PulseAudio and multiple users logged in at the same time

[Evgeniy Kirov]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I've updated the system from 9.04 to 9.10.

In 9.04 the sound worked well: when I switched the user, its music paused, and the second could listen to the.

Now the first user "locks" a sound, so that it works only for him.

PS. Sorry for my… m-m-m… not so good English, I hope you can understand me :) Shame about it.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: xtr 4404 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: xtr 4404 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'I82801DBICH4'/'Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with ALC650E at irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC650E'
   Components : 'AC97a:414c4722'
   Controls : 50
   Simple ctrls : 33
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'UART'/'MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 10'
   Mixer name : ''
   Components : ''
   Controls : 0
   Simple ctrls : 0
Card1.Amixer.values:

Date: Sun Nov 1 14:27:00 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.19-0ubuntu4
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=ru_RU.UTF-8
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-9.152-rt
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-9-rt i686

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this problem reproducible in the desktop (2.6.31-14-generic -- note
the generic, not rt) kernel?

[Evgeniy Kirov (evg.kirov)]

Yes.

[WaywardGeek (waywardgeek)]

I can confirm this bug happens on a new Karmic install. I do "Switch User..." and log in as another user, and that user gets no access to the sound card. The device is not listed by System/Prefereces/Sound.

I have a similar related problem I want to solve. Blind users run speakup, which starts as soon as the speakup_soft module is loaded. Speakup starts pulseaudio as user speech-dispatcher, which grabs the sound card, making it unavailable to any user logging into gnome. This really sucks for blind users.