The latest PulseAudio on Ubuntu
If you want to install the latest and greatest PulseAudio (now on version 0.9.8) on Ubuntu — a worthwhile thing to do, because of the fixes in the latest version — here are some packages you can use.
These packages are built from the source code of the next release of Ubuntu, Hardy. They work flawlessly on my home machines (yes, plural). I built these packages myself for my usage:
- libpulse-browse0_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- libpulse-mainloop-glib0_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- libpulse0_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- libpulsecore5_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio-esound-compat_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio-module-gconf_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio-module-hal_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio-module-lirc_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio-module-x11_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio-module-zeroconf_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio-utils_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
- pulseaudio_0.9.8-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
Download them all in a folder, then just open a terminal window there and type:
sudo dpkg -i *deb
That should upgrade you to the latest PulseAudio. I was gonna write a tutorial, but then you would have had to download hundreds of megabytes of development packages.
January 5th, 2008 at 17:37
For users who don’t know what PulseAudio is (or don’t understand why it’s as good as everybody says it is), myself included, could you just explain what all the hoo-har is about?
I keep seeing it touted as the “compiz for audio” and that it’s going to blow our ears away, but I don’t understand how it’s going to effect how I do things.
My understanding is it sits above existing audio drivers (ALSA and OSS) and handles incoming audio from applications (if you tell them to do that).. But why is that better than connecting directly to ALSA?
January 5th, 2008 at 19:19
It’s the next compiz for audio. Lennart has already spoken of stereolocation of audio events on the screen, and more work is being done to bring audio bling here.
For now, I can only tell you that I’m using to cast audio events, movies and songs to my audio server, because my computer doesn’t have any PCI slots and I’m too cheap to get a decent semipro USB device (those are at least $80).
For the rest of the world, all I can say is that, if you get close to your computer, and you’ve paired your cellphone’s Bluetooth headphone with your computer, you’ll get the option of switching your music to your headset, no fuss, no muss. It’s awesome.