Comment 4 for bug 109439

Things to keep in mind:

1) Non-Free Flash 9 will utilize libflashsupport if available. See https://code.launchpad.net/~crimsun/libflashsupport-pulse/devel for the minimum-necessary source changes to get current git into Ubuntu (copyright, etc., forthcoming). This addresses Ulrik's "difficulties with ... the nonfree flash-plugin."

2) Manipulating asoundrcs is an advanced topic. Many users do so ultimately because of an (arguably) ALSA limitation of attempting to cope with OEM quirks in a "non-intuitive" fashion. (In ALSA's defense, exposing universally coherent mixer elements is a /hard/ problem, particularly since it has to ensure backward compatibility, too.) We cannot expect a user to want to muck with asoundrcs. HAL is the way to go for the Ubuntu desktop, implying that we should favor /not/ exposing plug:dmix:# / plug:dsnoop:# / plug:asym:# in default.pa.

Of course, the "technical reason" for not exposing the above virtual devices is that they are index-unstable. There are myriad instances of the default ALSA device shifting due to PCI dev enumeration being non-deterministic. If we were to expose the above virtual devices, we would have to ensure that the ALSA configuration shipped with the appropriate slots argument(s) to snd.ko - not exactly pretty.

3) The PA daemon does release the audio device(s) after an idle period. If necessary, we should consider creating a whitelist for pasuspender (e.g., skype, q3a).