Tired of the GNOME/Metacity combination, I installed LXDE a few days ago, but it doesn't seem to want to play well with Pulseaudio. As a result, I had to switch my media players back to ALSA.

Any ideas on whether I can get PA working with LXDE?

How To: The (almost) Perfect Pulse Audio Setup
After much tinkering, I have finally found a setup with Pulse Audio on Hardy that I am happy with. Since a lot of people are having trouble with it, here's what I did:

Updates:

1. Added link to method for 5.1 sound
2. Patched SDL pulse driver. See changes in Step 3: libsdl1.2debian-all is no longer needed.
I've submitted a bug to try to get this patch incorporated in the Ubuntu version: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s....2/+bug/225467
3. Created repository for new pulse drive (supports i386, amd64, and lpia)
More changes to Step 3 now.


1) Install additional packages
Code:

sudo apt-get install libao-pulse libasound2-plugins

2) Configure settings
--edit your /etc/asound.conf file like so:
Code:

pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}
ctl.pulse {
type pulse
}
pcm.!default {
type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
type pulse
}

--edit your /etc/libao.conf like so:
Code:

default_driver=pulse

Create any files that don't exist.

--Go to System>Preferences>Sound
--Set the top four boxed to PulseAudio Sound Server
--Set the Default mixer to the name of your sound card

3) Install additional Pulse packages
Code:

sudo apt-get install libflashsupport padevchooser pulseaudio-module-hal pulseaudio-module-x11

Allow it to install the additional dependencies.

--Updated here:--
To ensure you have the default libSDL install, first run this:
Code:

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian libsdl1.2debian-alsa

Now add the following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list (this will add my repository, it only the packages you need):
Code:

## zman0900's PPA
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/zman0900/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/zman0900/ubuntu hardy main

Now run the following:
Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio

Note: If libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio will not install for you, do the following two things instead:
Code:

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-all

and add this to ~/.profile :
Code:

# Make SDL audio work properly with Pulse
#export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=pulse

Both libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio and libsdl1.2debian-all contain that patched Pulse driver, all just requires you to explicitly use Pulse with the SDL_AUDIODRIVER environment variable.
--End Update--

5) Set up device chooser
Go to Applications>Sound & Video>PulseAudio Device Chooser
It will show up as a plug in notification area.
Left click, click Preferences, check Start applet on session login.

6) RESTART THE COMPUTER!
Everything should be set up now. You should now be able to play audio through both ALSA, esd, and Pulse applications at the same time, and everything will show up in the Device Chooser as a separate, configurable stream.

Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. Ubuntu has been selected by readers of desktoplinux.com as the most popular Linux distribution for the desktop.

verything should be set up now. You should now be able to play audio through both ALSA, esd, and Pulse applications at the same time, and everything will show up in the Device Chooser as a separate, configurable stream.