Using Windows headphones for Ubuntu sound output (aka the missing Synergy component ;-) )

My home desktop environment may be somewhat more involved than what the average home user has …. but I know I’m not alone when it comes to using multiple desktop systems at home with one keyboard and mouse….

I am not going to regurgitate how to make this setup work with the excellent Synergy tool. Rather, I am going to cover the one shortcoming I’ve had — AUDIO!

Enter one of my new best friends – PULSEAUDIO – PulseAudio  – its basically a proxy for all your audio needs — which allows for routing of audio to various locations and services.

In this case, I setup my Ubuntu 12.04 to push outbound audio to a windows desktop. On the windows 7 desktop I run a PulseAudio daemon and the audio now plays out on my headphones … bloody marvelous IMO!

So, how is it done …

Ubuntu Desktop:

Open up /etc/pulse/client.conf

default-server = 192.168.1.xxx

Obviously replace 192.168.1.xxx with the IP of your preferred desktop IP 😉

Restart PulseAudio (and maybe your gui 😉 — and you’re set.

On the windows side, pull down the PulseAudio Binaries from PulseAudio (links onward to latest version). Unzip ( I placed mine in c:\pulseaudio) and lets get started.

Leaving mostly defaults in place lets now edit C:\pulseaudio\etc\pulse\default.pa. The defaults will load a module called ‘waveout’ – we just need to make the server listen for inbound audio connections so,  scroll to the bottom and add:

load-module module-native-protocol-tcp listen=0.0.0.0 auth-anonymous=1

Now we can start the app to test, so from a windows console:

pulseaudio.exe -p “c:\pulseaudio\lib\pulse-1.1\modules” -nF “C:\pulseaudio\etc\pulse\default.pa”

Audio from your ubuntu desktop should now play out on your Windows Desktop 😉

Last step is to run PulseAudio as a daemon on your system – or simply start it when you need it.

— With that I can get back to my studies while keeping half an eye on TeamSA at the London Olympics!!

[Will likely update the post later to show the daemon parts]

If you wish to run the pulseaudio app as a service you will need the Windows 2003 (yes — 2003 version works fine on Windows 7 x64) Resource Kit, available from Microsoft.