Debian Bug report logs - #425057
ltsp-server: Sound does not work "out of box" and no instructions for making it work

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: ltsp-server: Sound does not work "out of box" and no instructions for making it work

Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 13:30:39 -0600

Package: ltsp-server
Version: 0.99debian11
Severity: normal

After installing ltsp-server and getting clients to run, sound does not work
on the clients.  Within the package, I'm not finding any notes or pointers
to other documentation for getting sound to work.

The two main things I needed to do to enable sound were:

1) Add "SOUND = Y" to /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf

Note that this file isn't there by default, so the user might want to copy
it from /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/share/doc/ltsp-client/examples as a starting
point.  However, they probably want to comment out all the lines and start
with an empty [Default] section.

2) Within the chroot, install several packages.  I don't know if this is
the right set, but this is what worked.  (I'd love feedback if I have
installed the wrong things.)

sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get update
sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get install alsa-oss alsa-base alsa-utils
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libasound2 libpci2 linux-sound-base lsof pciutils
Suggested packages:
  apmd libasound2-plugins
The following NEW packages will be installed
  alsa-base alsa-oss alsa-utils libasound2 libpci2 linux-sound-base
  lsof pciutils

The addition of these packages does increase the client's footprint.
Previously, a top(1) showed memory usage of 47748k.  After these sound
packages are installed, memory usage increased to 48904K.

Additionally, one could point users to:
  http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/Sound

It is difficult, though, because most of the instructions at ltsp.org
are written for a manual install of LTS.  The Debian packaging is nice,
but it becomes difficult for a user to tell what it's done, and how much
of the lts.org documentation is applicable.

-- Package-specific info:
packages in chroot: /opt/ltsp/i386
ii  initramfs-tools          0.85g                    tools for generating an initramfs
ii  ldm                      0.99debian11             LTSP display manager
ii  ltsp-client              0.99debian11             LTSP client environment

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-4-686
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)

Versions of packages ltsp-server depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]       1.5.11       Debian configuration management sy
ii  debconf-utils               1.5.11       debconf utilities
ii  debootstrap                 0.3.3.2      Bootstrap a basic Debian system
ii  esound-clients              0.2.36-3     Enlightened Sound Daemon - clients
ii  gettext-base                0.16.1-1     GNU Internationalization utilities
ii  iproute                     20061002-3   Professional tools to control the 
ii  lsb-release                 3.1-23.1     Linux Standard Base version report
ii  nfs-kernel-server           1:1.0.10-6   Kernel NFS server support
ii  openbsd-inetd [inet-superse 0.20050402-6 The OpenBSD Internet Superserver
ii  openssh-client              1:4.3p2-9    Secure shell client, an rlogin/rsh
ii  python                      2.4.4-2      An interactive high-level object-o
ii  ssh                         1:4.3p2-9    Secure shell client and server (tr
ii  tcpd                        7.6.dbs-13   Wietse Venema's TCP wrapper utilit
ii  tftpd-hpa                   0.43-1.1     HPA's tftp server
ii  update-inetd                4.27-0.5     inetd.conf updater

Versions of packages ltsp-server recommends:
ii  nbd-server                    1:2.8.7-4  the Network Block Device server
ii  openssh-server                1:4.3p2-9  Secure shell server, an rshd repla
ii  ssh                           1:4.3p2-9  Secure shell client and server (tr

-- debconf information:
  ltsp-server/build_client: false

Message #10 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: vagrant@freegeek.org

To: Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>, 425057@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#425057: ltsp-server: Sound does not work "out of box" and no instructions for making it work

Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 00:05:24 -0700

On Fri, May 18, 2007 at 01:30:39PM -0600, Bryan Sutula wrote:
> After installing ltsp-server and getting clients to run, sound does not work
> on the clients.  Within the package, I'm not finding any notes or pointers
> to other documentation for getting sound to work.

right. we definitely need to document it. we should consider enabling it
by default, though not all users will want it enabled.
 
> The two main things I needed to do to enable sound were:
> 
> 1) Add "SOUND = Y" to /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf
 
> Note that this file isn't there by default, so the user might want to copy
> it from /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/share/doc/ltsp-client/examples as a starting
> point.  However, they probably want to comment out all the lines and start
> with an empty [Default] section.

right. the theory was the default behavior should not require an
lts.conf... but it confuses everybody so we'll probably start creating
one anyways. :)
 
> 2) Within the chroot, install several packages.  I don't know if this is
> the right set, but this is what worked.  (I'd love feedback if I have
> installed the wrong things.)
> 
> sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get update
> sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get install alsa-oss alsa-base alsa-utils
...snip...

probably don't need all of these. i will look into it when i get a
chance.

i'm wondering if switching to libesd-alsa0 in the chroot would work
instead? though i think there's some ltsp scripts that stupidly check
for /dev/dsp ... so we'd have to fix those too.

> The addition of these packages does increase the client's footprint.
> Previously, a top(1) showed memory usage of 47748k.  After these sound
> packages are installed, memory usage increased to 48904K.

yes, well, it requires running an additional daemon, so that's not a
huge surprise. :)
 
> Additionally, one could point users to:
>   http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/Sound
> 
> It is difficult, though, because most of the instructions at ltsp.org
> are written for a manual install of LTS.  The Debian packaging is nice,
> but it becomes difficult for a user to tell what it's done, and how much
> of the lts.org documentation is applicable.

wiki.ltsp.org is primarily for older ltsp 4.x versions at this point.

there is also http://wiki.debian.org/LTSP where you could add
documentation. maybe add a sound section to LTSP/Howto if it's a short
set of instructions, or create a separate page and link to it in the
howto. then we can clean up the wiki content and include it in the
package documentation.

thanks for the report and suggestions on how to get it to work.

live well,
  vagrant

Message #15 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>

To: 425057@bugs.debian.org, Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

Subject: Re: ltsp-server: Sound does not work "out of box" and no instructions for making it work

Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:47:38 +0200

In Debian Edu/Etch, we configure sound in KDE automatically using
desktop-profiles.  We provide default KDE settings to enable ESD when
logging in from a thin client with sound support enabled.  Here is how
it is done.


The file /etc/desktop-profiles/debian-edu-config.listing contain this
entry:

  # Settings for the thin clients, to enable esd sound
  edu-ltsp;KDE;/usr/share/debian-edu/thin-client;20;$([ "$LTSP_CLIENT" ] && [ "$ESPEAKER" ] && echo 1);Settings common to all debian-edu LTSP clients

This activate the KDE configuration files in
/usr/share/debian-edu/thin-client when both LTSP_CLIENT and ESPEAKER
is set.

Next, the file
/usr/share/debian-edu/thin-client/share/config/kcmartsrc contain the
KDE configuration to enable esd and use it:

  [Arts]
  AudioIO=esd
  Arguments=\s-F 10 -S 4096 -a esd -s 60 -m artsmessage -c drkonqi -

With these two files in place, KDE switches to esd and uses the
ESPEAKER setting to send sound to the thin client when logging in from
a LTSP thin client with sound enabled.

As gnome as far as I know already uses esd, there is no need to
reconfigure gnome to get its application to use esd.

Happy hacking,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen

Message #20 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: vagrant@freegeek.org

To: 425057@bugs.debian.org, 425057-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: please test sound support for ltsp

Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:04:40 -0700

as of ltsp 5.0.8debian2, sound support should be much easier to set for
gnome, and with the instructions petter provided on this bug report
(http://bugs.debian.org/425057) should be possile to configure for KDE
apps as well.

could you please test the new packages and see if this adequately
addresses the issues you experienced?

if you want to test on etch, see the bottom page for information about
using the "backported" packages:

  http://wiki.debian.org/LTSP/Howto

live well,
  vagrant

Message #28 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

To: vagrant@freegeek.org

Cc: 425057@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#425057: please test sound support for ltsp

Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:39:24 -0600

On Sun, 2007-08-12 at 11:04 -0700, vagrant@freegeek.org wrote:
> as of ltsp 5.0.8debian2, sound support should be much easier to set for
> gnome, and with the instructions petter provided on this bug report
> (http://bugs.debian.org/425057) should be possile to configure for KDE
> apps as well.
> 
> could you please test the new packages and see if this adequately
> addresses the issues you experienced?
> 
> if you want to test on etch, see the bottom page for information about
> using the "backported" packages:
> 
>   http://wiki.debian.org/LTSP/Howto

As with #422962, I will try to test this next week (week of 8/26).

-- 
Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

Message #33 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

To: vagrant@freegeek.org, 425057-quiet@bugs.debian.org

Cc: 425057@bugs.debian.org, 425057-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#425057: please test sound support for ltsp

Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:10:11 -0600

On Sun, 2007-08-12 at 11:04 -0700, vagrant@freegeek.org wrote:
> as of ltsp 5.0.8debian2, sound support should be much easier to set for
> gnome, and with the instructions petter provided on this bug report
> (http://bugs.debian.org/425057) should be possile to configure for KDE
> apps as well.
> 
> could you please test the new packages and see if this adequately
> addresses the issues you experienced?
> 
> if you want to test on etch, see the bottom page for information about
> using the "backported" packages:
> 
>   http://wiki.debian.org/LTSP/Howto

>From what I can tell, the new version (5.0.8) is more capable, but it's
still a long way from just working.  So far, I'm doing the following in
addition to the instructions at the wiki:

- Using "SOUND_DAEMON = pulse" in lts.conf (not sure if it's necessary,
but when things still didn't work much better, I started trying to
understand:
  http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/Feisty/HOWTO:_PulseAudio
There may be other good information in there)

- apt-get install libasound2-plugins on the server (this was the key to
getting a bunch of ALSA apps working on clients)

Note that I also did some of the steps described in the above HOWTO
(Installation, ALSA Configuration).  I don't know how much of this is
necessary.

At this point, I can get ESD and ALSA applications to work.  I don't
have a very stock system any more and I certainly don't have an
understanding of the various sound systems, so won't be much help
documenting what it really takes to get sound working.

Is there someone who would know what Ubuntu has done in this area, that
could contribute a write-up of how to get sound working well under
Debian/LTSP?

-- 
Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

Message #46 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: vagrant@freegeek.org

To: Bryan.Sutula@hp.com

Cc: 425057@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#425057: please test sound support for ltsp

Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 21:10:57 -0700

On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 01:10:11PM -0600, Bryan Sutula wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-08-12 at 11:04 -0700, vagrant@freegeek.org wrote:
> > could you please test the new packages and see if this adequately
> > addresses the issues you experienced?
 
> From what I can tell, the new version (5.0.8) is more capable, but it's
> still a long way from just working.  So far, I'm doing the following in
> addition to the instructions at the wiki:
> 
> - Using "SOUND_DAEMON = pulse" in lts.conf (not sure if it's necessary,
> but when things still didn't work much better, I started trying to
> understand:

it should default to pulseaudio by default without setting that
variable. i'll attempt to confirm that it does.

>   http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/Feisty/HOWTO:_PulseAudio
> There may be other good information in there)

thanks for the URL. i've also looked at:

  /usr/share/doc/libasound2-plugins/README-pulse

which gives some more information about configuring alsa to use
pulseaudio.

> - apt-get install libasound2-plugins on the server (this was the key to
> getting a bunch of ALSA apps working on clients)

yes, this is a dependency of the ltsp-server-standalone package. i'll
add ltsp-server-standalone dependencies as suggests to the ltsp-server
package.
 
> At this point, I can get ESD and ALSA applications to work.  I don't
> have a very stock system any more and I certainly don't have an
> understanding of the various sound systems, so won't be much help
> documenting what it really takes to get sound working.

yeah, i'll experiment a little more with a cleanly installed system to
see if i can get the packages to work without configuration.
 
> Is there someone who would know what Ubuntu has done in this area, that
> could contribute a write-up of how to get sound working well under
> Debian/LTSP?

i'll look into it.

live well,
  vagrant

Message #51 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: vagrant@freegeek.org

To: Bryan.Sutula@hp.com

Cc: 425057@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#425057: please test sound support for ltsp

Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:40:46 -0700

> On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 01:10:11PM -0600, Bryan Sutula wrote:
> > From what I can tell, the new version (5.0.8) is more capable, but it's
> > still a long way from just working.  So far, I'm doing the following in
> > addition to the instructions at the wiki:
...snip... 
> >   http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/Feisty/HOWTO:_PulseAudio
> > There may be other good information in there)

yes, this proved valuable.

the magic is:

  apt-get install libasound2-plugins

and adding the following lines to /etc/asound.conf:

  pcm.!default {
          type pulse
  }
  
  ctl.!default {
          type pulse
  }

and then configure sound applications to talk to alsa. seems like
several gnome and kde apps worked without configuration.  xine-ui also
worked without configuration. xmms required telling it to use alsa
instead of oss. ironically, alsaplayer didn't work.

libasound2-plugins is a dependency for the ltsp-server-standalone
package, but it's good to document for people who just want the sound
support and not the other stuff that ltsp-server-standalone pulls in.
also, if you only install ltsp-client-core, instead of the default
ltsp-client metapackage, you'll need to install some of the sound
related packages into the chroot.

also need to document loading sound modules for when the sound card
isn't autodetected.

i think i will make the sound dependencies for ltsp-server-standalone
and ltsp-client-core hard-depend on only the pulse+alsa stuff, even
though we support other sound systems, the (nearly) out-of-the-box
support should be limited to one sound system.

so with a little more documentation, maybe we can soon close this bug :)

live well,
  vagrant

Message #56 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: vagrant@freegeek.org

To: 425057@bugs.debian.org

Subject: pending sound support docs

Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:14:52 -0700

tags 425057 pending
thanks

added short README.Debian.sound doc in bzr branch:
  
  http://llama.freegeek.org/~vagrant/bzr/ltsp/vagrant-main

will be included with next upload.

live well,
  vagrant

Message #63 received at 425057-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@freegeek.org>

To: 425057-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#425057: fixed in ltsp 5.0.31debian1

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:47:09 +0000

Source: ltsp
Source-Version: 5.0.31debian1

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
ltsp, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

ldm_5.0.31debian1_i386.deb
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ldm_5.0.31debian1_i386.deb
ltsp-client-builder_5.0.31debian1_all.udeb
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp-client-builder_5.0.31debian1_all.udeb
ltsp-client-core_5.0.31debian1_i386.deb
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp-client-core_5.0.31debian1_i386.deb
ltsp-client_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp-client_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
ltsp-server-standalone_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp-server-standalone_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
ltsp-server_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp-server_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
ltsp_5.0.31debian1.dsc
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp_5.0.31debian1.dsc
ltsp_5.0.31debian1.tar.gz
  to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp_5.0.31debian1.tar.gz



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 425057@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@freegeek.org> (supplier of updated ltsp package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:46:42 -0700
Source: ltsp
Binary: ltsp-client-core ltsp-server ltsp-server-standalone ltsp-client ltsp-client-builder ldm
Architecture: source all i386
Version: 5.0.31debian1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: LTSP Debian/Ubuntu Maintainers <pkg-ltsp-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Changed-By: Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@freegeek.org>
Description: 
 ldm        - LTSP display manager
 ltsp-client - LTSP client environment
 ltsp-client-builder - build an LTSP environment in the installer target (udeb)
 ltsp-client-core - LTSP client environment
 ltsp-server - basic LTSP server environment
 ltsp-server-standalone - complete LTSP server environment
Closes: 401357 425057 441953 442164
Changes: 
 ltsp (5.0.31debian1) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * sync with ubuntu
     - fix bug that caused ltsp-client init script to fail when using nfsroot
     - (re)add support for mkelf-linux (only when mkelfimage is not present)
 .
   * use lowercase for "thin client" as suggested by Christian Perrier
     (Closes: #441953)
   * include french gettext translation by Jean-Baka Domelevo-Entfellner
     (Closes: #442164)
 .
   * add example script to run ldm from init (Closes: #401357)
 .
   * README.Debian: use --kernel-packages instead of --late-packages for
     unknown architectures
 .
   * added README.Debian.sound describing the steps to get remote sound to work
     (thanks to Bryan Sutula, Closes: #425057)
 .
   * tighten sound dependencies:
     - lower esound and nas dependencies for ltsp-server-stanadlone to
       suggestions for ltsp-server
     - ltsp-client:
       + depend only on pulseaudio-esound-compat
       + suggest pulseaudio, esound and nas
 .
   * ltsp-client:
     - versioned dependency on ltspfsd >= 0.5
     - enable encrypted swap by default if cryptsetup is available
 .
   * ltsp-build-client: properly handle when debian-installer/keymap debconf
     question is not present
 .
   * remove old ldm theme directories
 .
   * quiet read-write filesystem detection
 .
   * allow for custom X configuration command (CONFIGURE_X_COMMAND)
     - add example alternative x configuration script
Files: 
 b751ffef4deb4c47d94bf24721013a66 975 misc extra ltsp_5.0.31debian1.dsc
 a9cd60dc7e2e47c26a82d7d2f5fc784f 2334303 misc extra ltsp_5.0.31debian1.tar.gz
 18e9d3b1a0232828a27b7fcb1d11ca17 79756 misc extra ltsp-server_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
 83fbe345d80ccd8d3c364b07d269d9c6 36610 misc extra ltsp-server-standalone_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
 4d59f0bcf9a2dd6b052889147ee38974 35718 misc extra ltsp-client_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
 b9405e8d22fabff6b66230092b0694e2 6572 debian-installer extra ltsp-client-builder_5.0.31debian1_all.udeb
 d115c415fd399f8747334cd73516ec66 72250 misc extra ltsp-client-core_5.0.31debian1_i386.deb
 9188bc741d8f3e8261034b9d86c2603d 263752 misc extra ldm_5.0.31debian1_i386.deb
Package-Type: udeb

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Message #68 received at 425057@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

To: 425057@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#425057 closed by Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@freegeek.org> (Bug#425057: fixed in ltsp 5.0.31debian1)

Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:15:53 -0600

On Mon, 2007-09-24 at 15:54 +0000, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:

> > We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
> > ltsp, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:
[...]
> > ltsp-server_5.0.31debian1_all.deb
> >   to pool/main/l/ltsp/ltsp-server_5.0.31debian1_all.deb

Requesting this version in etch-backports as soon as it's practical to
do so.  Thanks for your efforts.

-- 
Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula@hp.com>

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