How To Install pulseaudio on Ubuntu 20.04
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install pulseaudio on Ubuntu 20.04.
What is pulseaudio
pulseaudio is:
PulseAudio, previously known as Polypaudio, is a sound server for POSIX and WIN32 systems. It is a drop in replacement for the ESD sound server with much better latency, mixing/re-sampling quality and overall architecture.
These are some of PulseAudio’s features:
High quality software mixing of multiple audio streams with support for more than one sink/source. May be used to combine multiple sound cards into one (with sample rate adjustment).
Wide range of supported client libraries. ESD, ALSA, oss, libao and GStreamer client applications are supported as-is. Native PulseAudio plug-ins are also available for xmms and mplayer.
Good low latency behaviour and very accurate latency measurement for playback and recording. Ability to fully synchronize multiple playback streams.
Network transparency, allowing an application to play back or record audio on a different machine than the one it is running on.
Extensible plug-in architecture with plug-ins for jackd, multicast-rtp lirc and avahi, just to name a few.
This package contains the daemon and basic module set. Task: ubuntu-desktop-minimal, ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-video, ubuntustudio-audio, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop
Package: pulseaudio Status: install ok installed Priority: optional Section: sound Installed-Size: 4532 Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers [email protected] Architecture: amd64 Multi-Arch: foreign Version: 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.10 Depends: libasound2 (>= 1.2.1.1), libc6 (>= 2.29), libcap2 (>= 1:2.10), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.9.14), libgcc-s1 (>= 3.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.31.18), libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0), libgstreamer1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libltdl7 (>= 2.4.6), liborc-0.4-0 (>= 1:0.4.25), libpulse0 (= 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.10), libsm6, libsnapd-glib1 (>= 1.49), libsndfile1 (>= 1.0.20), libsoxr0 (>= 0.1.1), libspeexdsp1 (>= 1.2~beta3.2-1), libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1), libsystemd0, libtdb1 (>= 1.2.7+git20101214), libudev1 (>= 183), libwebrtc-audio-processing1, libx11-6, libx11-xcb1 (>= 2:1.6.9), libxcb1, libxtst6, adduser, lsb-base (>= 3.2-13), libasound2-plugins, pulseaudio-utils Pre-Depends: init-system-helpers (>= 1.54~) Recommends: rtkit, default-logind | logind, dbus-user-session Suggests: udev, pavumeter, pavucontrol, paman, paprefs, ubuntu-sounds Conffiles: /etc/dbus-1/system.d/pulseaudio-system.conf 3c47ffdd82462606b3cccef9276497a7 /etc/init.d/pulseaudio-enable-autospawn 8bb494e2835aaec455cb6bb3e85ca1e4 /etc/pulse/daemon.conf 01f1ecdb9429ceba7396faa971bd228a /etc/pulse/default.pa b4d0adc72eb7e2e452612f7b31184610 /etc/pulse/system.pa 8cc7ccecf1e5d7829c6c0dd6386499b0 /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop ae3a4f91f60997b214d27d7089beef4e Description-en: PulseAudio sound server PulseAudio, previously known as Polypaudio, is a sound server for POSIX and WIN32 systems. It is a drop in replacement for the ESD sound server with much better latency, mixing/re-sampling quality and overall architecture.
These are some of PulseAudio’s features:
High quality software mixing of multiple audio streams with support for more than one sink/source. May be used to combine multiple sound cards into one (with sample rate adjustment).
Wide range of supported client libraries. ESD, ALSA, oss, libao and GStreamer client applications are supported as-is. Native PulseAudio plug-ins are also available for xmms and mplayer.
Good low latency behaviour and very accurate latency measurement for playback and recording. Ability to fully synchronize multiple playback streams.
Network transparency, allowing an application to play back or record audio on a different machine than the one it is running on.
Extensible plug-in architecture with plug-ins for jackd, multicast-rtp lirc and avahi, just to name a few.
This package contains the daemon and basic module set. Homepage: http://www.pulseaudio.org Original-Maintainer: Pulseaudio maintenance team [email protected]
Package: pulseaudio Architecture: amd64 Version: 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.8 Multi-Arch: foreign Priority: optional Section: sound Origin: Ubuntu Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers [email protected] Original-Maintainer: Pulseaudio maintenance team [email protected] Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug Installed-Size: 4532 Pre-Depends: init-system-helpers (>= 1.54~) Depends: libasound2 (>= 1.2.1.1), libc6 (>= 2.29), libcap2 (>= 1:2.10), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.9.14), libgcc-s1 (>= 3.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.31.18), libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0), libgstreamer1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libltdl7 (>= 2.4.6), liborc-0.4-0 (>= 1:0.4.25), libpulse0 (= 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.8), libsm6, libsnapd-glib1 (>= 1.49), libsndfile1 (>= 1.0.20), libsoxr0 (>= 0.1.1), libspeexdsp1 (>= 1.2~beta3.2-1), libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1), libsystemd0, libtdb1 (>= 1.2.7+git20101214), libudev1 (>= 183), libwebrtc-audio-processing1, libx11-6, libx11-xcb1 (>= 2:1.6.9), libxcb1, libxtst6, adduser, lsb-base (>= 3.2-13), libasound2-plugins, pulseaudio-utils Recommends: rtkit, default-logind | logind, dbus-user-session Suggests: udev, pavumeter, pavucontrol, paman, paprefs, ubuntu-sounds Filename: pool/main/p/pulseaudio/pulseaudio_13.99.1-1ubuntu3.8_amd64.deb Size: 815024 MD5sum: dcac86eb0e6435a50f6d86dfef686e94 SHA1: f62481d7f89d447fde0a19bd50062a983f981555 SHA256: 1f49053e0c3e694e0caf7c85c73c2af5f5bea15c353412b9705d5c5d276e8ada SHA512: 72a03a8971afe61a9eb22b01e2489f4ac224ff779497a2c3d77c54ea1fe6ca29f7d4cd11005770058358bc4a0916036b0e24dd2fb7aa76dbea9f5d4d2d855d98 Homepage: http://www.pulseaudio.org Description-en: PulseAudio sound server PulseAudio, previously known as Polypaudio, is a sound server for POSIX and WIN32 systems. It is a drop in replacement for the ESD sound server with much better latency, mixing/re-sampling quality and overall architecture.
These are some of PulseAudio’s features:
High quality software mixing of multiple audio streams with support for more than one sink/source. May be used to combine multiple sound cards into one (with sample rate adjustment).
Wide range of supported client libraries. ESD, ALSA, oss, libao and GStreamer client applications are supported as-is. Native PulseAudio plug-ins are also available for xmms and mplayer.
Good low latency behaviour and very accurate latency measurement for playback and recording. Ability to fully synchronize multiple playback streams.
Network transparency, allowing an application to play back or record audio on a different machine than the one it is running on.
Extensible plug-in architecture with plug-ins for jackd, multicast-rtp lirc and avahi, just to name a few.
This package contains the daemon and basic module set. Task: ubuntu-desktop-minimal, ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-video, ubuntustudio-audio, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop
Package: pulseaudio Architecture: amd64 Version: 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3 Multi-Arch: foreign Priority: optional Section: sound Origin: Ubuntu Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers [email protected] Original-Maintainer: Pulseaudio maintenance team [email protected] Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug Installed-Size: 4524 Pre-Depends: init-system-helpers (>= 1.54~) Depends: libapparmor1 (>= 2.7.0~beta1+bzr1772), libasound2 (>= 1.2.1.1), libc6 (>= 2.29), libcap2 (>= 1:2.10), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.9.14), libgcc-s1 (>= 3.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.31.18), libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0), libgstreamer1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libltdl7 (>= 2.4.6), liborc-0.4-0 (>= 1:0.4.25), libpulse0 (= 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3), libsm6, libsnapd-glib1 (>= 0.1), libsndfile1 (>= 1.0.20), libsoxr0 (>= 0.1.1), libspeexdsp1 (>= 1.2~beta3.2-1), libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1), libsystemd0, libtdb1 (>= 1.2.7+git20101214), libudev1 (>= 183), libwebrtc-audio-processing1, libx11-6, libx11-xcb1 (>= 2:1.6.9), libxcb1, libxtst6, adduser, lsb-base (>= 3.2-13), libasound2-plugins, pulseaudio-utils Recommends: rtkit, default-logind | logind, dbus-user-session Suggests: udev, pavumeter, pavucontrol, paman, paprefs, ubuntu-sounds Filename: pool/main/p/pulseaudio/pulseaudio_13.99.1-1ubuntu3_amd64.deb Size: 812596 MD5sum: f7bc211cbfb2dd553f67fbb0cf2ae0c6 SHA1: 71eeba05405f76a7d22662f78c19fe8ccac2437b SHA256: a363ed1591d708a82e91914d9728cd773b1bf8dc85c5f0928c1794e0f2e48029 Homepage: http://www.pulseaudio.org Description-en: PulseAudio sound server PulseAudio, previously known as Polypaudio, is a sound server for POSIX and WIN32 systems. It is a drop in replacement for the ESD sound server with much better latency, mixing/re-sampling quality and overall architecture.
These are some of PulseAudio’s features:
High quality software mixing of multiple audio streams with support for more than one sink/source. May be used to combine multiple sound cards into one (with sample rate adjustment).
Wide range of supported client libraries. ESD, ALSA, oss, libao and GStreamer client applications are supported as-is. Native PulseAudio plug-ins are also available for xmms and mplayer.
Good low latency behaviour and very accurate latency measurement for playback and recording. Ability to fully synchronize multiple playback streams.
Network transparency, allowing an application to play back or record audio on a different machine than the one it is running on.
Extensible plug-in architecture with plug-ins for jackd, multicast-rtp lirc and avahi, just to name a few.
This package contains the daemon and basic module set. Task: ubuntu-desktop-minimal, ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-video, ubuntustudio-audio, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop
There are three methods to install pulseaudio on Ubuntu 20.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install pulseaudio Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install pulseaudio using apt-get by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install pulseaudio
Install pulseaudio Using apt
Update apt database with apt using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install pulseaudio using apt by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install pulseaudio
Install pulseaudio Using aptitude
If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install pulseaudio using aptitude by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install pulseaudio
How To Uninstall pulseaudio on Ubuntu 20.04
To uninstall only the pulseaudio package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio
Uninstall pulseaudio And Its Dependencies
To uninstall pulseaudio and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 20.04, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove pulseaudio
Remove pulseaudio Configurations and Data
To remove pulseaudio configuration and data from Ubuntu 20.04 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge pulseaudio
Remove pulseaudio configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove pulseaudio configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge pulseaudio
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install pulseaudio package on Ubuntu 20.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.