Does Skype drop the support of ALSA (towards pulseaudio)?

Xeratul · 10-12-2014, 01:57 PM

Hello,

I do not want to install Pulseaudio, since it is not needed to be installed on my machine.

Visibly, I never got a problem until the day I encountered Skype.

Skype does show a Virtual Device option, but No Single USB mic and speakers that I use.

There is no single choice, and nothing (mic and speaker) is possible.

Would you have any similar problems?

thank you in advance !!!

Another Debian User in the world.

Xeratul · 10-12-2014, 02:08 PM

This is NOT working

Quote:

On OpenSuse 12.3:

1. go to file /etc/sysconfig/sound

2. modify line starts with PULSEAUDIO_ENABLE from "no" to "yes":

PULSEAUDIO_ENABLE="yes"

and restart.

My 4.0.37 version of SKYPE is aimed to the dropbin.
Would you know a version of skype working with Debian + Alsa?
( ++++ where to get it?)

I have just install libpulse0 and ran:

Code:

PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30  skype

But this DOES NOT work.

this is outdated:
https://wiki.debian.org/skype

Papymousofrench · 11-01-2014, 06:38 AM

install package " pavucontrol "
run it in command line $ pavucontrol

select you webcam in all onglet with the button'choice....

brebs · 11-01-2014, 07:41 AM

Don't need pulseaudio for skype - apulse works fine.

I also recommend skype-poll-fix

Papymousofrench · 11-01-2014, 10:50 AM

PulseAudio or Pulse is installing in Skype'logical!
to work... version 3.04.....

Xeratul · 11-02-2014, 01:27 AM

is apulse an alternative to pulseaudio?

but why not simply using ALSA like everyone?

Papymousofrench · 11-02-2014, 02:42 AM

with the update version of debian and another os!
alsa is also install but need PulseAudio to work...

Xeratul · 11-02-2014, 07:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Papymousofrench

with the update version of debian and another os!
alsa is also install but need PulseAudio to work...

debian does NOT need pulseaudio to work at all.

Most novice will install an easy X11 env. such as gnome, kde,,... and will get likely pulseaudio to be installed (kde has his own).

Expert do NOT need pulseaudio because they can configure ALSA from the command line.

brebs · 11-02-2014, 07:22 AM

Xeratul, will you please do a bit of googling yourself, instead of throwing silly half-truths in this thread.

Skype dropped support for ALSA (yes, lots of people have already ranted about this). Skype needs pulseaudio. The purpose of apulse is to replace/emulate pulseaudio, just enough for skype to work, without needing pulseaudio itself.

I use apulse.

Xeratul · 11-02-2014, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brebs

Xeratul, will you please do a bit of googling yourself, instead of throwing silly half-truths in this thread.

Skype dropped support for ALSA (yes, lots of people have already ranted about this). Skype needs pulseaudio. The purpose of apulse is to replace/emulate pulseaudio, just enough for skype to work, without needing pulseaudio itself.

I use apulse.

I believe that you can simply reconfigure your ALSA without installing apulse.

Code:

man alsa

!!

Xeratul · 11-02-2014, 08:27 AM

The trick for ALSA is to use your main card and set it to the soundcard number 0.
Once you made it you can get sound.

A nice example of how-to is here:
How-To:
http://alsa.opensrc.org/MultipleCards

If you have troubles to set up your sound cards with ALSA, please use the mailing list:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/ind.../Mailing-lists

They will give you valuable information how to configure ALSA.

--
EDIT:
I forgot to mention that you do NOT need apulse. apulse and pulseaudio are ideal tools for people that have troubles in understanding how ALSA works and how to configure ALSA for multiple cards with command line. Those two tools are great to help people that are not familiar with Linux or were MS-Windows users. They are important to make Linux much simpler to use, but they are definitely not required.

brebs · 11-02-2014, 11:34 AM

Skype 4.3 doesn't support the ALSA API!

Stop copy-and-pasting simplistic ALSA info.

Read other thread.

Xeratul · 01-10-2015, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brebs

Don't need pulseaudio for skype - apulse works fine.

I also recommend skype-poll-fix

I reinstalled wheezy.

I have now a clean (server install) of wheezy with alsa running and sound completely working (on hw:0,9) using mplayer.

Code:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] <----- here the one to ouput my sound!!
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Code:

Usage

$ apulse <program-name> [parameters]

Environment variables APULSE_CAPTURE_DEVICE and APULSE_PLAYBACK_DEVICE can be used to configure capture and playback devices. Try hw:0,0, plughw:0,0 and the like. Refer to the ALSA user guide for a full list of device names.

I have installed apulse and ran:

Code:

apulse skype "hw:0,9"

I do not get any sounds !! How to make it work?

thank you in advance and looking forward to hearing you.

MikeVx · 03-15-2015, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeratul

I reinstalled wheezy.

I have now a clean (server install) of wheezy with alsa running and sound completely working (on hw:0,9) using mplayer.

Code:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] <----- here the one to ouput my sound!!
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Code:

Usage

$ apulse <program-name> [parameters]

Environment variables APULSE_CAPTURE_DEVICE and APULSE_PLAYBACK_DEVICE can be used to configure capture and playback devices. Try hw:0,0, plughw:0,0 and the like. Refer to the ALSA user guide for a full list of device names.

I have installed apulse and ran:

Code:

apulse skype "hw:0,9"

I do not get any sounds !! How to make it work?

thank you in advance and looking forward to hearing you.

Quick background: Introducing pulseaudio on my system was an act of insanity. A common problem was that Skype (the only reason I had PA), would fail to connect for sound, and the only means I could use to recover was to reboot the machine.

apluse insisted on using my main sound card for playback, and for a microphone I don't have. As you can guess, this didn't work.

After finding this thread , I did the following:

Code:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC1200 Analog [ALC1200 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC1200 Digital [ALC1200 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Headset [Logitech USB Headset], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The headset listed last is what I want Skype to use. I edited /usr/bin/apulse to read as follows:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

export APULSE_CAPTURE_DEVICE=hw:2,0
export APULSE_PLAYBACK_DEVICE=hw:2,0

APULSEPATH="/usr/lib/apulse:/usr/lib64/apulse"

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$APULSEPATH${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH} exec "$@"

Once I did this, I was able to use my headset with no problem, and I no longer have to put up with strange hitches on my sound system.

I will be running tests with a webcam, I suspect that I'll have to create a different file for when I want to use it with Skype.

Xeratul · 03-19-2015, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeVx

Quick background: Introducing pulseaudio on my system was an act of insanity. A common problem was that Skype (the only reason I had PA), would fail to connect for sound, and the only means I could use to recover was to reboot the machine.

apluse insisted on using my main sound card for playback, and for a microphone I don't have. As you can guess, this didn't work.

After finding this thread , I did the following:

Code:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC1200 Analog [ALC1200 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC1200 Digital [ALC1200 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Headset [Logitech USB Headset], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The headset listed last is what I want Skype to use. I edited /usr/bin/apulse to read as follows:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

export APULSE_CAPTURE_DEVICE=hw:2,0
export APULSE_PLAYBACK_DEVICE=hw:2,0

APULSEPATH="/usr/lib/apulse:/usr/lib64/apulse"

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$APULSEPATH${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH} exec "$@"

Once I did this, I was able to use my headset with no problem, and I no longer have to put up with strange hitches on my sound system.

I will be running tests with a webcam, I suspect that I'll have to create a different file for when I want to use it with Skype.

It is a kinda ugly methode that you use, isnt it? Which version of apulse and debian release do you use?

you may run it simply with apulse skype? It shall run with little config without bash.