[mythtv-users] ALSA audio conflict w/ Boxee/HuluDesktop

Andrew Gallatin gallatin at cs.duke.edu
Fri Jul 2 15:10:23 UTC 2010


j2u4 j2u4 [j2u44u at gmail.com] wrote:
> 
> Boxee works fine if I launch it normally, outside of MythTV. It is only when
> launched by MythTV that the sound doesn't work. Anyone have other tips I can
> try?


I've been fighting this on and off for weeks. Boxee audio is the 9th
circle of hell.  

The only way I can get it to work via HDMI is to use pulse audio.
When pulse is installed, it inserts its hooks deep into the system,
and runs at login (unless you take extraordinary measures to
kill/disable it).  When mythfrontend starts, it notices that pulse is
running and suspends it.  So when you use an application which uses
pulse (like launching boxee from mythfrontend), pulse audio is
disabled, and sound won't work.

I've had some luck with killing pulseaudio before mythfrontend starts
(to prevent myth from suspending it).  Then I start boxee from a 
terminal, and it works.  After I'm done with boxee, I need to kill
pulseaudio again before going back to mythtv.  I just need to script
this some..

At least for me, the trick was killing pulse before myth starts.  I
use fluxbox and login via GDM on MythDora 12.23.  When I login, gdm
leaves a pulseaudio deamon running (as gdm) that I have to kill via
sudo pkill -9 pulseaudio in the fluxbox startup script. (the --kill
option doesn't work, since the daemon is running as gdm).

Drew


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