Other Looking to setup a desktop environment that doesn't need Pulseaudio

I was getting ready to install kde or xfce when I noticed they pulled in pulseaudio. I remember reading how unFreeBSD this was (or something like that) and was trying to figure out how to get either without pulseaudio and without losing volume control on my laptop - unsuccessfully. So, what's a good alternative that will use FreeBSD's native OSS?
 
Probably every complete DE pulls in pulseaudio, since there is at least one of their dependency that depends on it. To avoid it you should use a window manager like fluxbox, openbox etc.
 
I don't like pulseaudio either but it hasn't given me any problems so far. the only thing that bothered me was that you have to restart pulseaudio when you change an audio device but that's all.

Otherwise I can only agree with Maxnix, if you want to have a pulseaudio free desktop you have create it yourself using existing components.

Example:

WM: Openbox
Login: LightDM
Bars: plank, tint2 or mate-panel and xfce4-panel
Notifications: xfce4-notifyd or mate-notification-daemon
 
Are you sure?

:~ $ doas pkg remove pulseaudio
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
Deinstallation has been requested for the following 70 packages (of 0 packages in the universe):

Installed packages to be REMOVED:
akonadi: 21.04.2
alsa-plugins: 1.2.2
kaccounts-integration: 21.04.2
kf5-baloo: 5.82.0
kf5-frameworkintegration: 5.82.0
kf5-kactivities: 5.82.0
kf5-kactivities-stats: 5.82.0
kf5-kbookmarks: 5.82.0
kf5-kcmutils: 5.82.0
kf5-kdeclarative: 5.82.0
kf5-kdelibs4support: 5.82.0
kf5-kdesignerplugin: 5.82.0
kf5-kdewebkit: 5.82.0
kf5-kholidays: 5.82.0
kf5-khtml: 5.82.0
kf5-kinit: 5.82.0
kf5-kio: 5.82.0_1
kf5-kirigami2: 5.82.0
kf5-knewstuff: 5.82.0
kf5-knotifications: 5.82.0
kf5-knotifyconfig: 5.82.0
kf5-kparts: 5.82.0
kf5-kquickcharts: 5.82.0
kf5-kross: 5.82.0
kf5-krunner: 5.82.0
kf5-ktexteditor: 5.82.0
kf5-ktextwidgets: 5.82.0
kf5-kwallet: 5.82.0
kf5-kxmlgui: 5.82.0
kf5-kxmlrpcclient: 5.82.0
kf5-plasma-framework: 5.82.0
kf5-purpose: 5.82.0
kf5-qqc2-desktop-style: 5.82.0
plasma5-breeze: 5.22.1_1
plasma5-breeze-gtk: 5.22.1
plasma5-discover: 5.22.1
plasma5-drkonqi: 5.22.1
plasma5-kactivitymanagerd: 5.22.1
plasma5-kde-cli-tools: 5.22.1
plasma5-kde-gtk-config: 5.22.1
plasma5-kdeplasma-addons: 5.22.1
plasma5-kgamma5: 5.22.1
plasma5-khotkeys: 5.22.1
plasma5-kinfocenter: 5.22.1
plasma5-kmenuedit: 5.22.1
plasma5-kscreen: 5.22.1
plasma5-kscreenlocker: 5.22.1
plasma5-ksshaskpass: 5.22.1
plasma5-ksysguard: 5.22.0
plasma5-kwallet-pam: 5.22.1
plasma5-kwin: 5.22.1
plasma5-kwrited: 5.22.1
plasma5-libksysguard: 5.22.1
plasma5-milou: 5.22.1
plasma5-oxygen: 5.22.1
plasma5-plasma: 5.22.1
plasma5-plasma-browser-integration: 5.22.1
plasma5-plasma-desktop: 5.22.1
plasma5-plasma-disks: 5.22.1
plasma5-plasma-integration: 5.22.1
plasma5-plasma-sdk: 5.22.1
plasma5-plasma-workspace: 5.22.1
plasma5-polkit-kde-agent-1: 5.22.1
plasma5-powerdevil: 5.22.1
plasma5-systemsettings: 5.22.1
pulseaudio: 14.2
qt5-speech: 5.15.2_1
qt5-webengine: 5.15.2_2
signon-kwallet-extension: 21.04.2
speech-dispatcher: 0.10.2

Number of packages to be removed: 70
 
That's strange.

I don't have pulseaudio installed and I don't get it as a dependency with pkg install plasma5-plasma
Code:
New packages to be INSTALLED:
    accounts-qml-module: 0.7_1
    akonadi: 20.12.3
    alsa-plugins: 1.1.1_7
    cln: 1.3.6
    coreutils: 8.32
    cyrus-sasl: 2.1.27_1
    docbook: 1.5
    docbook-sgml: 4.5_1
    docbook-xml: 5.0_3
    docbook-xsl: 1.79.1_1,1
    dotconf: 1.3_1
    ebook-tools: 0.2.2_5
    editorconfig-core-c: 0.12.4
    espeak: 1.48.04_7
    gpgme: 1.15.1
    gpgme-cpp: 1.15.1
    gpgme-qt5: 1.15.1
    groff: 1.22.4_3
    hack-font: 3.003_1
    iso8879: 1986_3
    kaccounts-integration: 20.12.3
    kf5-attica: 5.80.0
    kf5-baloo: 5.80.0
    kf5-breeze-icons: 5.80.0
    kf5-frameworkintegration: 5.80.0
    kf5-kactivities: 5.80.0
    kf5-kactivities-stats: 5.80.0
    kf5-karchive: 5.80.0
    kf5-kauth: 5.80.0
    kf5-kbookmarks: 5.80.0
    kf5-kcmutils: 5.80.0
    kf5-kcodecs: 5.80.0
    kf5-kcompletion: 5.80.0
    kf5-kconfig: 5.80.0
    kf5-kconfigwidgets: 5.80.0
    kf5-kcoreaddons: 5.80.0
    kf5-kcrash: 5.80.0
    kf5-kdbusaddons: 5.80.0
    kf5-kdeclarative: 5.80.0
    kf5-kded: 5.80.0
    kf5-kdelibs4support: 5.80.0
    kf5-kdesignerplugin: 5.80.0
    kf5-kdesu: 5.80.0
    kf5-kdewebkit: 5.80.0
    kf5-kdoctools: 5.80.0
    kf5-kemoticons: 5.80.0
    kf5-kfilemetadata: 5.80.0
    kf5-kglobalaccel: 5.80.0
    kf5-kguiaddons: 5.80.0
    kf5-kholidays: 5.80.0
    kf5-khtml: 5.80.0
    kf5-ki18n: 5.80.0
    kf5-kiconthemes: 5.80.0
    kf5-kidletime: 5.80.0
    kf5-kinit: 5.80.0
    kf5-kio: 5.80.1
    kf5-kirigami2: 5.80.0
    kf5-kitemmodels: 5.80.0
    kf5-kitemviews: 5.80.0
    kf5-kjobwidgets: 5.80.0
    kf5-kjs: 5.80.0
    kf5-kjsembed: 5.80.0
    kf5-knewstuff: 5.80.0
    kf5-knotifications: 5.80.0
    kf5-knotifyconfig: 5.80.0
    kf5-kpackage: 5.80.0
    kf5-kparts: 5.80.0
    kf5-kpeople: 5.80.0
    kf5-kplotting: 5.80.0
    kf5-kpty: 5.80.0
    kf5-kquickcharts: 5.80.0
    kf5-kross: 5.80.0
    kf5-krunner: 5.80.0
    kf5-kservice: 5.80.0
    kf5-ktexteditor: 5.80.0_1
    kf5-ktextwidgets: 5.80.0
    kf5-kunitconversion: 5.80.0
    kf5-kwallet: 5.80.0
    kf5-kwayland: 5.80.0
    kf5-kwidgetsaddons: 5.80.0
    kf5-kwindowsystem: 5.80.0
    kf5-kxmlgui: 5.80.0
    kf5-kxmlrpcclient: 5.80.0
    kf5-plasma-framework: 5.80.0
    kf5-prison: 5.80.0
    kf5-purpose: 5.80.0
    kf5-qqc2-desktop-style: 5.80.0
    kf5-solid: 5.80.0
    kf5-syntax-highlighting: 5.80.0
    kf5-threadweaver: 5.80.0
    libaccounts-glib: 1.25
    libaccounts-qt5: 1.16_2
    libcanberra-gtk3: 0.30_5
    libdbusmenu-qt5: 0.9.3.160420160218_11
    libdmtx: 0.7.5
    libgit2: 1.1.0
    libqalculate: 3.17.0
    libssh2: 1.9.0_3,3
    libzip: 1.7.3
    mysql57-client: 5.7.34
    mysql57-server: 5.7.34
    noto-basic: 2.0_1
    phonon-gstreamer-qt5: 4.10.0
    phonon-qt5: 4.11.1
    pinentry-qt5: 1.1.1
    plasma-wayland-protocols: 1.2.1
    plasma5-breeze: 5.20.5
    plasma5-breeze-gtk: 5.20.5
    plasma5-discover: 5.20.5
    plasma5-drkonqi: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kactivitymanagerd: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kde-cli-tools: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kde-gtk-config: 5.20.5_1
    plasma5-kdecoration: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kdeplasma-addons: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kgamma5: 5.20.5
    plasma5-khotkeys: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kinfocenter: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kmenuedit: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kscreen: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kscreenlocker: 5.20.5
    plasma5-ksshaskpass: 5.20.5
    plasma5-ksysguard: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kwallet-pam: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kwayland-integration: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kwayland-server: 5.20.5
    plasma5-kwin: 5.20.5_1
    plasma5-kwrited: 5.20.5
    plasma5-libkscreen: 5.20.5
    plasma5-libksysguard: 5.20.5
    plasma5-milou: 5.20.5
    plasma5-oxygen: 5.20.5
    plasma5-plasma: 5.20.5
    plasma5-plasma-browser-integration: 5.20.5
    plasma5-plasma-desktop: 5.20.5
    plasma5-plasma-disks: 5.20.5
    plasma5-plasma-integration: 5.20.5
    plasma5-plasma-sdk: 5.20.5
    plasma5-plasma-workspace: 5.20.5_1
    plasma5-plasma-workspace-wallpapers: 5.20.5
    plasma5-polkit-kde-agent-1: 5.20.5
    plasma5-powerdevil: 5.20.5
    plasma5-systemsettings: 5.20.5
    polkit-qt-1: 0.113.0_8
    psutils: 1.17_5
    qt5-qdbus: 5.15.2
    qt5-qtpaths: 5.15.2
    qt5-sensors: 5.15.2_1
    qt5-speech: 5.15.2
    qt5-sqldrivers-mysql: 5.15.2
    qt5-uitools: 5.15.2_1
    qt5-virtualkeyboard: 5.15.2_1
    qt5-wayland: 5.15.2_1
    qt5-webengine: 5.15.2_2
    qt5-webkit: 5.212.0.a4_4
    re2: 20210202_1
    sdocbook-xml: 1.1_2,2
    signon-kwallet-extension: 20.12.3
    signon-plugin-oauth2: 0.24_3
    signon-qt5: 8.60
    signon-ui: 0.17_7
    speech-dispatcher: 0.8.8_1
    uchardet: 0.0.7
    xbitmaps: 1.1.2
    xcb-util-cursor: 0.1.3
    xf86-input-evdev: 2.10.6_6
    xmessage: 1.0.5
    xmlcharent: 0.3_2
    xsetroot: 1.1.2
    xwayland-devel: 1.20.0.917

Number of packages to be installed: 170

The process will require 1 GiB more space.
258 MiB to be downloaded.

According to https://www.freshports.org/x11/plasma5-plasma the PulseAudio support should be off by default:
Code:
===> The following configuration options are available for plasma5-plasma-5.20.5:
     PHONON=on: Include phonon-gstreamer, for sound output
     PULSEAUDIO=off: PulseAudio sound server support
===> Use 'make config' to modify these settings
 
I reinstalled mate 1.24.1 on June 15 using pkg install mate. It pulled in Firefox 89.0.1, but not pulseaudio. I have also reinstalled plasma5-plasma and kde5 recently from "quarterly" packages and IIRC they didn't pull in pulseaudio (although I foolishly installed it myself afterwards). I have since weened myself off of pulseaudio but it doesn't uninstall cleanly when I run pkg delete pulseaudio.
 
When I had pulseaudio installed, I got this error on every shutdown or reboot:
Code:
Jun 19 17:23:21 hostnamex pulseaudio[1622]: [(null)] core-util.c: Failed to create secure directory (/var/run/user/1001/pulse): No such file or directory
 
Just fresh installed a plasma DE and no pulse audio. Cool! I don't remember it working that way the last time I installed, but this time, I installed kde pretty early (right after base and updates). I'll be more vigilant going forward and see when/if pkg tries to pull it in.
 
Just fresh installed a plasma DE and no pulse audio. Cool! I don't remember it working that way the last time I installed, but this time, I installed kde pretty early (right after base and updates). I'll be more vigilant going forward and see when/if pkg tries to pull it in.
IMO the only problem in Plasma without PA is kmix (let's be honest, kmix is pretty ugly, of course it works, but it's ugly).
 
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