HOWTO: PulseAudio Fixes & System-Wide Equalizer Support (Hardy Heron)

This should fix the no-sound issue of Flash Player

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This guide is specially designed to fix certain issues present with Hardy's current implementation of PulseAudio and to enable equalized output. I have divided this guide into different sections, based on your needs:

Part A: Required Fixes (bug #198453)
Part B: Adobe Flash & PulseAudio Fix (bug #192888)
Part C: Stuttering Audio Fix (bug #188226 and bug #190754)
Part D: Equalizer Support (adapted from my original research here and using updated values from the ArchLinux wiki)
Appendix A: General Tips
Appendix B: Troubleshooting Audio Playback/Mixing
Appendix C: Removal Instructions

Important: The purpose of this guide is to make PulseAudio work smoothly with all applications, not to fix a system that does not play sound at all.

• If you cannot get sound working under any circumstances, then you are probably suffering from a kernel or ALSA bug - this guide is not for you.
• If you have a brand-new sound card that is not supported in ALSA, and you are using OSS v4 - this guide is not for you.
• If you can get sound working in some applications but not others, or you find that audio mixing is broken - this guide is for you.

Which part(s) should I follow?
Part A is a required step, as it will enable proper PulseAudio support in most ALSA-aware applications.

Part B will install version 10 (beta) of Adobe's Flash plugin, as it has better compatibility with PulseAudio.

Part C is highly recommended if you notice a lot of stuttering audio in some applications. The settings proposed in this guide work well for my system, but you may need to do some manual tweaking to get the best results for your hardware.

Part D is an optional step that enables a system-wide audio equalizer (which can be customized using any LADSPA audio processing plugin). The settings provided in this guide are ideal for laptop users who notice poor quality audio playback using their built-in laptop speakers.

Appendix A gives application-specific notes, Appendix B helps troubleshoot audio playback/mixing issues, and Appendix C will revert all changes (just in case your system got screwed as a result of following this guide).

Note: Changes to PulseAudio will not take effect immediately! Please remember to log out and back in after you have completed all desired steps in this guide, or reboot if you are running an older kernel.

Part A: Core Fixes (bug #198453)
This section will adjust your PulseAudio setup to allow almost every ALSA-aware application to work properly with PulseAudio. If you do not complete this step, any ALSA applications without native PulseAudio support will block access to the sound card, preventing PulseAudio from using it simultaneously.

1. Backup important configuration files (don't worry if you see "no such file or directory" warnings):

Code:

$ mkdir ~/pulseaudio-backup; sudo mv ~/.asoundrc* /etc/asound.conf /etc/libao.conf ~/pulseaudio-backup/

2. Enable the "hardy-proposed" repository, as we need some updated packages with important fixes:

Code:

$ gksudo software-properties-gtk

Click on the "Updates" tab, enable the checkmark for "Pre-released updates (hardy-proposed)", and any other repositories you may be interested in. Click "Close", and then "Reload".

3. Install/upgrade the following packages necessary for proper PulseAudio functionality:

Code:

$ sudo apt-get install libasound2 libasound2-plugins libasound2-dev padevchooser swh-plugins libao-pulse libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio ladspa-sdk

4. Create a new "/etc/libao.conf" file and change the default driver to "pulse", to ensure applications using the "libao" audio framework function correctly:

Code:

$ gksudo gedit /etc/libao.conf

Paste the following and save:

Code:

default_driver=pulse

5. Create a new "~/.asoundrc" file:

Code:

$ gedit ~/.asoundrc

To ensure ALSA applications pass sound to the PulseAudio server, paste the following text into the file and save:

Code:

pcm.!default {
 type pulse
}

ctl.!default {
 type pulse
}

pcm.pulse {
 type pulse
}

ctl.pulse {
 type pulse
}

6. As some packages may be unstable in the "hardy-proposed" repository, you may not want to upgrade all packages provided there. If you don't want to take the risk, go back to Software Sources (see point 2), uncheck the "Pre-release updates (hardy-proposed)" repository, clock "Close" and then choose to "Reload" the repository list. Otherwise, you can keep the repository enabled and perform an upgrade as usual.

Part B: Adobe Flash & PulseAudio Fix (bug #192888)
The latest stable version of Adobe Flash does not work very well in conjunction with PulseAudio. Although there are workarounds available (installing the packages "libflashsupport" and "nspluginwrapper"), Flash still has stability problems when configured to use PulseAudio. The latest Flash v10 beta release works correctly, however.

1. Make sure you don't have "libflashsupport" installed, as it can cause instability:

Code:

$ sudo apt-get remove libflashsupport

2. Download and install the beta "flashplugin-nonfree" package from Intrepid's repository:

i386:

Code:

$ wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/multiverse/f/flashplugin-nonfree/flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.1.218ubuntu1_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.1.218ubuntu1_i386.deb

amd64:

Code:

$ wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/multiverse/f/flashplugin-nonfree/flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.1.218ubuntu1_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.1.218ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Important: Flash audio will not work properly if you skipped Part A

Original