No pulseaudio ?

[na5m]

Just curious: why isn't pulseaudio installed by default?
Any input about this would be helpful to me. Thanks!

na5m

[michaa7]

It created problems not for all but for a significant number of users. It is not regarded as reliable for all users although there are many users who have no problems at all.
The situation might have improved but the bad feeling about pulseaudio persists.

[ralul]

For me the experimental pulseaudio-4 works fine and feels matured. My guess: pulse problems rise with some left over alsa preconfigs in .asoundrc /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. These files might be heavy hand edited when there had been alsa problems previously ...

[DeepDayze]

For me the experimental pulseaudio-4 works fine and feels matured. My guess: pulse problems rise with some left over alsa preconfigs in .asoundrc /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. These files might be heavy hand edited when there had been alsa problems previously ...

Nice to know where most PA issues come from and maybe if you have suggestions on how to set it up that'll be a good idea

[seasons]

It's easier to add it in than tear it out? Not everybody needs/wants it?

[ralul]

.asoundrc
/var/lib/alsa/asound.state.
These files might be heavy hand edited when there had been alsa problems previously ...

Nice to know where most PA issues come from and maybe if you have suggestions on how to set it up that'll be a good idea

rm *
seriously!
It is the same as with xorg.conf ...
Also the never ending story about the bluetooth headphone would vanish. But this is a guess, because I don't have one. And remember I recommended pulseaudio-4 , after the pulseaudio-3 release I have witnessed havy work upstream targeting bluetooth!

Context:
Pulseaudio is a tiny framework to automaticly configure software audio channels in an efficient way. If you have tried this before and leave your "work" on the system chances are high you catch the corner case of a bug!

Also remember default is NOT a system wide pulseaudio session. It is hardly tested and therefore has bad upstream support.

Also remember in case of that better supported user session it is a bad idea to set audio level system wide. You might as well catch a corner case of NULL sound. Purge any sysvinit alsa service!

And of cause take a look what to install for pulseaudio to work, look at the (l)ist in aptitude:
aptitude
l
pulse

All in all it is the example of an ignorant beginner working on a preconfigured pulseaudio system having success when the computer expert would fail as of above explained causes ... it is just too simple.