Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after login?!?

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fonestar

Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after login?!?

Post by fonestar »

I uninstalled pulseaudio because it appears to be screwing up everything that uses wine. Now after I login I just get a cursor on a black screen?

Attempts to CTRL+ALT+F2 and "startx" does not work. Trying to "su" and then "startx" just gives the same black screen with cursor.


Please help, I need this computer for work, I do not have time to become an investigative journalist researching dead threads back to 2009. And if the devs are reading this PLEASE STOP BUNDLING SERVICES!!!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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fonestar

Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by fonestar »

UPDATE: I have tried to "apt-get pulseaudio" "apt-get update" "apt-get upgrade" .... and still nothing.

So I try to "sudo aptitude -f" ... and it does nothing.


Seriously getting very ###### at this "stable" OS!
fonestar

Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by fonestar »

Had to do a "sudo apt-get install cinnamon" reboot and it works again! So I guess the lesson is you are just stuck with pulseaudio, like it or not?
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kyphi
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Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by kyphi »

The commands in your second post were all incomplete and therefore would have achieved nothing at all as you have already found out.

Pulseaudio has been around for a long time and works fine. That it might interfere with programs installed via WINE makes no sense.

Congratulations on solving the problem you created for yourself. Full marks for initiative.
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon
fonestar

Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by fonestar »

Why should uninstalling an audio component effectively crash my system?? Why does Linux need several different audio projects who do not talk to each other and do not talk to the Wine people? Do you think I am the only one having issues with Alsa/OSS/Pulseaudio through Wine? And go and see what the majority of threads were closed as "solved".. ie, most of them gave up or did a reinstall. Yeah, great fix!

Let me give you an example of how an OS should work: a switch is closed, current flows, a bulb is lit. That simple and that solid.

I look forwards to LM18 so I can spend more countless hours of my life hunting down issues that shouldn't exist in the first place.
niowluka

Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by niowluka »

fonestar wrote:Seriously getting very ###### at this "stable" OS!
An OS is only as stable as its administrator is competent.
fonestar wrote:Why should uninstalling an audio component effectively crash my system??
It didn't crash your system, it crashed your desktop. Pulseaudio is integral part of Cinnamon desktop, most packages will be configured and/or compiled to work with it, so you can't just remove it and expect everything to work.

It is always difficult to tweak such beasts of a desktop like Cinnamon, there are just too many packages and codependencies. Try maybe Xfce, it may not work without pulseaudio out of the box either, but it should be easier to fix.
acerimusdux
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Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by acerimusdux »

It seems to me that cinnamon depends on cinnamon-settings-daemon, which depends on pulseaudio. I'm curious what you used to remove pulseaudio. If you use software manager, it should show in the "impact on packages" section that you are removing parts of cinnamon. You should see a similar list if you use apt-get under "The following packages will be REMOVED".

If you were using gnome, you would have had similar issues, as gnome-core, gnome-media, and gnome-settings-daemon all depend on pulseaudio.

It's true that the underlying structure of the audio system on linux is overly complex, but pulseaudio is an essential part of that structure, not just a component that can be removed. Maybe your problem is a configuration issue with wine? Wine really should be able to communicate with pulse audio.
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Flemur
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Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by Flemur »

So I guess the lesson is you are just stuck with pulseaudio, like it or not?

Nope. Other than the "cinnamon needs pulseaudio" issue (if true), audio runs fine without pulseaudio. With wine too, which I use all the time with audition and foobar, without pulseaudio. (The only thing I used pulse for was "record what your hear", which I found a better way of doing, w/o pulse).

Why does Linux need several different audio projects who do not talk to each other and do not talk to the Wine people?

Linux audio is a mess. If Cinnamon depends on pulseaudio, then that was dumb design, contributing to the audio mess.
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Deadtroopers

Re: Uninstalled pulseaudio and now a black screen after logi

Post by Deadtroopers »

Thanks to the OP for crashing his desktop in a similar manner to myself and to the guys who put him right. Pulse Audio or Alsa will just crap out for no reason, to the frustration of thousands. Just as many find they don't work in the first place. How many have fled back to M$ in disgust? This is the first time trying to correct it has crashed my desktop though, and it has been ten hours and following up a dozen other instances of my symptoms and a whole raft of misleading 'solutions'. I'm going to retrace my steps and flag some of the misleading threads; if only to save me the same trouble in future; 'cause assure as eggs is eggs Pulse Audio will crap out on me again before the year is out.
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