How to turn off pulseaudio in rawhide

[stan]

stan wrote:
> I run an app that calls ALSA library functions in order to determine
> sound hardware characteristics and set sound hardware characteristics, 
> in particular the hardware supported frame rates.  Since the latest 
> updates in Rawhide this breaks with the following error message:
> *** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to connect: Connection refused
> cannot open audio device "default" (Connection refused)
> Segmentation fault ( <-- the app generated this)
>
> I tried using the kill command with pulseaudio but it won't get rid of
> it.  I tried uninstalling pulseaudio, but it still is there.  I went to
> services to disable it, and it isn't there either.  How do I stop it 
> correctly? I didn't actually ask to have it run so I'm not sure why it 
> is running.
>
> Can Pulseaudio be configured to allow direct access to ALSA?
>
> Can it be bypassed to directly access ALSA while it is running or does 
> it monopolize the sound system?
>
> Is this a bug that should be reported upstream?
>
> Will removing pulseaudio cause any breakages in applications?  i.e. is 
> it optional?
>
> Thanks for any clarification and pointers to help.
>
Some clarification for those that don't want pulseaudio enabled by 
default.  In rawhide there is a file in /etc/alsa called 
pulse-default.conf.  This makes pulseaudio the default device for sound 
for alsa.  If you need to disable this, just move it to something like 
pulse-default.conf.bak and run /sbin/alsactl restore.  Pulseaudio will 
no longer be default device.  Perhaps you might want to look at setting 
pulseaudio so it is only run on demand instead.  The configuration is in 
/etc/pulse or ~/.pulse and the pulseaudio FAQ on the webpage suggests 
this: Set autospawn = yes in client.conf.

As soon as I removed pulseaudio as the default audio device my app began 
working properly again.

The pulseaudio plugin for alsa is probably only suitable for very simple 
use of alsa as, from the perfect setup page on the website:  "The 
PulseAudio plugin for ALSA supports audio playback, audio capturing and 
supports the mixer." - I think this means that it is basically the 
default device of alsa.  Not negligible, but a far from complete 
representation of alsa.  Once I can get pulseaudio set up on rawhide 
properly, I'll check further.