

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