Can't start session after removing pulseaudio (/etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio remains)

[racoon97]

If you remove he pulseaudio package without also removing configuration files, it is not possible to log into a GNOME session, due to /usr/bin/pulse-session no longer existing.

Test case:
With the existing pulseaudio package from the archive:
1. remove but don't purge pulseaudio from your system.
2. Attempt to log into GNOME, and receive a failure.
With the pulseaudio package from proposed:
1. Remove but don't purge pulseaudio from your system.
2. Attempt to log into GNOME, which should be successful.

Regression potential:
Minimal, this fix checks for /usr/bin/pulse-session and whether it is executable before starting it.

This does not need to be fixed in jaunty, as this file is no longer needed, due to the newer pulseaudio being started by a different mechanism. This file was also to reduce a race condition, one that should no longer exist in jaunty, once a new libcanberra is uploaded, being built against pulseaudio in jaunty.

[arno_b (arno.b)]

Because ubuntu is bound to pluseaudio:
when you run sudo aptitude remove pulseaudio, you have a message like that: "ubuntu-desktop is dependant of"...

To sum up, if you uninstall pluseaudio, you unsintall ubuntu-desktop too.

[racoon97 (racoon97)]

Yes I know. But ubuntu-desktop is just a meta package, I have always uninstall pulseaudio on Hardy and Gnome continue to start work after that.

[arno_b (arno.b)]

hum... Indeed, that's weird.
Can you reproduce that?
When you remove pulseaudio, is there any package that is removed too?

[racoon97 (racoon97)]

Yes sure, I remove only pulseaudio, so it remove it without any dependencies. Tested with fresh Intrepid installation. Indeed, after you have to open a CLI and reinstall pulseaudio if you want to open your session.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

The problem is that removing the package doesn't remove /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio, because it is listed as a conffile in the Debian package. If you want to remove Pulseaudio and be able to log in, you need to completely purge Pulseaudio from your system:

sudo apt-get remove --purge pulseaudio

[Christopher Monahan (foreverwatcher)]

Another way of looking at it: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio doesn't check that /usr/bin/pulse-session actually exists before it tries to execute it.

Either this check should be applied in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio or it should be removed or disabled somehow when the user removes pulseaudio.

I have used the attached file for /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio and it works fine.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Based on this jaunty changelog entry, I guess this is not an issue for jaunty:

  * debian/pulseaudio.preinst: When upgrading from intrepid, remove
    /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio, as this was used to minimize a race
    condition when starting GNOME in intrepid. This race should not exist in
    jaunty once libcanberra is built to use pulseaudio as a backend.

Please reopen if it is.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Accepted into intrepid-proposed, please test and give feedback here. Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

The updated package from proposed works successfully. I am able to remove pulseaudio without removing any configuration files, including /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio, and GNOME logs in successfully.

[vicky (vickonio)]

i am in failsafe gnome session because i could not login to gnome session.
what i have done is the following
        * killall pulseaudio
        * sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio
        * sudo apt-get install esound
        * sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio

and after this i came across with the .xsession-errors (couldn't exec/usr/bin/pulse-session)
what shall i do now so i can properly login into gnome session? I am only 3 days old in ubuntu...

thanks a lot

[vicky (vickonio)]

shall i re-install the pulseaudio package?

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

vicky, that's a completely unrelated problem. Also, esound is really utterly broken, you should not use that. It is known that it causes system lockups. Please reinstall pulseaudio again, or don't install either.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

vicky, whoops, please ignore my previous comment. You need to upgrade to the new pulseaudio in intrepid-proposed first; removing the new version will properly clean up after itself.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package pulseaudio - 0.9.10-2ubuntu9.1

---------------
pulseaudio (0.9.10-2ubuntu9.1) intrepid-proposed; urgency=low

  * debian/70pulseaudio: Check that /usr/bin/pulse-session is executable before
    adding it to the STARTUP variable. Fix based on patch thanks to
    Maze <email address hidden>. (LP: #294541)

 -- Luke Yelavich <email address hidden> Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:39:21 +1100