(I sent this mail already 12-Feb, but maybe not arrived to maillist because I was not fully registered in) Hello list, I want do some kind of "important traffic information" notification system, where some system services/scripts will need access to Linux audio device - optionaly mute/stop user's audio stream, then replay their message, and enable user's audio again. These services will run under some other UID than legged user, probably as root (it won't be big security risk). I suppose that one user is logged in graphical session (probably XFce or other GTK based WM; not KDE/Gnome3), and potentially listening audio. When I'm trying now some tests, user has no audio problems. But even he has not any audio source active, play and aplay programs started as root cannot play sound and I get error message as: # play some.ogg ALSA lib pulse.c:229:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused play FAIL formats: can't open output file `default': snd_pcm_open error: Connection refused # LANG=C aplay other.wav ALSA lib pulse.c:229:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused aplay: main:660: audio open error: Connection refused What is correct way for achieving this goal? Run PA in (not recommended) system-wide mode? Some fake network access? Or it is PA bug? Thank in advance, Franta Hanzlik
