Using PulseAudio as Network SoundServer

Hey again,

In the previous post PulseAudio was used to give the ability to use the usb soundcard simultaneously by more than 1 process.
PulseAudio has a special feature though (more than one, I know :P) - Acting as a network soundserver for other pulseaudio clients!

So to stick with the previous attempt, now I wanted to play music from my laptop on the NAS - It just took a few steps ;)

 #Following has to be done on the NAS
 #Install additional package for TCP Streaming/Esound
 apt-get install pulseaudio-esound-compat

 #Testing loading the modules 
 pactl load-module module-esound-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1
 pactl load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1

 #Both commands should have returned a number, nothin else
 #If that's the case - Let's hardcode those modules into the pulse configuration

 echo "load-module module-esound-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1" >> /etc/pulse/system.pa
 echo "load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1" >> /etc/pulse/system.pa

That should be all that's neccessary on the server-side :)

Now we look at the client side. I am assuming you already got pulseaudio daemon installed and setup properly for normal usage - click here if you don't.

 #Following has to be done on the client side

 #Connect to the tunnel - 1.2.3.4 is the address of your PulseServer here!
 pacmd load-module module-tunnel-sink server=1.2.3.4

 #The previous command should enable you to redirect all your sound to the NAS already!
 #I prefered to combine internal and networked-audio though

 #Find the pulse-sink name of your soundcard
 pacmd list-sinks |grep name:

 #Should return something like: name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>
 #Note it somewhere
 
 #Create combined pulse-sink 
 # * 1.2.3.4 is your server's ip
 # * alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo the name of your soundcard pulse-sink

 pacmd load-module module-combine sink_name=combined slaves="tunnel.1.2.3.4,alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo"

 #Now we set it as default sink!
 pacmd set-default-sink combined

 #If everything works, we write it to the pulseconfig on the client(s)
 echo "load-module module-tunnel-sink server=1.2.3.4" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa
 echo "load-module module-combine sink_name=combined slaves=\"tunnel.1.2.3.4,alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo\"" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa
 echo "pacmd set-default-sink combined" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa

 #Have Phun!

NOTE:
It was necessary to set ICEWEASEL_DSP="none"  to "padsp" in /etc/iceweasel/iceweaselrc and restart Iceweasel - to get sound playing from the browser / flash.


Links:
 http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/pulseaudio
 http://blog.the-jedi.co.uk/2011/06/26/pulseaudio-on-debian-7/