I just installed ubuntu minimal and fluxbox. I have installed no login manager, so after the system boots, I login in the tty1 and use the startx command to run.
After that, if I open Firefox and go to a youtube video (or use aplay to play a wav file) I have no sound. alsamixer is unmutted and all. However, if I switch back to tty1, I can hear the sound playing!
Why this is happening, and how to tell to startx that I want the sound on the TTY which the gui is presented?
A way to solve this problem is to disable pulseaudio .
(note that pulseaudio is usually not needed to get sound, as almost all Linux software can use alsa if pulseaudio is not active. Exception is Skype which needs pulseaudio .
The main problem is that you must install and use gnome-alsamixer to set volume instead standard volume applet.
Another problem is that you will lose auto-switching between usb device and internal soundcard that pulseaudio permits )
So, to disable pulseaudio in a easily reversible way, run successively this 3 commands in a terminal:
mkdir ~/.pulse
echo autospawn=no > ~/.pulse/client.conf
pulseaudio -k
then reboot (logout could be ok ), and test .
If you want pulseaudio again, just run in a terminal :
pulseaudio -D
Run also
echo autospawn=yes > ~/.pulse/client.conf
if you want pulseaudio to be auto-launched at next reboot or logon.
EDIT: Running pulseaudio in daemon mode is also ok , see this
