Test Day:2008-10-09

How to join?
For information on joining a Fedora Test Day, see QA/Test_Days

What to test?
This week's instalment of Fedora Test Day will focus on:


 * Features/GlitchFreeAudio

Preparing for Test Day
Depending on the speed of your connection and the time available for testing, there are several methods available for

Live Images


 * 1) Please download a live ISO image for your architecture:
 * 2) * i686
 * 3) * x86_64
 * 4) Prepare your live image by following the instructions at FedoraLiveCD
 * 5) Or run the dowloaded ISO image in qemu: su -c 'qemu -cdrom Fedora-10-Beta-i686-Live.iso -m 512 -std-vga'

Install Media


 * 1) Consult the installation guide for quick start information to determine the best install method for your needs.
 * 2) Follow instructions for installing your system.
 * 3) * Alternatively, on an already installed system:
 * 4) *# Install snake: yum install snake
 * 5) *# Configure your system for installation: snake-install http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/test/10-Beta/Fedora/i386/os

Upgrade Pulse Audio

A newer version of pulseaudio has been built since the release of F10-Beta. The latest version is pulseaudio-0.9.13-1.fc10, a changelog is available in koji.


 * 1) To install the update type: yum update pulseaudio

How to test?
Use a live cd or make a default install.

Open a terminal window and run:

gnome-sound-properties

Set Sound Events, Music and Movies, Audio Conferencing to Autodetect and click all the test buttons and try playing sound from the sound menu.

Repeat the above but set everything to PulseAudio Sound Server and leave it like that!

Open a terminal window and run:

pavucontrol

Open Edit and select all tracks.

Start testing the tracks one by one.

Test playing media and different types of media in a terminal window.

paplay /usr/share/sounds/login.wav

Test playing the same file(s) through media players that use gstreamer for a backend.

First check if gstreamer is using pulseaudio sound server:

gstreamer-properties

Then test playing a file.

gnome-mplayer /usr/share/sounds/login.wav

Test players that dont use gstreamer for a backend.

su -c 'yum -y install audacious'

Go to preference of that player and make sure it's using PulseAudio.

Start audacious the p select Audio and make sure Current output plugin is set to PulseAudio output plugin.

audacious /usr/share/sounds/login.wav If you have a sound card that supports surround sound you can enable surround sound by editing /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.

Find the line that has "; default-sample-channels = 2" change 2 to 6 for 5.1 or to 8 for 7.1 then restart the pulseudio.

Consult the documentation of the media player that you use on how to set it to play 5.1 audio.

Take a look at http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup

Please add your thoughts below or discuss any issues or concerns on IRC #fedora-qa.

Things to Avoid:
 * emu10k-based cards ... the driver is buggy
 * Bluetooth audio devices
 * Closed-source software (skype, flash etc...)
 * Fiddling with default.pa should be avoided

Debugging Tips:
 * Add your user to the pulse-rt group. Note you will need to logout and in again for it to take effect.

su -c '/usr/sbin/usermod -a -G pulse-rt '


 * Kill pulseaudio

pulseaudio -k


 * Start pulseaudio verbose mode

pulseaudio -vvvv


 * Ensure the volume is up and unmuted using either:
 * alsamixer
 * pavucontrol
 * alsamixer -c0 (to bypass PA)


 * Are any ''$HOME/.asoundrc*' files present that might be customizing your sound preferences?


 * Are any sound-related messages present in /var/log/messages or dmesg ?


 * Include the URL generated by running in any bug reports


 * Include output of aplay -L, the verbose pulseaudio -vvvv output (see above) and the output of "ls" inside of "pacmd" in any bug reports.


 * If you found CPU load related issues, please include oprofile dumps in your bug report. See the cheat sheet: http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/docs/


 * For crashes include a full backtrace.


 * Include your smoltProfile url in any bug report. Encase you did not send it in the first place..

su -c 'smoltSendProfile -a'


 * Consult http://pulseaudio.org/wiki/FAQ

Sound Cards Tested
Please record information about the sound cards you've tested in the table below.

Where to file bugs
Please record any issues/defects discovered in Red Hat's Bugzilla.


 * To file a NEW bug, go to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fedora&cf_qa_whiteboard=FedoraTestDay


 * Existing Test Day bugs can be found at http://tinyurl.com/53thap

Need help?
We'll have a host of QA and Development characters hanging out discussing bugs (aka "features"), expectations, and test areas. I've included details below for how you can contribute below.

The following cast of characters will be available testing, workarounds, bug fixes, and general discussion ...
 * Development - LennartPoettering
 * Quality Assurance - User:Johannbg, User:jlaska, User:wwoods