How do I start pulseaudio on barebones X11 server?

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 with Xdmx/Xmonad without Gnome on a macbook air 4,2.

Xdmx is an X Server that allows you to use other Linux computers running X11 as monitors. Literally, monitors connected by ethernet.

Xmonad is a window manager that is like Vim for your desktop. It manages your windows for you so you can focus on more important things like programming.

When I go onto my computer, I first stop gnome with sudo service gdm stop and then run xinit & xmonad. This means that xmonad is running directly on top of a bare bones X11 server.

Unfortunately, there is no sound and doing

sneilan@sneilan-MacBookAir:~$ sudo service pulseaudio start * PulseAudio configured for per-user sessions doesn't turn it on.

If I run alsamixer, I get

sneilan@sneilan-MacBookAir:~$ alsamixer cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

Sound works normally in Gnome and Xmonad running on top of Gnome.

How would I start my sound up without going into gnome?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

I am not familiar enough with how xmonad is configured on Ubuntu, but the command you want to run is

/usr/bin/start-pulseaudio-x11 &

I am not sure where you would put that command, you can use ~/.xinitrc or add it to your xmonad start script, depending on how you configured it (w/ or w/o gnome, etc).

Answer 2

Per default Pulseaudio is set up to run in a per-user session. If users access the server via a terminal you may want to run pulseaudio as a system-wide daemon.