sound doesn't work until I login

[Karl Auer]

An apparently simple problem, but I can't seem to figure it out. And
Uncle Google only has "hints and allegations".

I want sound to play when my GUI-free Ubuntu 16.04 system starts. I
have a script that plays sound, the script starts when my system boots,
each part of the script is working fine, but sound doesn't start
happening until I log in (on a console screen - no GUI, remember).

Until I log in, every invocation of "play" (the program I use to play a
sound file) produces these errors:

shm_open() failed: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pulse.c:243:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Protocol error
/usr/bin/play FAIL formats: can't open output file `default': snd_pcm_open error: Connection refused

As soon as I log in, sound starts happening.

Any ideas?

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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