Bug#812557: pulseaudio: "refusing to start/autospawn" with multi-user setup

[Felipe Sateler]

On 15 February 2016 at 13:23, Rodrigo Campos <rodrigo at sdfg.com.ar> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 12:58:58PM -0300, Felipe Sateler wrote:
>> Control: tags -1 moreinfo
>>
>> On 24 January 2016 at 22:42, Rodrigo Campos <rodrigo at sdfg.com.ar> wrote:
>> >
>> > Package: pulseaudio
>> > Version: 7.1-2
>> > Severity: normal
>> >
>> > Dear Maintainer,
>> >
>> > I'be updated debian testing (didn't update in a while) and after I upgraded,
>> > sound from programs that run as a different user stopped working.
>> >
>> > When some other user tries to run: "/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start
>> > --log-target=syslog" it fails with errors like:
>> >
>> >         Jan 24 22:01:58 lindsay pulseaudio[10238]: [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured
>> >         server at {d07a5e247c911a2ac8ca6d8652d822c1}unix:/run/user/1000/pulse/native,
>> >         refusing to start/autospawn.
>> >         Jan 24 22:08:13 lindsay pulseaudio[11867]: [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured
>> >         server at lindsay, refusing to start/autospawn.
>> >
>> > Both users, the user that opened the desktop environment (let's call him userA)
>> > and the other user trying to run pulseaudio/firefox (let's call him userB) are
>> > member of group audio. Also, userA uid is 1000 and userB uid is 1001.
>>
>> How are you running firefox/pulseaudio as different users? Just sudo
>> -u userB firefox or some other way?
>
> Yes, just that. And also run: "xhost +SI:localuser:userB" before.

OK

>
>> > Usually, as autospawn is enabled, when running firefox as userB and sound
>> > was needed, pulseaudio was started and audio just worked. Now everything works
>> > fine, except audio doesn't play. Probably because it fails as above when trying
>> > to start pulseaudio.
>> >
>> > I've found the following work-around, though, to make this work again and this
>> > is why I'm reporting it to pulseaudio.
>> >
>> > If userA logins to the desktop env and opens a console and as userB (I'm doing
>> > "su - userB") runs:
>> >
>> >         pax11publish -r; /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
>> >
>> > then audio works again.
>>
>> OK, this is the x11 publish module.
>>
>> >
>> > To check if audio works, and to be sure is nothing related to firefox, I run as
>> > userA in the desktop env:
>> >
>> >         sudo -u userB -- aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
>> >
>> > iAfter doing the "pax11publish ..." command above, this command works. Before it
>> > does not. And, of course, this also fixes the audio in firefox.
>>
>> You can work around this by disabling the x11 publish module, via
>> disabling the autostart of start-pulseaudio-x11 (by removing/moving
>> away the /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop file).
>
> Ohh, I can confirm that this workaround works.
>
>
> Let me know if you need more info or I can help you with testing the fix

I don't think there is anything we can do on the debian side. Maybe
you can raise the issue upstream and see whether they come up with a
way to support your use case? I don't think I want to deviate from
upstream in this respect.

-- 

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler