Bug#625926: gnome-applets: mixer_applet2 fails to associate with sound card when auto-logged in at first boot

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

Package: gnome-applets
Version: 2.30.0-3
Severity: normal

i've set up gdm3 to auto-log in my user account on this machine.  The
user account is not a member of group audio.  I'm also using systemd,
so the boot ordering might well be non-deterministic.

In the first login session immediately after boot, the gnome volume
control applet (which i think is mixer_applet2) shows up with a little
X over the speaker -- it's not muted, it's indicating that the user
isn't in control of any sound device.  Clicking on the icon doesn't
bring up any slider or mute checkbox or anything.

If i right click and choose "open volume control", i do actually get a
volume control which i can manipulate, though.

If i log out and log back in, the little X is gone and i can get a
slider when i left-click (that is, it behaves as it should).

If i remove the applet from my panel and add it back in, i also get
the proper behavior.

So it looks to me like the applet is initializing itself very early in
the boot+login process -- perhaps before policykit is up and running?
-- and deciding at that point that it has no privileges to the device
in question.

This kind of race condition seems problematic for a fast-boot.

Maybe policykit needs to notify any outstanding mixer_applet2 devices
(via dbus?) when new privileges are granted, or when it comes online
in the first place?  I don't really understand how these things fit
together, so maybe i'm suggesting something that already works, or
that couldn't possibly work.

I'm happy to debug further if you can give me instructions about what
data to gather.

Thanks for maintaining gnome applets in debian!

Regards,

	--dkg

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.39-rc4-686-pae (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages gnome-applets depends on:
ii  gconf2                   2.28.1-6        GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gnome-applets-data       2.30.0-3        Various applets for the GNOME pane
ii  gnome-icon-theme         2.30.3-2        GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii  gnome-panel              2.30.2-4        launcher and docking facility for 
ii  gstreamer0.10-alsa       0.10.32-2       GStreamer plugin for ALSA
ii  gvfs                     1.6.4-3         userspace virtual filesystem - ser
ii  libatk1.0-0              2.0.0-1         The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonobo2-0             2.24.3-1        Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0           2.24.3-1        The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                    2.13-2          Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcpufreq0              007-1           shared library to deal with the cp
ii  libdbus-1-3              1.4.8-3         simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2         0.92-1          simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgconf2-4              2.28.1-6        GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0             2.28.6-1        The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-desktop-2-17    2.30.2-2        Utility library for loading .deskt
ii  libgnome2-0              2.30.0-1        The GNOME library - runtime files
ii  libgstreamer-plugins-bas 0.10.32-2       GStreamer libraries from the "base
ii  libgstreamer0.10-0       0.10.32-6+b1    Core GStreamer libraries and eleme
ii  libgtk2.0-0              2.24.4-3        The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libgtop2-7               2.28.1-1        gtop system monitoring library (sh
ii  libgucharmap7            1:2.30.3-1      Unicode browser widget library (sh
ii  libgweather1             2.30.3-1        GWeather shared library
ii  libnotify1 [libnotify1-g 0.5.0-2         sends desktop notifications to a n
ii  liboobs-1-4              2.30.1-1        GObject based interface to system-
ii  libpanel-applet2-0       2.30.2-4        library for GNOME Panel applets
ii  libpango1.0-0            1.28.3-6        Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0    0.101-4         PolicyKit Authorization API
ii  libupower-glib1          0.9.9-4         abstraction for power management -
ii  libwnck22                2.30.4-3        Window Navigator Construction Kit 
ii  libx11-6                 2:1.4.3-1       X11 client-side library
ii  libxml2                  2.7.8.dfsg-2+b1 GNOME XML library
ii  python                   2.6.6-14        interactive high-level object-orie

Versions of packages gnome-applets recommends:
ii  cpufrequtils                 007-1       utilities to deal with the cpufreq
ii  deskbar-applet               2.32.0-1+b1 universal search and navigation ba
ii  gnome-media                  2.30.0-1    GNOME media utilities
ii  gnome-netstatus-applet       2.28.1-1    Network status applet for GNOME
ii  gnome-system-monitor         2.28.1-1    Process viewer and system resource
ii  policykit-1-gnome            0.101-2     GNOME authentication agent for Pol
ii  python-gconf                 2.28.1-2    Python bindings for the GConf conf
ii  python-gnome2                2.28.1-2    Python bindings for the GNOME desk
ii  python-gnomeapplet           2.30.2-1    Python bindings for the GNOME pane
ii  python-gobject               2.28.3-3    Python bindings for the GObject li
ii  python-gtk2                  2.24.0-1    Python bindings for the GTK+ widge

Versions of packages gnome-applets suggests:
pn  tomboy                        <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information