Re: Running sndiod as user sndiod on Arch Linux

Now, I'm not sndio's dev, but I *do* have it working quite nicely as
my sound server on Arch (-: .

Edward Wandasiewicz <w13ntd_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm trying to get sndiod to run on Arch Linux.
> 
> Having read http://www.sndio.org/install.html
> 
> I updated the user and group, via
> 
> useradd -r -g audio -s /sbin/nologin -d /var/run/sndiod sndiod
> 
> The Arch package didn't get this part right.

sndio isn't actually officially supported by Arch yet, unfortunately;
there are a couple of build scripts in the (unofficial) User
Repository.

> I can get sound output, if I run sndiod as root, via
> 
> $ sudo sndiod -dddd -f rsnd/1
> 
> But if I try to run it via systemd with user=sndiod, it refuses to open the
> device snd/0 if I run, as a local user
> 
> $ aucat -f snd/0 -dd -i /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Side_Right.wav
> 
> /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Side_Right.wav,pst=cfg: play, chan 0:0, 48000Hz,
> s16le, bytes 44..129966
> snd/0: couldn't open audio device
> 
> Should the systemd service be run as User=root and not User=sndiod?

Unless you run a true multi-user system, I'd say to try running sndio
as your regular user, and if that works, then you can experiment with
the sndio user if you still feel like it.

You may need to ensure that pulse is really, truly not running, as
it's in the bad habit of claiming the sound card all to itself. In the
short term, 'systemctl stop pulseaudio' ought to be sufficient; in the
long term, 'systemctl mask pulseaudio' will prevent it from starting
in the first place.

iff