[Bug 1030] Review request: xbmc - Media center

[RPM Fusion Bugzilla]

http://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1030





--- Comment #23 from Alex Lancaster <alexl at users.sourceforge.net>  2010-01-14 11:01:58 ---
(In reply to comment #22)

> > What do mean "not working"?
> Different kinds of audio related issues.
> 
> From xbmc issueing "failed to initialize audio device" messages, over "being
> unable to control audio volume" to always "full volume"/"very low volume".
> What exactly happens seems to be machine-, account- and
> xbmc-built/version/patch dependent.

> AFAIU, xbmc in a standalone-session tries to use alsa => I am likely facing the
> zoo of problems related to initializing alsa.

Yes, it does seem a little flaky, alsa not sure if pulseaudio is working.

> >  Does the script not run?
> The script tries to launch pulseaudio and then to fallback to "native xbmc" if
> pulseaudio is not available, using "pulse-session".
> 
> pulse-session doesn't exist under Fedora 
> => xbmc-standalone always falls back to using "native xbmc".
> => If we indent to always use pulse-audio, this script needs to be modified.
> May-be something along the lines of:
> /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog --use-pid-file
> /usr/bin/xbmc -fs --standalone "$@"
> /usr/bin/pulseaudio --kill --use-pid-file
> I am not sure.

If you've got some specific patches, sure, let's put them in.

> > Are you referring maybe to the /usr/share/xsessions/XBMC.desktop functionality
> > where it launches an entire session from GDM? 
> Yes, this is what I am referring to. 
> 
> > xbmc-standalone, the binary
> > seems to work at least.
> Well, not for me: 
> 
> Testcase: Reboot into GDM; login into an xbmc-session; try to play an audio
> file.
> 
> On one machine this appears to work, on another one I am receiving "failed to
> initialize audio device" warnings or am unable to control the audio volume.
> What exactly happens seems to depend upon the account I using to launch such an
> xbmx-session. On freshly created accounts, I am receiving "faild to initialize
> audio device", on previously used accounts, I typically end up with sound but
> without ability to control the audio volume.

I haven't tried using the XBMC.xsession feature from GDM to start
xbmc-standalone.  I simply use a regular GDM login and have it use an
~/.xsession file which starts the fvwm window manager and then start
xbmc-standalone on top of that.  This is because I switch between apps and
starting xbmc-standalone directly from GDM would mean that the whole session
would end when xbmc-standalone ends.  "Working" for me, simply means that
xbmc-standalone works.

A lot of these issues are probably upstream issues that need trac bugs, I
guess.  We can fix what we can as far as packaging goes, especially any
Fedora-specific mods, but for general bugs, we will probably have to rely on
working with upstream.  I have noticed a general dislike of pulseaudio and XBMC
on some of the IRC channels and forums, not sure if this is shared by the devs
concerned or not.


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