Terrible sound in VirtualBox (both OSE and mainstream)

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek]

Binary package hint: virtualbox-ose

My VirtualBox instance started to have terrible 'hoarse' sound under my guest Windows XP. After I installed Karmic (at 09 X 2009) it was OK, but it got spoilt after a period of time. Reinstalling guest additions didn't help. I have this problem both on OSE version from repositories and on the mainstream version from official VBox repository.

I use 64-bit Karmic.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: b35340b6290029563207fd4b2aa461a1
CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
Date: Thu Oct 15 00:01:32 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Alpha amd64 (20091008)
Package: virtualbox-ose-qt 3.0.6-dfsg-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.46-generic
SourcePackage: virtualbox-ose
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
VirtualBoxOse.DpkgList:
 rc virtualbox-3.0 3.0.8-53138_Ubuntu_karmic Sun VirtualBox
 ii virtualbox-guest-additions 3.0.6-1 guest additions iso image for VirtualBox
 ii virtualbox-ose 3.0.6-dfsg-1ubuntu1 x86 virtualization solution - base binaries
 ii virtualbox-ose-qt 3.0.6-dfsg-1ubuntu1 x86 virtualization solution - Qt based user
 ii virtualbox-ose-source 3.0.6-dfsg-1ubuntu1 x86 virtualization solution - kernel module

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

*Yawn*. I should have already know that. As usual, VirtualBox defaulted to ALSA; changing it to PulseAudio fixed the problem.

It seems like a very common issue shared by many programs. How are those poor usual Ubuntu users supposed to know they have to manually switch alsa to pulse in 1/2 their apps? I think we should pay more attention to proper default settings...

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

BTW: as far as I know, if an application wants to use ALSA, it's tricked and really uses a virtual device which really outputs its sound to PulseAudio. So it seems there is a huge problem with efficiency of this virtual device, am I right? Otherwise even setting ALSA as a sound output shouldn't cause such bad effects...

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

(ok, don't bother to answer here, I asked a question: https://answers.launchpad.net/questions/86831)

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

It seems VBox sets audio device correctly to PulseAudio for new devices. This issue concerned only machines created before Karmic installation and just moved with other configuration files.

I'm marking it invalid.