Re: pulseaudio not active when using exwm

[Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>]

Eric S Fraga wrote:

> Using the same .xsession file, I can start up X with either
> a standard window manager (e.g. StumpWM, KDE, Gnome, etc.)
> or alternatively Emacs (i.e. exwm).

Technically KDE and Gnome are desktops. Window managers run on
top of those, typically, but not necessarily so, as you can
start X manually, for example with 'startx', and then start
a window manager, also manually or automated as part of
.xinitrc, thus avoiding the desktop.

See this, for example

  https://dataswamp.org/~incal/conf/.xinitrc

If you do that, you have a window system (X) and a
window manager (openbsd-cwm in my case) but no desktop.

> If I choose Emacs, my sound system is not configured
> properly: only the system speaker is active. If I choose
> StumpWM, say, I have all the various sound devices available
> (headphones, speakers in my monitor).

It SOUNDS like the sound is setup as part of you launching
a desktop, e.g. Gnome or KDE, and if you don't, the sound
system, as not being part of the window manager and why should
it be, won't start with exwm.

So it is rather an issue for your Linux distribution or Unix
system, and not the WM - "how do I get the sound running on
X without Gnome?" or something.

Here are a bunch of commands that might be useful, but use
them at your own risc since I didn't have to bother with that
for ages, it just worked and not necessarily thanks to those
commands:

  https://dataswamp.org/~incal/.zsh/audio-test

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal