Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Bug#854327: pulseaudio: default configuration depends on consolekit

101 views
Skip to first unread message

Michael Gilbert

unread,
Feb 5, 2017, 8:50:02 PM2/5/17
to
package: pulseaudio
severity: important
version: 10.0-1

Pulseaudio's default settings require the consolekit package to be
installed, but the package has no relationship to consolekit.

Without consolekit:
$ pulseaudio
[...]
E: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to load module "module-console-kit"
(argument: ""): initialization failed
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Module load failed.
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to initialize daemon.

To fix this, either the "load-module module-console-kit" line can be
commented in /etc/pulse/default.pa. Or the consolekit package can be
installed, but there are a lot of setups where it's not needed or
wanted.

Best wishes,
Mike

Felipe Sateler

unread,
Feb 6, 2017, 8:10:03 AM2/6/17
to
Control: tags -1 moreinfo

On 5 February 2017 at 22:44, Michael Gilbert <mgil...@debian.org> wrote:
> package: pulseaudio
> severity: important
> version: 10.0-1
>
> Pulseaudio's default settings require the consolekit package to be
> installed, but the package has no relationship to consolekit.
>
> Without consolekit:
> $ pulseaudio
> [...]
> E: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to load module "module-console-kit"
> (argument: ""): initialization failed
> E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Module load failed.
> E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to initialize daemon.


module-console-kit does nothing when systemd-logind is detected. If
it's failing for you then you do not have systemd (or the -shim)
installed and running.

> To fix this, either the "load-module module-console-kit" line can be
> commented in /etc/pulse/default.pa. Or the consolekit package can be
> installed, but there are a lot of setups where it's not needed or
> wanted.

But if you are not using the default settings, you can surely also
modify pulseaudio's configuration? Or are you suggesting we drop
consolekit support entirely?

--

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler

Michael Gilbert

unread,
Feb 19, 2017, 5:30:03 PM2/19/17
to
control: tag -1 - moreinfo

On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 8:07 AM, Felipe Sateler wrote:
> module-console-kit does nothing when systemd-logind is detected. If
> it's failing for you then you do not have systemd (or the -shim)
> installed and running.

You are correct, I do not have systemd installed on this system, but
then again it's kfreebsd so I can't. However, the only thing standing
in the way of working pulseaudio on kfreebsd is this consolekit error,
which as I suggest below can be worked around in a couple ways.

>> To fix this, either the "load-module module-console-kit" line can be
>> commented in /etc/pulse/default.pa. Or the consolekit package can be
>> installed, but there are a lot of setups where it's not needed or
>> wanted.
>
> But if you are not using the default settings, you can surely also
> modify pulseaudio's configuration? Or are you suggesting we drop
> consolekit support entirely?

I should have worded that paragraph more clearly. Those are just a
couple workarounds that can be used while the bug exists. I have not
thought about how to fix the problem generally.

Best wishes,
Mike

Felipe Sateler

unread,
Feb 20, 2017, 10:30:02 PM2/20/17
to
On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 7:17 PM, Michael Gilbert <mgil...@debian.org> wrote:
> control: tag -1 - moreinfo
>
> On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 8:07 AM, Felipe Sateler wrote:
>> module-console-kit does nothing when systemd-logind is detected. If
>> it's failing for you then you do not have systemd (or the -shim)
>> installed and running.
>
> You are correct, I do not have systemd installed on this system, but
> then again it's kfreebsd so I can't. However, the only thing standing
> in the way of working pulseaudio on kfreebsd is this consolekit error,
> which as I suggest below can be worked around in a couple ways.

Heh, kfreebsd doesn't really count as "default configuration".

>
>>> To fix this, either the "load-module module-console-kit" line can be
>>> commented in /etc/pulse/default.pa. Or the consolekit package can be
>>> installed, but there are a lot of setups where it's not needed or
>>> wanted.
>>
>> But if you are not using the default settings, you can surely also
>> modify pulseaudio's configuration? Or are you suggesting we drop
>> consolekit support entirely?
>
> I should have worded that paragraph more clearly. Those are just a
> couple workarounds that can be used while the bug exists. I have not
> thought about how to fix the problem generally.

The real fix is of course for consolekit module to exit gracefully if
consolekit is not installed (the logind module does the same). But I
have no idea how to do that. Would it be enough to check the dbus
error name? I can't find a canonical list of error names though....

--

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler

bert schulze

unread,
Jul 8, 2017, 8:40:03 AM7/8/17
to
tag 854327 +patch
thanks

hi,

> The real fix is of course for consolekit module to exit gracefully if
> consolekit is not installed (the logind module does the same). But I
> have no idea how to do that. Would it be enough to check the dbus
> error name? I can't find a canonical list of error names though....

I think it's a bad idea to load the module in the first place if it is
not supposed to be loaded at all.

As pulseaudio is *modular* why do we need to deliver the console-kit
module with pulseaudio itself in the first place?

The default.pa configuration uses ifdef style module loading, if the so
file is not present theres nothing to be loaded.

.ifexists module-console-kit.so
load-module module-console-kit
.endif

1. ConsoleKit is not maintained and recommends systemd-logind [1]

2. The majority of Debian users should be using systemd-logind now
where module-console-kit is being ignored.

3. Others like Felipe and me may neither use systemd nor console-kit
and will end up with PA not willing to load at all

4. Only users having ConsoleKit installed need the module.

=> split out the module into a pulseaudio-module-consolekit package
and add a Depends: consolekit

build and use-tested patch splitting out the console-kit module attached

bye

[1] https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/ConsoleKit/
pulseaudio-package.patch
signature.asc

julien forest

unread,
Jul 11, 2017, 4:00:03 PM7/11/17
to
Maybe one should just change the default.pa as follows (not a real
diff but the + lines are just to add):

.ifexists module-console-kit.so
+.nofail
load-module module-console-kit
+.fail
.endif


It suffices for me to make pulseaudio works without consolekit nor
systemd installed.

Best regards,

Julien

Faidon Liambotis

unread,
Feb 25, 2021, 9:20:03 PM2/25/21
to
On Sat, Jul 08, 2017 at 02:35:05PM +0200, bert schulze wrote:
> 1. ConsoleKit is not maintained and recommends systemd-logind [1]

In the 3½ years since this bug was reported, ConsoleKit was removed from
Debian as "dead upstream", cf. #911416. It was not even part of buster.

I think the proper fix here would be... for Debian to not ship the
module at all :)

Faidon
0 new messages