[Techtalk] Sound problem

[David Sumbler]

As I posted the other day, I found a solution to the original problem,
and I now have sound for specialist programs like Qtractor and, in
addition, I can play normal audio and video from web-sites etc.

I found that pavucontrol was already installed on the computer, and it
certainly looks interesting.  But I normally run the machine with
pulseaudio killed, so presumably pavucontrol wouldn't do anything
useful.

If I start pulseaudio, it shows up in jack with apropriate connections,
but if the jack server is running I don't get any sound from Chrome,
VLC etc.

So the best solution for me seems to be to keep pulseaudio disabled,
and only run the jack server when I actually need it.

This is all rather confusing for me, because basically I don't have a
clue about how pulseaudio, alsa and jack relate to each other, and what
each actually does.

David




On Sun, 2016-12-04 at 10:34 -0500, Little Girl wrote:
> Hey there,
> 
> David Sumbler wrote:
> 
> [SNIP]
> 
> > 
> > I can get sound from the speakers or earphones when I use QjackCtl
> > and programs such as Qtractor, because I can choose the output
> > device.  So I can get on with my MIDI project.
> > 
> > But for programs which don't naturally interface with Jack I can
> > get no sound at all.  When I use Chrome, VNC etc. I have no sound
> > available. And I do want to use this laptop as a general-use
> > computer when I am away from home.
> [SNIP]
> 
> > 
> > Can anyone suggest how I can get sound working generally (not just
> > for specialized programs) on this computer?
> You might want to try PulseAudio Volume Control. You can find it as
> pavucontrol in the package manager or install it by that name on the
> command line. It's a little bit fiddly, but has a surprising amount
> of power over how your audio is controlled by each program.
>