PulseAudio
PulseAudio is the default sound server that serves as a proxy to sound applications using existing kernel sound components like ALSA or OSS. Since ALSA is included in Arch Linux by default so the most common deployment scenarios include PulseAudio with ALSA.
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Contents
- 1 Installation
- 2 Running
- 3 Equalizer
- 4 Backend Configuration
- 5 Desktop Environments
- 6 Applications
- 7 Troubleshooting
- 7.1 No sound after install
- 7.2 Bluetooth headset replay problems
- 7.3 Automatically switch to Bluetooth or USB headset
- 7.4 Pulse overwrites ALSA settings
- 7.5 Daemon startup failed
- 7.6 padevchooser
- 7.7 Glitches, skips or crackling
- 7.8 Setting the default fragment number and buffer size in Pulseaudio
- 7.9 Laggy sound
- 7.10 Choppy, overdriven sound
- 7.11 Volume adjustment does not work properly
- 7.12 Volume gets louder every time a new application is started
- 7.13 No mic on ThinkPad T400/T500/T420
- 7.14 No mic input on Acer Aspire One
- 7.15 Sound output is only mono on M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card
- 7.16 Static Noise in Microphone Recording
- 7.17 My Bluetooth device is paired but does not play any sound
- 7.18 Subwoofer stops working after end of every song
- 7.19 Pulseaudio uses wrong microphone
- 7.20 Choppy Sound with Analog Surround Sound Setup
- 8 External links
Installation
- Required PKG: pulseaudio
- Optional GUIs: paprefs and pavucontrol
- Optional volume control via mapped keyboard keys: pulseaudio_ctlAUR
- Optional console mixer: ponymix-gitAUR and pamixer-gitAUR
- Optional system tray icon: pasystray-gitAUR
- Optional kde plasma applet: kdeplasma-applets-veromixAUR
Running
In the unlikely event that pulseaudio is not automatically called upon entering X, it can can be started with:
$ pulseaudio --start
PulseAudio can be stopped with:
$ pulseaudio --kill
Equalizer
Newer pulseaudio versions have an intergrated 10-band equalizer system. In order to use the equalizer do the following:
Load equalizer sink module
$ pactl load-module module-equalizer-sink
Install and run the gui frontend
# pacman -S --needed python2-pyqt
$ qpaeq
Load equalizer module on every boot
Edit the file /etc/pulse/default.pa
with your favorite editor and append the following lines:
### Load the integrated pulseaudio equalizer module load-module module-equalizer-sink
Backend Configuration
ALSA
- Recommended PKG: pulseaudio-alsa
- Optional PKGs: lib32-libpulse and lib32-alsa-plugins
For the applications that do not support PulseAudio and support ALSA it is recommended to install the PulseAudio plugin for ALSA. This package also contains the necessary /etc/asound.conf
for configuring ALSA to use PulseAudio.
To prevent applications from using ALSA's OSS emulation and bypassing Pulseaudio (thereby preventing other applications from playing sound), make sure the module snd_pcm_oss
is not in the MODULES
array in /etc/rc.conf
. If it is currently loaded (lsmod|grep oss
), disable it by executing:
# rmmod snd_pcm_oss
OSS
There are multiple ways of making OSS-only programs play to PulseAudio:
ossp
Start ossp with:
rc.d start osspd
Afterwards, add it to DAEMONS in rc.conf
.
padsp wrapper (part of PulseAudio)
Programs using OSS can work with PulseAudio by starting it with padsp:
$ padsp OSSprogram
A few examples:
$ padsp aumix $ padsp sox foo.wav -t ossdsp /dev/dsp
One can also rename the OSSprogram-bin
binary and replace it with a script like this:
/usr/bin/OSSProgram
#!/bin/sh if test -x /usr/bin/padsp; then exec /usr/bin/padsp /usr/bin/OSSprogram-bin "$@" else exec /usr/bin/OSSprogram "$@" fi
GStreamer
To make GStreamer use PulseAudio, you need to install gstreamer0.10-good-plugins, execute gstreamer-properties
(part of gnome-media package) and select PulseAudio Sound Server in both Audio Input and Output. Alternatively, this can be done by setting the gconf variables /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/audiosink
to pulsesink and /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/audiosrc
to pulsesrc:
$ gconftool-2 -t string --set /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/audiosink pulsesink $ gconftool-2 -t string --set /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/audiosrc pulsesrc
Some applications (like Rhythmbox) ignore the audiosink property, but rely instead on musicaudiosink, which cannot be configured using gstreamer-properties
but needs to be manually set using gconf-editor
or the gconftool-2
:
$ gconftool-2 -t string --set /system/gstreamer/0.10/default/musicaudiosink pulsesink
OpenAL
OpenAL Soft should use PulseAudio by default, but can be explicitly configured to do so:/etc/openal/alsoft.conf
drivers=pulse,alsa
libao
Edit the libao configuration file:
/etc/libao.conf
default_driver=pulse
ESD
PulseAudio is a drop-in replacement for the enlightened sound daemon (ESD). While PulseAudio is running, ESD clients should be able to output to it without configuration.
Desktop Environments
General X11
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/pulseaudio
or the files in /etc/xdg/autostart/
if users have some DE installed.Check to see if PulseAudio is running:
$ ps aux | grep pulse facade 1794 0.0 0.0 360464 6532 ? S<l 15:33 0:00 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start facade 1827 0.0 0.0 68888 2608 ? S 15:33 0:00 /usr/lib/pulse/gconf-helper
If Pulseaudio is not running and users are using X, the following will start PulseAudio with the needed the X11 plugins manually:
$ start-pulseaudio-x11
If you are not running Gnome, KDE or XFCE and your ~/.xinitrc
does not source the scripts in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d
(such as is done in the example file /etc/skel/.xinitrc
) then you can launch PulseAudio on boot by adding the following line to ~/.xinitrc:
/usr/bin/start-pulseaudio-x11
GNOME
As of GNOME 3, GNOME fully integrates with PulseAudio and no extra configuration is needed.
KDE 3
PulseAudio is not a drop-in replacement for aRts. Users of KDE 3 cannot use PulseAudio. However note, recent versions of PulseAudio may have eliminated the prohibition:
See: http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup KDE 3 uses the artsd sound server by default. However, artsd itself can be configured to use an Esound backend. Edit kcmartsrc (either in /etc/kde or /usr/share/config for global configuration or .kde/share/config to configure only one user) like this:
[Arts] Arguments=\s-F 10 -S 4096 -a esd -n -s 1 -m artsmessage -c drkonqi -l 3 -f NetworkTransparent=true SuspendTime=1
KDE Plasma Workspaces and Qt4
PulseAudio, it will be used by KDE/Qt4 applications. For more information see the KDE page in the PulseAudio wiki.
PulseAudio support has been merged into KMix, the default KDE sound mixer.
One useful tidbit from that page is to add load-module module-device-manager
to /etc/pulse/default.pa
.
Additionally, the kdeplasma-applets-veromixAUR is available in the AUR as a KDE alternative to KMix or pavucontrol.
Xfce
Applications running under Xfce can take advantage of PulseAudio. To manage PulseAudio settings you can use pavucontrol.
Applications
Audacious
Audacious natively supports PulseAudio. In order to use it, set Audacious Preferences -> Audio -> Current output plugin to 'PulseAudio Output Plugin'.
Java/OpenJDK 6
Create a wrapper for the java executable using padsp as seen on the Java sound with Pulseaudio page.
Music Player Daemon (MPD)
configure MPD to use PulseAudio.
MPlayer
MPlayer natively supports PulseAudio output with the "-ao pulse
" option. It can also be configured to default to PulseAudio output, in ~/.mplayer/config
for per-user, or /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
for system-wide:
/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
ao=pulse
Skype (x86_64 only)
Install lib32-libpulse, otherwise the following error will occur when trying to initiate a call: "Problem with Audio Playback".
Troubleshooting
No sound after install
Muted audio device
If one experiences no audio output via any means while using ALSA, attempt to unmute the sound card. To do this, launch alsamixer and make sure each column has a green 00 under it (this can be toggled by pressing 'm')
$ alsamixer -c 0
Bad configuration files
If after starting pulseaudio, the system outputs no sound, it may be necessary to delete the contents of ~/.pulse
. Pulseaudio will automatically create new configuration files on its next start.
Flash Content
Since Adobe Flash does not directly support PulseAudio the recommended way is to configure ALSA to use the virtual PulseAudio soundcard.
Alternatively you may try out libflashsupport-pulseAUR from the AUR.
No cards
If PulseAudio starts, run pacmd list
. If no cards are reported, make sure that the ALSA devices are not in use:
$ fuser -v /dev/snd/* $ fuser -v /dev/dsp
Make sure any applications using the pcm or dsp files are shut down before restarting PulseAudio.
The only device shown is "dummy output"
This may be caused by different reasons, one of them being the .asoundrc file in $HOME is taking precedence over the systemwide /etc/asound.conf.
The user file is modified also by the tool asoundconf or by its graphical variant asoundconf-gtk (the latter is named "Default sound card" in the menu) as soon as it runs. Prevent the effects of .asoundrc altogether by commenting the last line like this:
#</home/<yourusername>/.asoundrc.asoundconf>
KDE4
It may be that another output device set as preferred in phonon. Make sure that every setting reflects the preferred output device at the top, and check the playback streams tab in kmix to make sure that applications are using the device for output.
Bluetooth headset replay problems
Some user report huge delays or even no sound when the bluetooth connection does not send any data. This is due to an idle-suspend-module that puts the related sinks/sources automatically into suspend. As this can cause problems with headset, the responsible module can be deactivated.
1. cp /etc/pulse/default.pa ~/.pulse/default.pa 2. comment out the "load-module module-suspend-on-idle" line in ~/.pulse/default.pa 3. pulseaudio -k && pulseaudio --start
Automatically switch to Bluetooth or USB headset
Add the following to your /etc/pulse/default.pa:
# automatically switch to newly-connected devices load-module module-switch-on-connect
Pulse overwrites ALSA settings
Pulseaudio usually overwrites the ALSA settings- for example set with alsamixer- at start up, even when the alsa daemon is loaded. Since there seems to be no other way to restrict this behaviour, a workaround is to restore the alsa settings again after pulseaudio had started. Add the following command to .xinitrc
.bash_login
or any other autostart file:
restore_alsa() { while [ -z "`pidof pulseaudio`" ]; do sleep 0.5 done alsactl -f /var/lib/alsa/asound.state restore } restore_alsa &
Daemon startup failed
Try resetting PulseAudio. To do that:
$ pulseaudio --kill $ killall pulseaudio $ killall -9 pulseaudio $ rm -rf ~/.pulse* $ rm -rf /tmp/pulse*
Afterwards, start PulseAudio again.
padevchooser
If one cannot launch the PulseAudio Device Chooser, first (re)start the Avahi daemon as follows:
$ rc.d restart avahi-daemon
Glitches, skips or crackling
The newer implementation of PulseAudio sound server uses a timer-based audio scheduling instead of the traditional interrupt-driven approach.
Timer-based scheduling may expose issues in some ALSA drivers. On the other hand, other drivers might be glitchy without it on, so check to see what works on your system.
To turn timer-based scheduling off, replace the line:
load-module module-udev-detect
in /etc/pulse/default.pa
by:
load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0
Then restart the PulseAudio server.
Do the reverse to enable timer-based scheduling, if not already enabled by default.
Please report any such cards to PulseAudio Broken Sound Driver page
Setting the default fragment number and buffer size in Pulseaudio
1. Finding out your audio device parameters
Run the following Bash commands to find your sound card buffering settings:
echo autospawn = no >> ~/.pulse/client.conf killall pulseaudio LANG=C timeout --foreground -k 10 -s kill 10 pulseaudio -vvvv 2>&1 | grep device.buffering -B 10 sed -i '$d' ~/.pulse/client.conf
For each sound card detected by Pulseaudio, you will see output similar to this:
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xfa200000 irq 46" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.bus = "pci" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.vendor.id = "8086" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.product.name = "82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.form_factor = "internal" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.string = "front:0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.buffering.buffer_size = "768000" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.buffering.fragment_size = "384000"
Take note the buffer_size and fragment_size values for the relevant sound card.
2. Calculate your fragment size in msecs and number of fragments
Pulseaudio's default sampling rate and bit depth are set to 44100Hz @ 16 bits.
With this configuration, the bit rate we need is 44100*16 = 705600 bits per second. That's 1411200 bps for stereo.
Let's take a look at the parameters we've found in the previous step:
device.buffering.buffer_size = "768000" => 768000/1411200 = 0.544217687075s = 544 msecs device.buffering.fragment_size = "384000" => 384000/1411200 = 0.272108843537s = 272 msecs
3.Modify Pulseaudio's configuration file
Edit the configuration file located at /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
using the editor of your choice.
For example:
sudo vi /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
Locate & uncomment (remove leading semicolons) these lines:
; default-fragments = X ; default-fragment-size-msec = Y
In the previous step, we calculated the fragment size parameter.
The number of fragments is simply buffer_size/fragment_size, which in this case (544/272) is 2.
Edit the lines to use your calculated settings:
default-fragment-size-msec = 272 default-fragments = 2
Save the file.
4.Restart the Pulseaudio daemon
pulseaudio -k pulseaudio --start
Source: kwevej @ Linux Mint Forums
Laggy sound
This issue is due to incorrect buffer sizes.
Edit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
Either disable any modifications (if any) to these entries, or, if issue still exists, uncomment and change them in the following way:
default-fragments = 8 default-fragment-size-msec = 5
Choppy, overdriven sound
Choppy sound in pulsaudio can result from wrong settings for the sample rate in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
. Try changing the line
; default-sample-rate = 44100
to
default-sample-rate = 48000
and restart the PulseAudio server.
If one experiences choppy sound in applications using openAL, change the sample rate in /etc/openal/alsoft.conf:
frequency = 48000
Setting the PCM volume above 0dB can cause clipping of the audio signal. Running alsamixer -c0
will allow you to see if this is the problem and if so fix it.
Volume adjustment does not work properly
Check:
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output.conf.common
If the volume does not appear to increment/decrement properly using alsamixer
or amixer
, it may be due to pulseaudio having a larger number of increments (65537 to be exact). Try using larger values when changing volume (e.g. amixer set Master 655+
).
Volume gets louder every time a new application is started
Per default, it seems as if changing the volume in an application sets the global system volume to that level instead of only affecting the respective application. Applications setting their volume on startup will therefore cause the system volume to "jump".
Fix this by uncommenting
flat-volumes = no
in
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf
and then restarting PulseAudio by executing
pulseaudio --kill && pulseaudio --start
When Pulse comes back after a few seconds, applications will not alter the global system volume anymore but have their own volume level again.
$HOME/.pulse/default.pa
which can also cause maximized volume trouble. Comment that out as needed.No mic on ThinkPad T400/T500/T420
Run
alsamixer -c 0
Maximize the volume of/unmute the "Internal Mic".
Once you see the device with
arecord -l
you might still need to adjust the settings. The microphone and the audio jack are duplexed. Set the configuration of the internal audio in pavucontrol to Analog Stereo Duplex.
No mic input on Acer Aspire One
Install pavucontrol, unlink the microphone channels and turn down the left one to 0. Reference: http://getsatisfaction.com/jolicloud/topics/deaf_internal_mic_on_acer_aspire_one#reply_2108048
Sound output is only mono on M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card
Add the following to /etc/pulseaudio/default.pa:
load-module module-alsa-sink sink_name=delta_out device=hw:M2496 format=s24le channels=10 channel_map=left,right,aux0,aux1,aux2,aux3,aux4,aux5,aux6,aux7 load-module module-alsa-source source_name=delta_in device=hw:M2496 format=s24le channels=12 channel_map=left,right,aux0,aux1,aux2,aux3,aux4,aux5,aux6,aux7,aux8,aux9 set-default-sink delta_out set-default-source delta_in
Static Noise in Microphone Recording
If we are getting static noise in skype, gnome-sound-recorder, arecord, etc.'s recordings then the sound card samplerate is incorrect. That is why there is static noise in linux microphone recordings. To fix this We need to set sample-rate in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf for the sound hardware.
1. Determine soundcards in the system
This requires alsa-utils and related packages to be installed:
$ arecord --list-devices
output:
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices **** card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 2: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
soundcard is hw:0,0
2. Determine sampling-rate of the sound card
arecord -f dat -r 60000 -D hw:0,0 -d 5 test.wav
output:
"Recording WAVE 'test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 60000 Hz, Stereo Warning: rate is not accurate (requested = 60000Hz, got = 96000Hz) please, try the plug plugin
observe, the got = 96000Hz, this is the max sample-rate of our card.
3. Setting the soundcard's sampling rate into pulse audio configuration
the default sample-rate in pulseaudio is
grep "sample-rate" /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
output:
; default-sample-rate = 44100
It is 44100 and is disabled. Let us set our sound card's settings into pulseaudio configuation file
su -c "sed 's/; default-sample-rate = 44100/default-sample-rate = 96000/g' -i /etc/pulse/daemon.conf"
Let us verify the changes to deamon.conf
grep "sample-rate" /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
output:
default-sample-rate = 96000
and it is done.
4. Restart pulseaudio to apply the new settings
pulseaudio --kill pulseaudio --start
5. Finally check by recording and playing it back
Let us record some voice using mic for say 10 seconds. Make sure the mic is not muted and all
arecord -f cd -d 10 test-mic.wav
After 10 seconds, let us play the recording...
aplay test-mic.wav
Now hopefully, there is no static noise in microphone recording anymore.
My Bluetooth device is paired but does not play any sound
See the article in Bluetooth section
Starting from PulseAudio 2.99 and bluez 4.101 you should avoid using Socket interface. Do NOT add
[General] Enable=Socket
to your /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf. If you face problems with A2DP and PA 2.99 make sure you have SBC library:
pacman -S sbc
Subwoofer stops working after end of every song
Known issue: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/494099
To fix this, must edit: /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
and enable enable-lfe-remixing
:
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf
enable-lfe-remixing = yes
Pulseaudio uses wrong microphone
If Pulseaudio uses the wrong microphone, and changing the Input Device with Pavucontrol did not help, take a look at alsamixer. It seems that Pavucontrol does not always set the input source correctly.
Run:
$ alsamixer
press F6 and choose your sound card, e.g. HDA Intel. Now press F5 to display all items. Try to find the item: Input Source
. With the up/down arrow keys you are able to change the input source.
Now try if the correct microphone is used for recording.
Choppy Sound with Analog Surround Sound Setup
The low-frequency effects (LFE) channel is not remixed per default. To enable it the following needs to be set in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
:
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf
enable-lfe-remixing = yes
External links
- http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup - A good guide to make your configuration perfect
- http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc - Alsa wiki on .asoundrc
- http://www.pulseaudio.org/ - PulseAudio official site
- http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/FAQ - PulseAudio FAQ