detection and configuration of pulse audio is inconsistent

[tim.mooney]

The way 'configure' detects and enables Pulse audio support is inconsistent and seems like there may be some steps missing.

• unlike most of the check_<something>() functions in configure, if check_pulse() is even called (more on that in a minute), and it detects that Pulse is present and usable, it doesn't do anything to enable Pulse. In particular it does not call

cnf_append "VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE" "1"

if it finds pulse.

• in addition to the fact that check_pulse doesn't set the define, check_pulse is limited to only being called on certain platforms, by this code:

  if [ "$OS" = "linux" -o "$OS" = "freebsd" -o "$OS" = "netbsd" ]; then
    if [ $WITH_PULSE -eq 1 ]; then
      check_pulse
    elif [ $WITH_PULSE -eq 0 ]; then
      cnf_append "VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE" ""
    fi
 fi

• finally, if you pass --enable-pulse to configure, it sets WITH_PULSE=2 ... which does nothing.

What I think should happen, to make this more consistent:

1) check_pulse() should be modified so that

• if it finds working/acceptable pulse, it calls cnf_append to add VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE=1
• conversely, if check_pulse is called and it *doesn't* find acceptable pulse, it should call cnf_append to set "VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE" ""

2) the code block that decides whether check_pulse should even be called should be adjusted so that it doesn't restrict the call by OS and it handles the --enable-pulse case. Some preliminary code might look like:

  if [ $WITH_PULSE -eq 1 ]; then
    check_pulse
  elif [ $WITH_PULSE -eq 0 ]; then
    # --disable-pulse or platform default
    cnf_append "VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE" ""
  elif [ $WITH_PULSE -eq 2 ]; then
    # --enable-pulse was passed
    cnf_append "VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE" "1"
  fi

These changes still honor platform defaults for darwin & haiku (both set WITH_PULSE=0 early in configure). If there isn't a platform-specific override, then the configure default of WITH_PULSE=1 causes check_pulse() to be called, and it sets VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE appropriately, based on whether it found pulse or not. Finally, if --enable-pulse is passed to configure, VBOX_WITH_AUDIO_PULSE=1 is forced on, with no call to check_pulse.

I can provide patches to configure to make these changes, if you agree that the proposed changes are good ones and make things more consistent.

Thanks,

Tim

[pentagonik]

Hi Tim, thanks for the pointer and work you've invested! I'll give this a shot soon and let you know once OSE has been updated with a fix.