Configuring Sound on Linux/Pulse Audio/Testing

To test a PulseAudio installation use pacat which is equivalent to ALSA's aplay utility. Warning: the output from this command may be _very_ loud. pacat < /dev/urandom Using pacmd Firstly run pacmd. ~$ pacmd Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information. Next run the command list-sinks. >>> list-sinks 1 sink(s) available. * index: 0 name: <alsa_output.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_alsa_playback_0> driver: <modules/module-alsa-sink.c> flags: HW_VOLUME_CTRL LATENCY HARDWARE state: RUNNING volume: <0: 63% 1: 63%> mute: <0> latency: <78911 usec> monitor source: <1> sample spec: <s16le 2ch 44100Hz> channel map: <front-left,front-right> used by: <1> linked by: <1> module: <1> description: <ALSA PCM on front:0 (AD198x Analog) via DMA> Now you know the name of your sink and your index. In this example the name is alsa_output.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_alsa_playback_0, and the index is 0. Now you will want a list of samples, use list-samples to accomplish this. >>> list-samples 3 cache entries available. name: <pulse-hotplug> index: <0> sample spec: <n/a> channel map: <n/a> length: <0> duration: <0.0s> volume: <0: 100% 1: 100%> lazy: yes filename: /usr/share/sounds/startup3.wav name: <esound.gnome-2/logout> index: <1> sample spec: <s16le 2ch 44100Hz> channel map: <front-left,front-right> length: <317500> duration: <1.8s> volume: <0: 100% 1: 100%> lazy: no filename: n/a name: <esound.gnome-2/login> index: <2> sample spec: <s16le 2ch 44100Hz> channel map: <front-left,front-right> length: <1361924> duration: <7.7s> volume: <0: 100% 1: 100%> lazy: no filename: n/a Now you can use the command play-sample followed by the name of the sample, and the index or the sink-name to test your PulseAudio configuration. >>> play-sample pulse-hotplug 0 -or- >>> play-sample pulse-hotplug alsa_output.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_alsa_playback_0 Stop tagging my shit asshole. it is linked in -- give me a second.