Arch Linux

Kernald

Member

From: Toulouse, France

Registered: 2011-03-13

Posts: 32

Pulseaudio, Kodi and MPD

Hi,

I have an Intel NUC plugged in my TV via HDMI and my Hifi (jack/RCA). I'm planning to buy an amp so all will go through HDMI soon, but I don't think it really matters for now. I'm running on this box:
- Kodi,
- MPD,
- Pulseaudio.
I'm also planning to sometimes switch between Kodi and Steam. I want to use Pulseaudio instead of ALSA for at least one feature: I want to stream some audio from my desktop to the Hifi (they're both in the same room, and I have crappy speakers on my desktop, switching to the Hifi when watching a video is really nice). And secondly, I think (I may be wrong) Pulseaudio handles multi-channel better than ALSA (which will be a need as soon as I buy the amp).

I'm starting Kodi and MPD via their respective systemd services (Kodi with kodi-standalone-service), and both as the user "kodi".

Here is the problem: when I start Kodi first, I have sound in Kodi, but not in MPD. When I start MPD first, I have sound in MPD, but Kodi can't see the jack output, hence defaults to HDMI. In both cases, Pulseaudio is automaticaly started, running as the user "kodi". I found a way to get sound in both: starting Kodi via systemd, but MPD on cli:

[kodi@triton ~]$ DISPLAY=:0 mpd --no-daemon /etc/mpd.conf -v

It doesn't work if I don't set the DISPLAY variable.

I also tried another solution: running Pulseaudio in system-mode, and connecting to it via TCP from MPD and Kodi. While it works great for MPD, Kodi keeps launching its own Pulseaudio instance, I can't find any way to stop it. Hence I still have the same issue where I can only use one output for Kodi and another one for the system-mode Pulseaudio.

How can I get Kodi, MPD and Pulseaudio working fine together?

Thanks.

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: Pulseaudio, Kodi and MPD

I have wasted hours after hours trying to get MPD and XBMC to work nicely together. After tearing out most of my hair, I came up with the following: don't use the services. Turn the ship around a bit.

Create one user, say "kodi" or "mpd" or why not "multimedia". Run both, MPD as well as Kodi, in a user session (look up user sessions for systemd on the wiki).