Achieve Zen with openSUSE 11.0 (i.e Get rid of pulse audio)
I’ve been having a lot of stability issues with openSUSE 11.0 lately and the majority of them boiled down to audio.
Here is a list of a few:
1. VLC required root to have audio, wtf?
2. Sound would crash after listening to any audio for an extended period of time (music, video, flash).
3. If my audio crashed, Firefox could not start up until I did rcalsasound restart
4. Some videos were slow/choppy.
So, you are probably asking, how did I fix all these issues?
zypper rm alsa-plugins-pulse
zypper addlock alsa-plugins-pulse
This removes the alsa plugin for pulse and locks it so it will never install again. Without the alsa plugin installed, the apps go back to using alsa directly. This has fixed every issue I’ve had with openSUSE 11.0 so far.
This stupid brake handle on my bike! I’m constantly grabbing it by accident and when I do, I go flying off the bike and onto the pavement. But I fixed it and it was easy.
You’re probably asking, how did I fix these issues?
I took a screwdriver and loosened the bracket that was holding the handle onto the handlebars near where I hold on with my hand. Once loosened, the handle came right off. I think it’s going to be much more fun riding my bike now!
Comment by Doran Barton — June 22, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
Yeah, I had issues with pulseaudio, too. It doesn’t take much to go into and endless-loop. Uninstalling it is the only way out.
Whoever voted for pulseaudio in 11.0 really shot himself in the foot with it.
Comment by Chris — June 23, 2008 @ 12:24 am
One problem I found in openSuse 11.0 that may be related to #1: user is not added to “audio” group by default (even the first user created on installation!). This prevents some apps from accessing /dev/dsp* and alike - e.g. sound doesn’t work Wormux.
Comment by Pawel Stolowski — June 23, 2008 @ 2:37 am
Instead removing pulseaudio and whining about it on the internet how about next time making an actual bug report?
Comment by troll — June 24, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
@troll - The bugs were submitted before openSUSE 11.0 was released, but having a report isn’t helpful until its fixed and pushed to the repositories, my solution is helpful for those who don’t want to wait for the bugs to be fixed and just want their system to work. And I hope you really don’t believe I was whining, I was just trying to help others who have a similar experience with pulse audio. I’m a fan of what Pulse Audio stands for and when its finally stable, I’ll advocate it, but until that point, I prefer a working system
Comment by sontek — June 24, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
[...] Achieve Zen with openSUSE 11.0 (i.e Get rid of pulse audio) I’ve been having a lot of stability issues with openSUSE 11.0 lately and the majority of them boiled down to audio. [...]
Pingback by Boycott Novell » OpenSUSE 11.0 Weaknesses — in the Words of Others — June 26, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
[...] You could remove the alsa-plugins-pulse per something like this blog entry of an openSUSE user: sontek ( John M. Anderson )
Pingback by Suse 11 upgrade - Lost sound in some apps - openSUSE Forums — July 6, 2008 @ 1:22 am
[...] VLC issue: no sound, no video… nothing In Achieve Zen with openSUSE 11 it’s already said that "VLC required root to have audio, wtf?". I would say if someone [...]
Pingback by VLC issue: no sound, no video... nothing - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums — July 6, 2008 @ 4:54 am
[...] flash, xine … etc …. Maybe you need to disable pulse audio? Try the solution of this user: sontek ( John M. Anderson )
Pingback by Lost sound in totem, vlc, mplayer, flash, banshee etc - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums — July 6, 2008 @ 12:27 pm