On Sat, 2009-08-08 at 16:44 +1000, Patrick Shirkey wrote:
Here's what I have found after extensive testing
with the latest dev
version of pulseaudio-v0.9.16-4 and jack-0.116.1 on a 2 core amd, 4GB
notebook running Fedora 11.
1. 32 bit apps will not play on a 64 bit pulseaudio easily or at all.
2. Skype, Realplayer/Helix and Flash are a pain to get working with
pulseaudio if they work at all.
These two items are related, right? Does it go away with a
32bit/extended kernel?
3. Pulse is unstable when connected to jack.
4. If Firefox (3.5.2) is used to play an audio stream over alsa with
flash or realplayer (because they cannot get access to PA 32 bit libs)
it doesn't release the device when the stream is finished making it
very confusing/frustrating when other apps don't work even though no
sound is running on the system and forcing the user to close.kill
firefox in order to get access to the device.
5. Gnome-volume-control is unstable, buggy and misleading at times
although it mostly works well.
Here is one thing I don't like either. The layout and ordering of the
volume controls are unrelated to the routing and how the controls are to
be used.
Like this would make some sense:
[Front][Center][LFE][Side][Surround] [Master] ¦ [Mic 1][Mic 2][Line] ...
But like this isn't really helpful:
[Front][Front Mic][Front Mic Boost] ... ... ... [Microphone] ...
Where one 'Front' is the placement of the input jack (on the box) and
the other 'Front' is where you would place your speakers (if that is
what the port is used for.)
The layout and order is inherited from the ALSA driver who does not know
shit about the meaning of the labels, at least not much :)
6. Disconnecting jack apps and playing audio through
PA while
connected to jack can bring down the whole system including the jack
and the alsa drivers but usually just PA gets fried which is mostly
acceptable while testing but useless for real world cases.
That sounds really serious. You mean like a frozen machine or just
inexplicable silence?