[Pkg-ltsp-devel] Bug#425057: ltsp-server: Sound does not work "out of box" and no instructions for making it work

[Bryan Sutula]

Package: ltsp-server
Version: 0.99debian11
Severity: normal

After installing ltsp-server and getting clients to run, sound does not work
on the clients.  Within the package, I'm not finding any notes or pointers
to other documentation for getting sound to work.

The two main things I needed to do to enable sound were:

1) Add "SOUND = Y" to /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf

Note that this file isn't there by default, so the user might want to copy
it from /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/share/doc/ltsp-client/examples as a starting
point.  However, they probably want to comment out all the lines and start
with an empty [Default] section.

2) Within the chroot, install several packages.  I don't know if this is
the right set, but this is what worked.  (I'd love feedback if I have
installed the wrong things.)

sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get update
sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get install alsa-oss alsa-base alsa-utils
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libasound2 libpci2 linux-sound-base lsof pciutils
Suggested packages:
  apmd libasound2-plugins
The following NEW packages will be installed
  alsa-base alsa-oss alsa-utils libasound2 libpci2 linux-sound-base
  lsof pciutils

The addition of these packages does increase the client's footprint.
Previously, a top(1) showed memory usage of 47748k.  After these sound
packages are installed, memory usage increased to 48904K.

Additionally, one could point users to:
  http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/Sound

It is difficult, though, because most of the instructions at ltsp.org
are written for a manual install of LTS.  The Debian packaging is nice,
but it becomes difficult for a user to tell what it's done, and how much
of the lts.org documentation is applicable.

-- Package-specific info:
packages in chroot: /opt/ltsp/i386
ii  initramfs-tools          0.85g                    tools for generating an initramfs
ii  ldm                      0.99debian11             LTSP display manager
ii  ltsp-client              0.99debian11             LTSP client environment

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-4-686
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)

Versions of packages ltsp-server depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]       1.5.11       Debian configuration management sy
ii  debconf-utils               1.5.11       debconf utilities
ii  debootstrap                 0.3.3.2      Bootstrap a basic Debian system
ii  esound-clients              0.2.36-3     Enlightened Sound Daemon - clients
ii  gettext-base                0.16.1-1     GNU Internationalization utilities
ii  iproute                     20061002-3   Professional tools to control the 
ii  lsb-release                 3.1-23.1     Linux Standard Base version report
ii  nfs-kernel-server           1:1.0.10-6   Kernel NFS server support
ii  openbsd-inetd [inet-superse 0.20050402-6 The OpenBSD Internet Superserver
ii  openssh-client              1:4.3p2-9    Secure shell client, an rlogin/rsh
ii  python                      2.4.4-2      An interactive high-level object-o
ii  ssh                         1:4.3p2-9    Secure shell client and server (tr
ii  tcpd                        7.6.dbs-13   Wietse Venema's TCP wrapper utilit
ii  tftpd-hpa                   0.43-1.1     HPA's tftp server
ii  update-inetd                4.27-0.5     inetd.conf updater

Versions of packages ltsp-server recommends:
ii  nbd-server                    1:2.8.7-4  the Network Block Device server
ii  openssh-server                1:4.3p2-9  Secure shell server, an rshd repla
ii  ssh                           1:4.3p2-9  Secure shell client and server (tr

-- debconf information:
  ltsp-server/build_client: false