Should be pulseaudio installed by default in Chakra iso?

Teho · 2012-02-04 14:29:53

PulseAudio has built-in equalizer GUI that's based on Python/Qt but it doesn't seem to work at least on Chakra / Arch Linux (it requires you to have "load-module module-equalizer-sink" in $HOME/.pulse/default.pa but after adding that PulseAudio fails to start). It would nice if this could be worked out as the equalizer sounds quite interesting (unlimited bands for example) and better yet it's based on Qt.

Last edited by Teho (2012-02-04 14:33:20)

Thero Layfer · 2012-02-05 18:51:15

vote for PA

ojoao · 2012-02-06 21:40:59

Teho wrote:

PulseAudio has built-in equalizer GUI that's based on Python/Qt but it doesn't seem to work at least on Chakra / Arch Linux (it requires you to have "load-module module-equalizer-sink" in $HOME/.pulse/default.pa but after adding that PulseAudio fails to start). It would nice if this could be worked out as the equalizer sounds quite interesting (unlimited bands for example) and better yet it's based on Qt.

I didn't knew the existence of "qpaeq" ! After reading your post I decided to try it (so forget my previous post on how I got system-wide equalizer... qpaeq seems to give me better results and it's Qt).

First I deleted my .pulse/ dir, so to reset the settings.

Then, I added 2 lines in /etc/pulse/default.pa:

load-module module-equalizer-sink sink_name=equalized
set-default-sink equalized

(source: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio and http://pulseaudio.org/wiki/SystemEqualizer)

Then I rebooted. After that qpaeq worked (the gui appeared). No presets, but having a gui is nice and you can save/load your own settings.

Sometimes the audio stream playing get the equalizer, sometimes I have to use veromix, right click on the stream and "move" it to the equalizer sink (in my case it's named FFT based equalizer).
(note: As for my personnal experiments, I only have to do it once for each audio stream "name". After that it seems to remember that choice. This is not scientific, as I don't know much about it and I'm only experimenting; it's only my personnal-empirical testing).

Some examples of stream "names" :
* VLC --> VLC media player audio stream (in veromix)
* Amarok --> Equalized Stream (in veromix)
* Konquero Flash --> konqueror ALSA playback (in veromix)

Does anyone have some experience with this ? I'm describing my experiments here because I didn't found much about it anywhere ...

Last edited by ojoao (2012-02-06 21:42:13)

Teho · 2012-02-06 22:07:53

ojoao wrote:

I got system-wide equalizer... qpaeq seems to give me better results and it's Qt).

Thanks. It worked after I moved the lines to /etc/pulse/default.pa. Now I have one GTK application less on my system

ojoao wrote:

Sometimes the audio stream playing get the equalizer, sometimes I have to use veromix

You could try setting the Equalizer as default audio output in system settings.

jmc · 2012-02-06 22:15:54

Trying the equalized sink, and I have to say that is sucks too much resources on my end. I can't bear to have 25% of my dual-core CPU to PulseAudio only to have a bit of equalization.

Teho · 2012-02-06 22:47:32

jmc wrote:

Trying the equalized sink, and I have to say that is sucks too much resources on my end.

For me having equalization doesn't seem to affect CPU usage in anyway, it stays under 1% in any case. Do you have high CPU usage with PulseAudio even without EQ too?

jmc · 2012-02-06 23:13:54

Goes up to 11%-12% without equalization. Still not good!

Teho · 2012-02-06 23:51:54

jmc wrote:

Goes up to 11%-12% without equalization. Still not good!

Out of curiosity do you happen to use one of these drivers? Anything other than close to zero CPU usage obviously hints that something is wrong, usually ALSA drivers.

jmc · 2012-02-07 00:43:27

Nope, the fact is that I'm using OSSv4, not ALSA, and I guess PulseAudio doesn't really like this...

Arch Villain · 2012-03-31 03:41:11

I just want, whatever will fricken' work. I have issues, exactly like the ones in the first post. It's driving me crazy. At the same time, I edit video to music in Kdenlive, which requires frame acurate timing so I haven't been game to install Pulse Audio because the latency concerns me. I also figured that if the "default" in Chakra was no pulse, then I had a better chance of stable sound by not installing pulse. Hope I wasn't wrong...

evll · 2012-03-31 14:48:49

I am against pulse audio. When using it, I can't select my webcam as a recording device in phonon (and thus in skype).

Welfare · 2012-04-09 03:06:06

I would like pulseaudio to be included on the new release. Thanks! and congrats to the Chakra Team!

manutortosa · 2012-04-09 17:38:02

PulseAudio will work great for many configs and will not work for others so the choice by default is Alsa and then you are free to install whatever. Installing PulseAudio is easy, remove it is harder so right now, we don't plan to switch to PulseAudio by defautl.

Alejandro Nova · 2012-04-09 19:06:40

PulseAudio is needed for several use cases.

1. Notebook with HDMI-audio output. It is the case with my E-450 notebook.
2. Two sound cards.
3. TV card without external Line-in routing.

The ability Chakra has to work WITHOUT Pulse is an important feature. However, the PulseAudio use case must be at least supported as optional. And that means: please, drop the ALSA-only solutions and install PulseAudio compatible ones where it's possible. For instance, drop the Jack Audio Connection Kit R1 that you are shipping and use Jack2.

Kepsz · 2012-05-07 19:30:16

Alejandro Nova wrote:

PulseAudio is needed for several use cases.
1. Notebook with HDMI-audio output. It is the case with my E-450 notebook.
2. Two sound cards.
3. TV card without external Line-in routing.

Add my setup to the list. Normal pc, 3 sound cards. Audigy1, onboard audio and HDMI audio from VGA, This means about 25 (one device for every speeker setup) devices in alsa settings.
Configure them with alsa is extremly difficult. In almost every bootup i got a massage from the notifier: xyz sound device missing, pqr new sound device found and a question about what to do them. So default audio device is almost constantly changing.

Last time i got every sound works in my Audigy, expect Youtube vids (prior this, Yt sound borks, but i got no sound from video players, except VLC wich is well configureablke in aduio).
I can't figure it out, what's the problem is. Then i installed pulseaudio packages. Problemes gone. Now configureing audio is greatly simplier, and every sound works in the choosen default device.

My friend installed Chakra today on his laptop. Every sound was to weak, while everything was set to maximum in alsa. He installed pulseaudio packages, and then sound levels became normal.

For the topic's question: +1 to pulseaudio. For the devs: installing pulseaudio from the repo is only good for the people who knows what is pulseaudio and what is it for. So it's not a simple thing.

Last edited by Kepsz (2012-05-07 19:31:20)

manutortosa · 2012-05-07 20:25:10

@Alejandro: most packages are already tweaked to work with both pulse and Alsa and the new jack is in testing, If you find something else we can improve just warn

Arch Villain · 2012-06-21 17:22:25

I've had different problems both with and without Pulse. Without it, both of my desktop systems get confused by soundcards with the graphics card. I get different apps blocking audio (especially with Kdenlive) and other fun. With Pulse though, I get stuff like Skype (4.0.0.7 the Pulse version) coming up with errors about not finding pulse (the daemon is running) and not crashing.

In general I seem to run into LESS problems with Pulse installed, but let's just say that with or without it, it's a rare day I don't have *some* kind of issue with audio on any of my machines. (No sound in Flash is a common one, although reloading the page sometimes helps).

Right now, I'd give the PA by default a tentative thumbs up... while hoping that the next release / drivers work better.

venky80 · 2012-06-21 19:06:23

just a matter of time before we have to move towards pulseaudio. I think there have been countless articles on planet gnome and planet kde about why it is good and is the future. I think we will wait till it is mature with no major issues before we make it the default i guess

Teho · 2012-06-21 20:10:43

venky80 wrote:

I think we will wait till it is mature with no major issues before we make it the default i guess

What "major" issues does it exactly have? It's eight year old project that has been used exclusively for the past five. It's the only actively maintained and developed audio mixer for desktop use in Linux. Not only that but ALSA is no longer offically supported by Phonon-GStreamer that if I'm not mistaken Chakra is using by default. Now because PulseAudio is not properly supported in Chakra means that users that need it (bluetooth headsets, multiple output sources, application specific volume control and equalizers...) are more likely to have problems with it.

Last edited by Teho (2012-06-21 20:11:07)

abveritas · 2012-06-21 20:16:57

Wow, bold statements, "not properly supported". Since for all Chakra devs, alsa is far less problematic, it is still default, or at least shipped, but if any package is not "properly" build to support pulseaudio, then please state so, not much use to make these kind of statements, without pointing to those "bad" builds.

Teho · 2012-06-21 20:30:54

abveritas wrote:

Wow, bold statements, "not properly supported". Since for all Chakra devs, alsa is far less problematic, it is still default, or at least shipped, but if any package is not "properly" build to support pulseaudio, then please state so, not much use to make these kind of statements, without pointing to those "bad" builds.

If PulseAudio works so badly for the Chakra developer I would asume that there are problems configuration or compilation. I personally had no problem with it even in Chakra and the bug tracker is empty.

abveritas · 2012-06-21 20:54:01

?? You have no problem, but in previous post state, it is not properly done in Chakra??

Teho · 2012-06-21 21:14:04

abveritas wrote:

?? You have no problem, but in previous post state, it is not properly done in Chakra??

I said it's not properly supported not properly done. I would assume that Chakra has very limited resources for testing and the fact that it doesn't ship with PulseAudio by default could easily lead to unfound problems. I'm not saying that it's definetly not well supported but these unspesified problems really rise a question if it is.

abveritas · 2012-06-21 21:25:28

Again, it would be very beneficial if instead of vague statements of Chakra's wrong doing, you could actually point to were things are wrong. some output would ofc really help to correct whatever you are suggesting is not as should.

Teho · 2012-06-21 21:40:28

abveritas wrote:

Again, it would be very beneficial if instead of vague statements of Chakra's wrong doing, you could actually point to were things are wrong. some output would ofc really help to correct whatever you are suggesting is not as should.

Only thing I think Chakra is doing wrong here is not using PulseAudio by default.

Last edited by Teho (2012-06-21 21:40:53)

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Re: Should be pulseaudio installed by default in Chakra iso?

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Re: Should be pulseaudio installed by default in Chakra iso?

#36 2012-03-31 14:48:49

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#37 2012-04-09 03:06:06

Re: Should be pulseaudio installed by default in Chakra iso?

#38 2012-04-09 17:38:02

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#39 2012-04-09 19:06:40

Re: Should be pulseaudio installed by default in Chakra iso?

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Re: Should be pulseaudio installed by default in Chakra iso?

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Re: Should be pulseaudio installed by default in Chakra iso?

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