Pulseaudio usage
From wikinotes
Documentation
man pulse-cli-syntax
https://man.archlinux.org/man/pulse-cli-syntax.5 default devices https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/DefaultDevice/
Startup
pulseaudio should automatically start at user login.
It is managed in a user systemd service.Check it's logs/status with
systemctl --user status pulseaudio systemctl --user restart pulseaudio journalctl --user -u pulseaudioalternatively, you can use pulseaudio directly
pulseaudio -k # kill pulseaudio pulseaudio --start # restart pulseaudio
Console Clients
pactl
pactl
is a newer official alternative topacmd
.
The pulseaudio docs encourage it's use overpacmd
.man pactl
pacmd
pacmd
is the original cli interface to pulseaudio.
You should avoid using it if possible.pacmd --help | lesspacmd set-default-sink ${SINK_NAME} # change default speakers pacmd set-default-source ${SOURCE_NAME} # change default mics pacmd list-sink-inputs # all played audio streams pacmd list-source-outputs # all recorded audio streams pacmd move-sink-input ${ID} ${SINK_NAME} # move played audio stream to output device pacmd move-source-output ${ID} ${SOURCE_NAME} # move recorded audio stream to input device # list sample-rate of each output sink pacmd list-sinks | grep -e 'index:' -e 'name:' -e 'sample spec:' less /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
GUI Clients
- pavucontrol-qt
pavucontrol-qt gui pulseaudio control ncpamixer tui puleaudio control (duplicates pavucontrol-qt in console)