Bug#737083: pulseaudio: ALSA cannot be used directly when pulseaudio is installed

[G.raud]

package pulseaudio
retitle 737083 pulseaudio: let ALSA alone be still easy to use by non administrators 
severity 737083 normal
thanks

On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 03:42:09AM +0100, G.raud wrote:
> Note that the function loaded by the afore-mentioned file is named
> 'conf_load_if_running', which suggests that it should load the files
> that set pulse as the default ouput device only if pulseaudio is already
> running, but in fact it starts pulseaudio itself.

Setting 'autospawn = no' in $HOME/.pulse/client.conf (or
/etc/pulse/client.conf) changes the behaviour of the ALSA hook to not
autostart pulseaudio.  This should be the default as it allows one to
still use ALSA as before when pulseaudio has not been started and
because most users requiring pulseaudio either know how to start it or
will have it started by an X session or GNOME.

There should still be a way to clear the config of
'/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d/pulse.conf' by a user without
administrative privileges, for those who know that they do not want to run
pulseaudio and would not want to find themselves using it without
knowing.

> PS. Please add to README.Debian an explanation of how to do disable
> pulseaudio: how to disbale the autostart of the X session
> (both system-wide and per user) and how to disable the automatic
> switching of ALSA to pulseaudio.

Whether you change the default config of client.conf or not, you should
document 'autospawn = no' too.