Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

JohnnySSH · 2015-09-28 00:26:08

Hi,

strange issue.... as I had this working the way I wanted it but after two recent Pulse upgrades it's almost like Pulse doesn't want to read it's own config files??

The standard way to stop Pulseaudio from starting or "spawning" is to either add:

autospawn=no

to /etc/pulse/client.conf or ~/.config/pulse/client.conf

Fine!! This was great and working just perfectly until recently.....

Currently version:

extra/pulseaudio 7.0-2 [installed]

of pulse is installed with kernel:

4.1.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 17 08:52:28 CEST 2015 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Of course since Pulse is now running as a session and not a daemon I cannot start the pulse service as intended through: pulseaudio --start

Grepping for pulse I get:

htpc      1288  0.3  0.3 445208 28332 ?        S<sl 01:04   0:02 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no
htpc      1294  0.0  0.0  83796  3500 ?        S    01:04   0:00 /usr/lib/pulse/gconf-helper

I've re-looked at the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio however, I am not sure what's going on here...?

My current system is using LightDM in "Autologin" mode which launches XFCE4 with KODI set to autostart within the DE.

The config files for Pulse are such ->

client.conf:

extra-arguments = --log-target=syslog
;default-server = /var/run/pulse
autospawn = no
daemon-binary = /bin/true 
auto-connect-localhost = yes
auto-connect-display = yes

daemon.conf:

daemonize = yes
;allow-module-loading = no
; fail = yes
allow-module-loading = yes
allow-exit = no
; use-pid-file = yes
system-instance = no
; local-server-type = user
enable-shm = no
; shm-size-bytes = 0 # setting this 0 will use the system-default, usually 64 MiB
; lock-memory = no
; cpu-limit = no

; high-priority = yes
; nice-level = -11

; realtime-scheduling = yes
; realtime-priority = 5

; exit-idle-time=0
; exit-idle-time = 20
; scache-idle-time = 20

; dl-search-path = (depends on architecture)

load-default-script-file = yes
default-script-file = /etc/pulse/default.pa

default.pa:

stock config with only these mods:

load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1
load-module module-zeroconf-discover

system.pa is stock as well outside of these mods:

load-module module-native-protocol-unix auth-anonymous=1

load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1

until 2 updates ago I was happily running Pulse as a daemon and even using it over TCP in client/server mode......

The only messages in the logs are these:

rtkit-daemon[1289]: Successfully made thread 1288 of process 1288 (/usr/bin/pulseaudio) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
pulseaudio[1288]: E: [pulseaudio] module.c: Module "module-zeroconf-discover" should be loaded once at most. Refusing to load.
pulseaudio[1288]: E: [pulseaudio] module-gconf.c: pa_module_load() failed

It looks like something hinky with the zeroconf module?

I'll try commenting it out in the config and see if that helps, but as said the weird part is that it was working fine before?

For now I would just simply like to disable the session instance if possible. If anyone has any ideas why the "autospawn" line isn't being interpreted it would be great.

Thanks.

Strange issue.....

Raynman · 2015-09-28 07:43:10

I have no idea what all that was about. The post touches on many things, but it doesn't exactly say what you want (except that it should be "as before") and which parts are and aren't working (and relevant errors).

I can tell you that instead of autospawn, pulseaudio now uses socket activation through systemd and you can prevent that with

$ systemctl --user mask pulseaudio.socket

JohnnySSH · 2015-09-28 10:04:48

Thanks for the response.

Sorry if I wasn't clear!

Basically what I want is pulseaudio to *not* autostart during login. "autospwan=no" achieved this. Currently it *is* starting with daemon=no even though the config is set to daemon=yes and to not autostart it.

The goal really is get manual control back so that I can use pulse in daemon mode or turn it off completely.

I'll give your suggestion a shot and see what happens :-)

[EDIT]

just tried this and the response was:

systemctl --user mask pulseaudio.socket
Failed to execute operation: No such file or directory

??

[EDIT 2]

I think this explains why:

systemctl status pulseaudio
* pulseaudio.service
   Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
   Active: inactive (dead)

that pulse isn't starting as a service (daemon as configured) but as part of the user session.... ps aux shows ->

1316  0.2  0.1 444852 13404 ?        S<sl 11:10   0:00 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no

Last edited by JohnnySSH (2015-09-28 10:18:04)

Raynman · 2015-09-28 10:34:47

JohnnySSH wrote:

just tried this and the response was:
systemctl --user mask pulseaudio.socket
Failed to execute operation: No such file or directory
[EDIT 2]
I think this explains why:
systemctl status pulseaudio
* pulseaudio.service
   Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
   Active: inactive (dead)
that pulse isn't starting as a service (daemon as configured) but as part of the user session.... ps aux shows ->
1316  0.2  0.1 444852 13404 ?        S<sl 11:10   0:00 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no

That doesn't explain it. It only shows that you have no system service named pulseaudio, but you were trying to mask a user socket (try status with --user). That commandline shown by `ps aux` is exactly the ExecStart line of the pulseaudio.service for users that goes with the pulseaudio.socket.

JohnnySSH · 2015-09-28 11:22:21

The output of "$systemctl status --user" is:

    State: degraded
     Jobs: 0 queued
   Failed: 2 units
    Since: Mon 2015-09-28 11:30:09 BST; 49min ago
   CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service
           |-dbus.service
           | |- 1291 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session --address=systemd: 
--nofork 
           | |- 1306 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
           | |- 1341 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd
           | |- 1345 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-fuse /run/user/1000/gvfs -f -o 
big_writ
           | |- 1413 /usr/lib/at-spi2-core/at-spi-bus-launcher
           | |- 1416 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
           | |- 1424 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon 
--config-file=/etc/at-spi2/accessibili
           | |- 1456 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
           | |- 1471 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-trash --spawner :1.11 
/org/gtk/gvfs/exe
           | |-11111 /usr/lib/GConf/gconfd-2
           | |-11133 /usr/lib/tumbler-1/tumblerd
           | `-11152 /usr/lib/at-spi2-core/at-spi2-registryd 
--use-gnome-session
           |-obex.service
           | `-1497 /usr/lib/bluetooth/obexd
           `-init.scope
             |-1281 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user

Raynman · 2015-09-28 11:48:52

I actually meant the status just for pulseaudio.{service,socket}, but this is informative as well. If pulseaudio.service was running, it should show up there (did ps still show pulseaudio at that time?), but it wouldn't show pulseaudio.socket, so you should check that separately.

One thing I notice is that you don't have " --nopidfile --systemd-activation" after --nofork in the dbus.service arguments. Were they cut off or do you have a custom dbus.service? (don't think that matters much, unless you have custom units for pulseaudio or something else that might be related)

R00KIE · 2015-09-28 12:01:36

I'm sure you have your reasons to want pulseaudio not to start when your DE starts. You should look into masking /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop, maybe an empty file (or symlink to /dev/null) in ~/.config/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop will be enough to do what you want.

JohnnySSH · 2015-09-28 12:31:31

I actually meant the status just for pulseaudio.{service,socket}, but this is informative as well. If pulseaudio.service was running, it should show up there (did ps still show pulseaudio at that time?), but it wouldn't show pulseaudio.socket, so you should check that separately.
One thing I notice is that you don't have " --nopidfile --systemd-activation" after --nofork in the dbus.service arguments. Were they cut off or do you have a custom dbus.service? (don't think that matters much, unless you have custom units for pulseaudio or something else that might be related)

Thanks @Raynman, yep Pulse did show up under "ps" ..... I think as @ROOKIE pointed out:

I'm sure you have your reasons to want pulseaudio not to start when your DE starts. You should look into masking /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop, maybe an empty file (or symlink to /dev/null) in ~/.config/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop will be enough to do what you want.

there might have been some internal structuring changes between version 6 and 7 of Pulse.

As for custom dbus service, I don't and nothing got cut off either?? I will view that separately though - thanks :-)

@ROOKIE , I will try out your suggestion now. It might be the answer; basically I prefer to run KODI over ALSA with DTS Passthrough which is why I want to disable Pulse. But then sometimes I also want to run audio from the main HTPC through other machines where I need to use the server/client method. As mentioned it all worked fine in V.6 but I guess I have to figure out the differences in V.7.

Raynman · 2015-09-28 12:50:22

That /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop is simply the first thing (usually) that triggers the autospawn or socket activation. With both these methods disabled, that .desktop file shouldn't do anything (it runs start-pulseaudio-x11 which doesn't actually start pulse explicitly). But it is not clear what is going on with the .socket for your user.

JohnnySSH · 2015-09-28 13:37:13

Really odd issue..... :-(

Well temporarily disabled Pulse by moving the /etc/pulse folder to /etc/pulse.working. It is not a proper solution at all!

Having gone through the trouble section in the wiki:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … dy_running

I can't really find anything similar.

I am just wondering if pulse should be creating a socket file in /var/run ??

Or..... another issue might be that my user was added to group "pulse-access" and not "pulse". I have just added the user to group "pulse" now so that might fix the issue??

[EDIT]

Looks like adding the user to group "pulse" was the trick..... weird; if the initial config with pulse v.6 was wrong then it shouldn't have behaved properly.

...anyway it seems to be working now so all is good and well again :-)

Thanks for all the help and advise!!

Last edited by JohnnySSH (2015-09-28 13:42:39)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-09-28 00:26:08

Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#2 2015-09-28 07:43:10

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#3 2015-09-28 10:04:48

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#4 2015-09-28 10:34:47

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#5 2015-09-28 11:22:21

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#6 2015-09-28 11:48:52

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#7 2015-09-28 12:01:36

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#8 2015-09-28 12:31:31

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#9 2015-09-28 12:50:22

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

#10 2015-09-28 13:37:13

Re: Pulseaudio being stubborn :-( won't deactivate

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