Bug#585555: Please don't set the default audio output in /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf

[Pascal Gervais]

On 2010-06-11 19:31, Andres Mejia wrote:
> severity 585555 wishlist
> tags 585555 wontfix
> thanks
> 
> Considering the integration of pulseaudio by many distributions and
> projects, and considering the fact that Debian's gnome package
> ultimitely depends on pulseaudio through it's dependencies, it's
> reasonable to assume that pulseaudio will be installed on a user's
> machine, for the majority case.
> 

First, I don't care about other distributions, I'm using Debian!

Secondly, Debian has five different installation CD-ROMs: One with
GNOME, one with KDE, one with Xfce and/or LXDE, and two net
installation CD-ROMs (netinst and businesscard) with which we can
install plenty other wonderful window managers. Without forgetting the
LiveCDs available with the four major desktop environments
(GNOME,KDE,Xfce and LXDE).

Third, Debian is not Ubuntu. Debian users are generally more advanced
users who does not necessarily install it with the CD with GNOME as you
seem to think.

Fourth, GNOME is not the center of the universe!

Fifth, MPlayer is not a GNOME apps!

> Also, I think having the sound device taken over by one program,
> leaving other programs with no sound, is a bigger issue than waiting
> a few seconds for mplayer to start playback.
> 

And I think having to wait six to seven seconds before MPlayer start my
playlist and that having to wait six to seven seconds between each
audio files of my playlist is a bug, an unacceptable behavior, a
regression that occurred when you decided to set pulseaudio as the
default audio output of MPlayer.

Anyway, in case you are interested in finding what is wrong, here is
the outpout of MPlayer when it tries to find pulseaudio:
waitpid(): No child processes
AO: [pulse] Init failed: Internal error
Failed to initialize audio driver 'pulse'

'waitpid(): No child processes' is where MPlayer takes all that time
before starting each audio and video playback.

Regards