[ale] Fixing systemd and pulseaudio: was UEFI vs BIOS understanding

[Jim Ransone]

> I was under the impression that Jack substitutes for ALSA and
> Pulseaudio.
My understanding is that alsa is always there. So it's alas by itself, 
jack and alsa, or pulseaudio and alsa. Or in some cases all three: alsa 
plus jack and pulseaudio working together to divide up different tasks.

> I'm pretty sure if you have Jack, you can get rid of Pulseaudio. If a
> specific application *demands* Pulseaudio, in otherwords, the
> Redhat/Freedesktop monopolism patrol has gotten to them, then I think
> you can usually use apulse to run that one specific application.

Except for stuff that requires extreme low latency, pulseaudio seems to 
do fine on everything else. For me, trying to figure out how to switch 
stuff from pulseaudio to jack is more trouble than it's worth.

> Then you're more fortunate than I.
I am using kubuntu + ubuntu studio, so most of the audio settings and 
applications were pre-optimized by the ubuntu studio folks. If it ain't 
broke, don't fix it.

> That's pretty darn annoying.
It prevents some forms of multitasking while I'm working with Ardour, 
but that's both a curse and a blessing. Prevents me from getting 
distracted. lol

Jim

On 12/21/20 4:10 PM, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Dec 2020 12:37:50 -0500
> Jim Ransone via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>> As a relatively non-technical person who uses my computer for audio
>> stuff, having to deal with alsa, pulseaudio, and jack has been a
>> confusing hassle. What I gathered from spending way too much time
>> reading and watching tutorials to figure this stuff out is that alsa
>> is the base level, pulseaudio rides on top of that and handles audio
>> for most common applications but lacks the low-latency necessary for
>> audio recording. Hence the need for Jack.
> I was under the impression that Jack substitutes for ALSA and
> Pulseaudio.
>
>
>
>> Then you need to figure out
>> how to make jack and pulseaudio play nice and function along side
>> each other.
> I'm pretty sure if you have Jack, you can get rid of Pulseaudio. If a
> specific application *demands* Pulseaudio, in otherwords, the
> Redhat/Freedesktop monopolism patrol has gotten to them, then I think
> you can usually use apulse to run that one specific application.
>
>> It's a mess. Thankfully, the new version of Ardour
>> recommends just using alsa by itself.
> On Void Linux, I've used Void by itself for years. Your mileage may
> vary, but I've found Pulseaudio to be a land of a thousand mutes, each
> one harder to find than the last.
>
>
>> It makes sense that this would
>> be faster. And it prevents me from spiraling down a rabbit hole of
>> confusion trying to figure out why my audio isn't working. So now I
>> have no need for Jack at all, and pulseaudio does whatever it does
>> without bothering me.
> Then you're more fortunate than I.
>
>> The only downside is that when Ardour is
>> running, youtube videos will not play. A little annoying, but I can
>> live with it.
> That's pretty darn annoying.
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> Autumn 2020 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive
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