I have found a workaround for this problem by setting a different $HOME before launching each pulseaudio instance for the same $USER. Since the pid file option says: "use-pid-file= Create a PID file in /tmp/pulse-$USER/pid. Of this is enabled you may use commands like --kill or --check. If you are planning to start more than one PulseAudio process per user, you better disable this option since it effectively disables multiple instances. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. The --no-cpu-limit command line option takes precedence." I think it is fair to assume that multiple instances per user should work, shouldn't it? The problem seems to come from the softlink from: $HOME/.pulse/${MACHINE_ID}-runtime Where MACHINE_ID=`cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id` And when this link exists you cannot start another instance as it will block on the autospawn.lock. (tested on a fully up to date Fedora 14 system) Thanks Antoine On 04/09/2011 03:20 AM, Antoine Martin wrote: > Hi, > > How can I start multiple copies of pulseaudio for the same $USER, but in > different contexts? > This was working a while back (last year or so - not sure about version > numbers).. but doesn't any more? > > My software starts a virtual X server (xpra, vnc..), dbus and a > dedicated pulseaudio server for each "session application" it launches. > This allows it to redirect the sound (in and out) to/from remote > machines (potentially multiple at once too, some directly, some via > gstreamer+vorbis over ssh) - all this together with the display. see (1) > > Each "application session" gets its own environment and starts > pulseaudio with: > /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start -vvvv --disable-shm=true --daemonize=false > --use-pid-file=false --system=false --exit-idle-time=-1 -n > --load=module-suspend-on-idle --load=module-null-sink > "--load=module-native-protocol-unix socket=/tmp/pulse-$DISPLAY/native" > > A single $USER may start dozens of those sessions, each with a different > (virtual) $DISPLAY. > Now, when I start the second instance I can see that it somehow finds > the previous copy (not the one used by my local X11 session) > [pid 3044] > open("/home/antoine/.pulse/70a1ab2a8c9d6cb7625f17060000000d-runtime/autospawn.lock", > O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_NOCTTY|O_NOFOLLOW, 0600) = 5 > [pid 3044] fcntl(5, F_SETLKW, {type=F_WRLCK, whence=SEEK_SET, start=0, > len=0} > From that point onwards, nothing happens. > > Can you please advise on how to restore this functionality? > > Thanks > Antoine > > (1) > http://winswitch.org/ > _______________________________________________ > pulseaudio-discuss mailing list > pulseaudio-discuss at mail.0pointer.de > https://tango.0pointer.de/mailman/listinfo/pulseaudio-discuss