Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

rabcor · 2014-01-24 23:25:33

I had a problem with skype where skype crashed shortly after login. I checked the wiki and sure enough there was an answer to solving that problem.

As the wiki suggests, i did:

# cd /usr/lib
# chmod ugo-r libpulse.so.0.16.*
# chmod ugo-r libpulse-simple.so.0.0.4

And skype ran afterwards, however after doing that i cannot get my speakers and microphone to work (skype detects microphones as speakers and speakers as microphones) i had formerly been able to solve this issue by configuring gstreamer-properties, but this time doing so has no effect.

Also, skype seems to occasionally freeze on file transfers.

And now when i try to run chromium i get the following error:

# chromium
/usr/lib/chromium/chromium: error while loading shared libraries: libpulse.so.0: cannot open shared object file: Permission Denied

How do i fix skype's sound device bug after changing to libpulse-simple?
How do i fix chromium after fixing skype?
How do i make the gstreamer settings stick after reboot?

Note: Even if the issue is with libpulse, i have not installed (and ofc do not use) pulseaudio. To tell the truth i don't see the purpose of pulseaudio it can't even replace alsa....

Edit:
The Real Problem seems to be: That gstreamer & libpulse get confused when another application is using a specific (not "ALSA's Default") speaker or microphone(device).

Last edited by rabcor (2014-01-27 02:08:02)

rabcor · 2014-01-26 00:25:54

I reversed the changes (i think) by doing

# chmod 775 libpulse.so.0.16.*
# chmod 775 libpulse-simple.so.0.0.4

Was that wrong?

Anyways now chromium starts again, but Skype still gives me no sound even if I configure it in gstreamer. I'm pretty sure i heard sound coming from it when i restarted after the change, however next restart no sound no matter what i do.There's also no sound in chromium. Any ideas on fixing it?

(Yes, I do have sound from other applications)

Last edited by rabcor (2014-01-26 00:27:07)

korn36 · 2014-01-26 08:00:26

Skype works for me fine with pulseaudio. Is it unmuted (Check in pavucontrol)?
Did you update your system?
If you don't need pulseaudio, try installing pulseaudio-fake from AUR.

Last edited by korn36 (2014-01-26 08:01:00)

rabcor · 2014-01-27 02:02:10

I think i may have figured out what the problem is.

I'm running TeamSpeak3 as-well which connects directly to alsa (that is, an application that does not use libpulse like skype and chromium) and my settings in Teamspeak somehow manage to confuse libpulse, setting the playback device in teamspeak from HD-Audio Generic(92HD81B1X5 Analog) (<- that is, my laptop speakers) over to Default instead seems to fix the absence of sound in Skype and Chromium.

I also installed lib32-libpulse because i hear it can help fix some skype issues.

This however leaves a problem, mymicrophone is NOT the default built-in one, and since i've configured teamspeak to use my USB mic, skype fallsback to the internal mic.

The Real Problem seems to be: That gstreamer & libpulse get confused when another application is using a specific(not "ALSA's Default") speaker or microphone(device). Which is most likely what lead to my problems. As long as i'm not using the microphone in skype i figure skype won't be crashing now.

How do i fix that? (Is there any way i can set a default recording device in Alsa to snd_usb_audio separately from the default sound card?)

Last edited by rabcor (2014-01-27 02:10:05)

V1del · 2014-01-27 13:18:01

rabcor wrote:

The Real Problem seems to be: That gstreamer & libpulse get confused when another application is using a specific(not "ALSA's Default") speaker or microphone(device). Which is most likely what lead to my problems. As long as i'm not using the microphone in skype i figure skype won't be crashing now.
How do i fix that? (Is there any way i can set a default recording device in Alsa to snd_usb_audio separately from the default sound card?)

There's no "confusion" nor does libpulse have any part in it (nor does gstreamer, neither skype nor chromium use it afaik), if you set an ALSA device directly that device will be locked for the application first requesting it, alas only teamspeak will be able to use it. If you set to default probably dmix is employed that's why you get sound in more apps that way. Same applies to input devices so if you set your usb it will be locked by TS, leaving skype with the internal one.

Now you could try and find a proper configuration for your asound.conf (I can't help you with that, but there are some proficient ALSAers on this board who may be able to help you, the skype/alsa wiki may be a good place to start, you may have to load snd_usb_audio as default) or use pulseaudio, which was written for this exact purpose and usecase you describe here (just to show you the purpose of it ), which allows you to freely redirect any and all streams over all of your sounddevices as you please

Last edited by V1del (2014-01-27 13:19:52)

R00KIE · 2014-01-27 13:50:10

Try installing pulseaudio-alsa, close all programs and give them a go again.

rabcor · 2014-01-27 14:59:13

V1del wrote:

There's no "confusion" nor does libpulse have any part in it (nor does gstreamer, neither skype nor chromium use it afaik), if you set an ALSA device directly that device will be locked for the application first requesting it, alas only teamspeak will be able to use it. If you set to default probably dmix is employed that's why you get sound in more apps that way. Same applies to input devices so if you set your usb it will be locked by TS, leaving skype with the internal one.
Now you could try and find a proper configuration for your asound.conf (I can't help you with that, but there are some proficient ALSAers on this board who may be able to help you, the skype/alsa wiki may be a good place to start, you may have to load snd_usb_audio as default) or use pulseaudio, which was written for this exact purpose and usecase you describe here (just to show you the purpose of it ), which allows you to freely redirect any and all streams over all of your sounddevices as you please

Thanks for clarifying that, i had no idea it worked that way and i've been using linux for a while now. Why don't tutorials and installation guides mention stuff like this? D:

I'd rather not install pulseaudio if i see no reason to use it. I guess for now just shutting down teamspeak if i want to VoIP on skype is a good enough solution for me personally, setting snd_usb_audio to the default device would be a dumb move for me since these are headphones, i actually don't know the name of my device, I set snd_hda_intel @ index=2 and usb at =1, i don't know what 0 is called, but the problem is that if i set snd_hda_intel at index 0 for setting it as the default card, it defaults to the S/PDIF(HDMI plug) channel which acts as a separate card(ATI R6xx HDMI) for some reason (the one i use is IDT 92HD81B1X5).

But if anyone else has this problem i guess maybe they'll have to install pulseaudio-alsa if they want to solve it i'm satisfied for now, but thanks for the help anyways R00KIE, it's good to know that that's the next step towards solving this if i ever see a reason to do so

Last edited by rabcor (2014-01-27 15:00:38)

V1del · 2014-01-27 15:42:57

Installing pulseaudio-alsa will not help you if you want to stay clear of pulseaudio, all this package does is set up an asound.conf which sets up an alsa device that uses pulse, so that applications which only support alsa will see this device and use it e.g. chromium with NPAPI-flash (not the case for chromium with pepper, ts and skype, which all will switch to using pulseaudio directly if present). But this device simply redirects all alsa out/input to the pulseaudio server who can then do whatever the f with it (linking it with a correct device of your choice most likely)

Last edited by V1del (2014-01-27 16:26:06)

R00KIE · 2014-01-27 17:46:13

If what you want to do is stay clear of pulseaudio then you should look into setting a default alsa device that uses dmix (both for playback and capture), otherwise you will have to put up with having to stop and sometimes close applications that might be hogging the sound card. Be aware that going the dmix route might have some corner cases where things don't work exactly as expected.

If you ever decide to go the pulseaudio route, install pulseaudio-alsa and tell the applications that don't support pulseaudio to use the default alsa device. You can then use pavucontrol (for example) to control where sound goes. Be aware that you may have to tweak the default configuration a little to suit your preferences.

If you have the time, you should try both ways (alsa / pulseaudio) for some time and try to get them both to do what you want, after that you can weight the advantages and disadvantages of both ways and decide which one you prefer.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-01-24 23:25:33

Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#2 2014-01-26 00:25:54

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#3 2014-01-26 08:00:26

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#4 2014-01-27 02:02:10

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#5 2014-01-27 13:18:01

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#6 2014-01-27 13:50:10

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#7 2014-01-27 14:59:13

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#8 2014-01-27 15:42:57

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

#9 2014-01-27 17:46:13

Re: Libpulse/Skype & Chromium issues

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