Bug#413974: gstreamer-properties needs libesd-alsa0

[Loïc Minier]

On Fri, Mar 09, 2007, Robert Millan [ackstorm] wrote:
> In a default install, gnome-media isn't using esound.  It attempts to use
> OSS directly, which is precisely what you want to avoid (i.e. knowledge on
> the underlying implementation).

 The default is (or should be) to use autoaudiosink, which will try to
 select the best output sink.  Is this the default value you have seen?

 autoaudiosink _will_ use esound if it's running (for example because
 the relevant configuration is set in GNOME to start esound), but this
 requires the esd plugin indeed.

 Please note that in the default install esound shouldn't be running
 IIRC.

> My mistake, as Sven pointed out, has been ignoring that gstreamer0.10-esd
> can solve the problem properly by using esound.  Can you add a dependency
> on that package?

 Well, technically it would be useful to have it available, and I think
 that the latest esound plugin in gstreamer will _not_ spawn a daemon if
 it's not running (which is what we want); however, esound is not really
 rocket quality, and I wouldn't want to advocate it by pulling the
 elements; in fact, my personal preference goes to being able to remove
 it entirely.


 I suppose that we should do one of these:
 - stop pulling esound altogether (but this would break e.g. the sound
   daemon option in GNOME), and suggest it only; alsa dmix should be
   enough for most users
 - pull esound _support_ completely, that is gstreamer0.10-esd, and not
   only esound, but not turn it on by default
 - pull support for pulseaudio instead which is a compatible replacement
   and is of good quality; we can't enable it by default either because
   it's heavy on the CPU and not all users want a sound daemon when they
   are happy with the capabilities of their sound card or of dmix

 The only realistic option for etch is either to add a dep on
 gstreamer0.10-esd (perhaps in the meta-gnome2 package which pulls
 esound?), or to remove the dep on esound in meta-gnome2.  Perhaps it's
 too late for etch already.

 My preference goes to the third option for lenny; pulling pulseaudio by
 default, leaving people with the choice to remove it or use esound
 instead, and by using ALSA without pulseaudio by default.

> We also need to make sure that "autodetect" will figure out that -esd is
> installed and works, rather than attempting to use broken OSS (EBUSY) or
> ALSA (missing libesd-alsa0).

 It will if it's available.  On Ubuntu, it will prefer ALSA dmix if
 available over Esound IIRC, but I don't think we have that patch.

-- 
Loïc Minier <lool at dooz.org>