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

[Jim Ransone]

Just got something related to this topic in an Ardour newsletter:
https://discourse.ardour.org/t/pipewire-planned-to-replace-pulseaudio-jack-by-default-in-fedora-34/105185

 From the linked Fedora post:
>
> Currently, all desktop audio is handled by the PulseAudio daemon. 
> Applications make use of the PulseAudio client library to communicate 
> with the PulseAudio daemon that mixes and manages the audio streams 
> from the clients.
>
> The desktop shell (gnome-shell) and the control panel 
> (gnome-control-panel) both use the Pulseaudio client libraries to 
> manage the volume and configuration of the PulseAudio daemon.
>
> This proposal is to replace the PulseAudio daemon with a functionally 
> compatible implementation based on PipeWire. This means that all 
> existing clients using the PulseAudio client library will continue to 
> work as before, as well as applications shipped as Flatpak.
>
> All PRO audio is handled with the JACK client library, which talks to 
> the JACK server. This proposal will install a JACK client library 
> replacement that talks directly to PipeWire. All existing PRO audio 
> jack applications will then work on top of PipeWire.
>
> For legacy ALSA clients, we will install an ALSA plugin that routes 
> the audio directly to PipeWire.
>
> With these 3 changes, all audio will be routed to PipeWire. There will 
> then be no more need to install the PulseAudio and JACK daemons.
>

Interesting. I don't have Fedora, so not particularly relevant to my 
immediate situation, but I thought it might be of some interest to some 
of you.

Happy Festivus!
Jim R

On 12/21/20 5:30 PM, Jim Ransone wrote:
>> 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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