From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 98DDA1381F3 for ; Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:32:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E1F02E0BF5; Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:32:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.muc.de (colin.muc.de [193.149.48.1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3F29CE0B70 for ; Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:32:46 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 29177 invoked by uid 3782); 18 Apr 2013 19:32:45 -0000 Received: from acm.muc.de (pD9518EE4.dip.t-dialin.net [217.81.142.228]) by colin.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:32:42 +0200 Received: (qmail 3279 invoked by uid 1000); 18 Apr 2013 19:32:24 -0000 Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:32:24 +0000 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-user] Removing pulseaudio Message-ID: <20130418193224.GA3234@acm.acm> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.12 (Macallan) From: Alan Mackenzie X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-Archives-Salt: f1172fae-ceaa-4973-bdec-e68d6df8c957 X-Archives-Hash: e39eeef409d41f5579a0f9be639524b4 Hello, Gentoo. I've just removed pulseaudio from my main Gentoo system. Why? Several reasons: (i) It's a "sound server", a description I don't understand. What does it _do_? Why do I want it? It seems to be an unnecessary layer of fat between sound applications and the kernel. (ii) I was having problems with the last 1-2 seconds being cut off audio streams from news sites. (iii) The provenance of the code; it's author is also udev's maintainer, the udev that has given most of us so much fun over the months. When might awkwardnesses start appearing in pulseaudio? By the way, I run sound stuff mainly in Gnome 2, using aqualung to play CDs and listening to audio files streamed or downloaded from the net. So, I grasped the nettle, put in a negative pulseaudio use flag, unmerged pa and alsa-plugins, then rebuilt the 14 packages which needed it. Surprisingly, everything still works. I now get those last seconds from my news streams. :-) So, yes, I can recomment the removal of pulseaudio, unless anybody's got some particular need for it. -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).