[Discussion] Debian Audio System

[PlagueSpale]

Hello all, I'm fairly new to Debian (and Linux in whole) and I'm quite interested in "what makes a system", i.e how system works, how are processes connected in Linux systems...
I've been reading official debian.org documentation and noticed that it specifies that from Debian 8.0, PulseAudio is pre-installed on most installations, which in my case, in the last 3 different Debian installations was incorrect (had some issues with storage thus having to install system multiple times not including laptop device).

Now my question is why is the official documentation is not up to date?
I feel let down for exploring the manual outside of normal scope. Now I am doubting whether what I read is relevant or not. What other source is there that I can trust?

And I'm still left wondering what audio system is currently working on my system.


Installation image was downloaded from the official site

[FreewheelinFrank]

You are correct: the page needs updating. Pipewire is now the default with Gnome. I think this is the page you were referring to:

https://wiki.debian.org/PulseAudio?high ... und%5Cb%29

As a Debian user you can contribute to keeping the Wiki up to date by pointing out where it needs an update.

Your feedback is welcome:

Feel free to register an account, login and edit the wiki yourself.
You can contact the author of individual wiki pages directly; click on the "Info" link, figure out who wrote most of the page, click on the appropriate user page and use any listed contact information to contact the relevant person.

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianWiki/FeedBack

[Delobian]

Regarding your question about PulseAudio and the discrepancy in the documentation, I understand your frustration. Sometimes documentation can lag behind updates or variations in installations. One reliable source you can trust for accurate information is the Debian Wiki, which is maintained by the community and often reflects the most up-to-date details.

As for identifying the audio system currently working on your system, you can use commands like aplay -l or pacmd list-sinks in the terminal to get information about your audio devices and their configurations..

[tynman]

I think it is worth noting that the wiki page in question here says

PulseAudio is installed by default in most Debian desktop environments.

So strictly speaking, PulseAudio is not a Debian thing. I have been using Debian since Version 8, and PulseAudio has never been part of the base install, and I have been happily using just the ALSA audio driver (which I believe is built into the Linux kernel).

As the wiki page says, PulseAudio is installed by various desktop environment packages, so to me it is no surprise that Debian documentation on this topic may be slightly out of date.