Feature changed by: Roger Luedecke (Shadowolf7) Feature #311362, revision 10 Title: Remove pulseaudio from default installation again openSUSE Distribution: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Mandatory Requested by: Dean Hilkewich (deanjo13) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: Since having pulseaudio again activated as default not one of the systems that I have installed 11.4 had a working audio system. Remove pulse from the default installation again as it does nothing but break working installations. This has been verified across multiple sound cards and setups. Don't get rid of the pulseaudio packages, just take them out of the default installation pattern. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: Pulse audio is supposed to deliver several high level features like network transparency, etc. Most users do not need those features so for them pulse just add another layer of complexity. It is necessary to install several libraries to gain complete control of the sound system (the same control that those users have since years through alsa and kmix, for example), and that for someone who only need to listen his/her local music collection is too much. Default systems must be simple , with the ability to add (also in a simple way) the advanced features. Unless some "patterns" are set to use during install (one for "normal" users who do not need pulse, other for those who want it out of the box) to NOT force new users to face the more complex scheme (i.e., to not install pulse by default but leave it as a choice) is a good solution. Discussion: #1: Walter Forbes (wforbes) (2011-02-27 03:28:48) Removing Pulse from the default installation would be perhaps the wisest choice for opensuse 11.4. There is no point in subjecting users to the absolutely frustrating punishment of distorted and often sporadic sound as a result of pulse audio. Until pulse is reliable and bug free ALSA is a wise choice - it works! #2: Ricardo Gabriel Berlasso (rgbsuse) (2011-02-27 15:59:52) Just added a "user benefit" entry. I understand that there are people who would like to use pulse (on the net you can read praises and attacks almost on the same measure), but I think an easy "switch" for those who do not want to use it is important. #3: Carlos Mafra (crmafra) (2011-03-07 12:40:57) I agree. The default should be as simple as possible, with the possibility to add fancy stuff if needed. Someone who needs network transparency will know how to get it, there's no need to force that upon users for which 'sound' means just being able to control the volume. #4: José Simón (simon37) (2011-03-09 18:36:00) I haven't been able to get it working properly in two different machines with different hardware. And there's no point in having to uninstall it and lock the package, because it's part of the default installation. I think the project is not mature enough to be shipped with a distro which is supposed to be stable. Although in my opinion the whole idea of pulseaudio is great, it still needs some time, especially in KDE. #5: Kay Schubert (kayschubert) (2011-03-10 03:23:12) Actually, for me pulseaudio was the only way to make audio playback reliable across flash, skype and KDE apps. My experience is this: most apps now support pulseaudio natively (even skype), and for ALSA- consuments it provides software-mixing out of the box, without any tweaking of ALSA configs. With pure ALSA I had to manually edit /etc/asound.conf to incorporate dmix, and seldom got it right. Since I enabled pulseaudio ( http://kayschubert.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/flash-and-pulseaudio-in-opensuse... (http://kayschubert.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/flash-and-pulseaudio-in-opensuse...) ) I have not once experienced distorted audio. + #6: Roger Luedecke (shadowolf7) (2011-04-11 10:04:20) + Pulse is too glitchy. I get sound, but every system I have installed on + has inconsistencies. On one system I defaulted to Ubuntu (which I do + not like) just to get the sound to work properly. I do not feel pulse + is mature enough to be default at present. Further, I would like a + simple way to remove it so I can have a reliable sound system again. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/311362