Bug 262632

Summary: Using pulseaudio integration new application doesn't show up on the playback stream list
Product: [Applications] kmix Reporter: jens <jp7677>
Component: Backend: PulseaudioAssignee: Colin Guthrie <colin>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: normal CC: esken, kai.kasurinen
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description jens 2011-01-09 09:26:36 UTC
Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.5.95) 
OS:                Linux

kmix detects new output streams correctly, like playing music from amarok, but I first have to go to "Configure Channels" and select the stream to be visible before it shows up on the playback tab.

Kmix version is 3.8 (KDE 4.6 RC2)

As far as I remember this wasn't the case in earlier version, but I don't remember when that behavior changes :(

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
just start a new application with audio output and pulse support

Actual Results:  
the channel/stream show up under 'configure channel', but is not automatically shown on the playback tab

Expected Results:  
The stream/channel should show up immediately on the playback tab. 

I guess this happens as well with new audio sinks.
Comment 1 Colin Guthrie 2011-01-09 14:18:59 UTC
This is really a by product of the whole channel configuration thing in kmix. It was designed for complex ALSA mixers to allow users to hide things they don't want to see every day but with PA and the dynamic nature of the playback and recording tabs, they don't really make much sense.

Really I should find a way to disable them. In the mean time the fix is to remove your configuration files for the views. They are stored in ~/.kde4/share/apps/kmix/profile/ Like the file you want to remove is PulseAudio.Playback_Streams* but in all liklihood you can just trash PulseAudio* in that folder (maybe best to do it after quitting kmix but before you restart it)

When you restart new apps should show up automatically.
Comment 2 jens 2011-01-09 19:55:36 UTC
Thanks, that worked, though I had to clean up kmixrc a little bit as well! 
And I fully agree, that functionality is obsolete with pulseaudio underneath.
Comment 3 Christian Esken 2011-01-15 00:54:22 UTC
Strange. I cannot reproduce that. I just manually started pulseaudio, then I started Amarok, and when I hit the Play button the stream shows up.

As long as the fallback control ("mandatory" flag) is in the profile, everything should be fine.

-----
Future directions: Perhaps there should be something like "reset view" for unexpected situations lie this.
Comment 4 jens 2011-01-15 09:17:00 UTC
@Christian, everything was fine until I touched "Configure Channels" and hide a stream, after that I had to manually add every new stream. So just hiding that dialog when using pulseaudio would definitively solve above issue (at least for me).

Thanks for looking at this report (both of course :))!
Comment 5 Colin Guthrie 2011-01-15 13:47:02 UTC
Yeah this problem would only show up after tweaking the Configure Channels dialog, likely to hide a particular application (e.g. start Dragon and play something, then hide it in kmix).

I think the rationale behind the Configure Channels dialog is a good one for when really confusing elements from ALSA are exposed. It means users can tweak things and generally have a nicer UI experience. But with PulseAudio, this problem kinda goes away. I think rather than a reset functionality (while a good idea), a better approach is simple to disable the Configure Channels dialog and menu option completely with the PA backend. If it is kept, then the term "Channels" would need to be changed anyway, as these are not really "channels" we'd be configuring.

I'd welcome Christian's opinion on this tho', as it may complicate things more than it simplifies!
Comment 6 Christian Esken 2011-01-17 22:56:05 UTC
Oh, yes.

When developing it I thought it might be "beneficial" that backends could define which Profile types they want to show. It looks like it is not only beneficial but mandatory to do so, probably even allowing the backend to disable it completely.
Comment 7 Christian Esken 2011-12-30 13:07:46 UTC
This should be fixed now, as we have "disabled" GUI profiles for dynamic backends like Pulsaudio. So every stream should be shown right now. Should this problem come back, please open a new bug report with the version number you use now.