User Documentation

First Steps

If you are new to PulseAudio, consider reading about the first steps.

The Perfect Setup

After doing your first steps with PulseAudio you might want to know everything about the perfect setup.

Network Setup

There are several ways of controlling PulseAudio and streaming audio over the network. For a detailed description about configuring those, see Network Setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Before asking for help on the mailing lists or on IRC make sure to consult our list of frequently asked questions.

Modules

PulseAudio has whole bunch of loadable modules, each with its own set of functions and parameters. See the modules page for a description of them all.

Command Line Interface

The PulseAudio daemon can be configured with its own command line language.

Daemon

Read all about how the PulseAudio server is intended to be run and the daemon's command line parameters.

Server Strings

The syntax of server address strings understood by PulseAudio are documented here.

Running PulseAudio as System-Wide Daemon

In some setups it might be sensible to run PulseAudio as system-wide daemon instead of per-user.

Authentication

PulseAudio clients can be required to authenticate them to the server they try to connect to. This can be done by cookie files, or if the native protocol is used on unix and the daemon runs in system-wide mode, by group permissions. The module module-simple-protocol-{unix,tcp} is is always open for all clients.

IP-based access control lists can be used, by giving certain modules arguments starting with "auth-ip-acl=" as showed on other documentation pages like FAQ and Modules.