[Bug 433654] Re: Only one user gets sound with privilege "Use audio devices"

[Sebastien Bacher]

** Changed in: gnome-system-tools (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson) => (unassigned)

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Title:
  Only one user gets sound with privilege "Use audio devices"

Status in “consolekit” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “gnome-system-tools” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “pulseaudio” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Sound does not work for different users if they belong to the audio
  group.

  A workaround is to remove the users from the audio group. With this
  however simply managing individual device access based on standard
  group memberships stops working (regression).

  Consolekit (like any kit handling device permissions/privilege
  escalation) needs to enable audio only for users belonging to audio
  group (when they are at the console), and leave it disabled for users
  not in the audio group.

  ----

  Steps to reproduce the bugs:

  1. Create 2 new users, user1 and user2 (to be sure you use Karmic default settings).
  2. Restart. Login as one user, then double click on /usr/share/example-content/Aesop'\''s_Fables,_Volume_1_(Fable_1)_-_The_Fox_and_The_Grapes.spx
  3. Switch to second user. The sound from the first user is still playing uninterrupted, even at gdm stage.
  2. As the second user, double click on /usr/share/example-content/Ubuntu_Free_Culture_Showcase/SpiritOfUbuntu.ogv while the first user audio is still not finished.

  Result: First user prevent any sound to be played as second user (with
  Totem, the video even doesn't start, but with other applications you
  can sometimes get the video but no audio). When the first user audio
  finishes to play, audio can be played as user2, but that would block
  audio for user1 if you switch back to its session.

  Expected behavior: like in Jaunty and previous releases, sound from
  one user should stop playing when another session is active. In Jaunty
  and earlier, even VT had sound from one user when logged as this user,
  and from the other when logged as him.

  Some audio applications on one session also prevent any sound to be
  played for the other user session even when they have nothing to play.

  (Note: this is not a multi-seat setup, but a single seat computer with multiple user accounts.
  See attached screenshots for details).

  Other example: a first user has a session open, playing sound with Amarok (paused) on a Gnome desktop.
  The second user chose "Switch user" in FUSA, then login. The new session doesn't have any sound, and the "Sound Preferences" window only lists "Dummy Output - Stereo" in the Output tab (Screenshot 1). In the hardware tab, nothing appears (Screenshot 2).

  When the first user closes Amarok, the second user now has the
  hardware showing in the Hardware tab (Screenshot 3) but no sound,
  since the Profile is "Analog Stereo Duplex" (should be Analog Stereo
  Output"). When the user changes it to the right Profile, sounds works
  (see also Screenshot 4, compared to Screenshot 1 when no sound was
  played).

  The second user can now play sound, for example a flash video.

  Now though, the first user doesn't have any sound when coming back to
  its session (or more exactly, the only sound he can hear is the flash
  video being played in the second user's session, even though the users
  have switched. Any audio application the first user opens shows in
  Sound preferences>Applications, but doesn't output any sound, and
  moving the application individual sound sliders only affect the sound
  being played in session 2.

  All that was handled properly in Jaunty and previous Ubuntu releases.

  ProblemType: Bug
  Architecture: i386
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  paphro     9493 F.... pulseaudio
  Card0.Amixer.info:
   Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xea300000 irq 22'
     Mixer name	: 'Realtek ALC889A'
     Components	: 'HDA:10ec0885,1458a002,00100101'
     Controls      : 38
     Simple ctrls  : 21
  Date: Sun Sep 20 22:09:30 2009
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcEnviron:
   LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.34-generic
  SourcePackage: alsa-driver
  Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686

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