Windows 7 Guest Audio- Even EASIER

[matteosistisette]

Running and keeping open pavucontrol didn't fix the issue.

Uninstalling pulseaudio (and rebooting, of course) didn't fix the issue either.

What else could I try?
May it be a performance issue? I have the impression that after a fresh reboot of the host, the audio dropouts in the guest are less frequent...

By the way, Perryg, without pulseaudio I cannot use audio on the guest if some application on the host is using audio. Do you use some sound server other than Pulse Audio??

thanks
m.

[Sasquatch]

By the way, Perryg, without pulseaudio I cannot use audio on the guest if some application on the host is using audio. Do you use some sound server other than Pulse Audio??

Then you need to check your software how they use ALSA. Make sure they have '[default]' selected as device, not the hardware directly. ALSA is perfectly capable of playing multiple streams.

[matteosistisette]

By the way, Perryg, without pulseaudio I cannot use audio on the guest if some application on the host is using audio. Do you use some sound server other than Pulse Audio??

Then you need to check your software how they use ALSA. Make sure they have '[default]' selected as device, not the hardware directly. ALSA is perfectly capable of playing multiple streams.

I can't find such a setting in Totem Movie Player

[Sasquatch]

Then it should use default. Ask the Ubuntu forums for more help, we won't deal with audio issues on the Host side if other programs cause conflicts.

[Perryg]

Actually I don't use sound that much in the guest period. I leave that to the host since it is much better suited for it. However since you mention it that would be a major drawback to removing Pulseaudio from the host.

@matteosistisette,
Put pulseaudio crackles in a search engine. You will see what I am talking about when I say it just has problems. You might find a cure but there are thousands of users that are still trying to get it to play nicely. Launchpad (ubuntu bugtracker) is as full of bug requests and still not fixed properly. Another reason I do not listen to sound in a guest as this just amplifies the problems. Linux guests don't seem to be as bad as Windows guests though. From what I know the problem started when they went from interrupt timing to timesync and this just is not as efficient (IMHO) Add that to a virtual machine and well you can see where the problem is.

I do know that the best I have ever heard the Windows guest (vista and win 7) play was when you opened the pavcontrol and leave it open in the host when playing audio in the guest.

[matteosistisette]

Then it should use default. Ask the Ubuntu forums for more help, we won't deal with audio issues on the Host side if other programs cause conflicts.

Anyway, even if I _don't_ have any other programs using audio, then audio on the guest works but still has a lot of crackles, just like it had when Pulse was installed. Maybe it is somewhat better now, but still bad.

Pulse Audio may be buggy, however I haven't had a single problem with audio on the host except... audio on the windows guest. And removing pulse audio didn't fix it either.

So the question remains: how to get audio working without crackles on a Windows 7 guest. (pavucontrol didn't do the trick for me)

[matteosistisette]

Now, I've realised that you can select which host audio driver to use for a given virtual machine:
- alsa
- oss
- pulse
(and null audio of course)

So there's no need to uninstall pulse in order to not use it.
Anyway, With or without Pulse installed, whatever option I choose (alsa or oss, let alone pulse), I ALWAYS get crackling audio on the guest. Sometimes it is some little dropouts from time to time, but sometimes it is completely unusable.

So, is it possible to have audio working properly on a windows 7 guest on an ubuntu host? How?

thanks
m.

[Sasquatch]

So there's no need to uninstall pulse in order to not use it.

Too bad that's not how it works. If you use OSS, you won't get any sound unless you use the OSS wrapper (or have OSS installed, but what's the point in having Pulse then?). Using ALSA is a ping pong system. ALSA sends it to Pulse to handle the audio, then Pulse sends it back to ALSA for the hardware handling (Pulse doesn't have any drivers, but ALSA does).
I've noticed a few times, on the Host, that selecting ALSA to be used that the quality was much lower than when using Pulse. After removing Pulse (or before installing it), the same steps didn't produce bad quality.

[matteosistisette]

Anyway, no answer from the VirtualBox team about getting decent sound on a windows guest? Do they care so little about sound?

If sound works just fine on a "native" windows ststem, and sounds works just fine on the host OS, and sound doesn't work properly on a windows guest installed on a virtual machine, it is most probably some issue with the virtual machine; or at least it is something that should concern the developers.

Or maybe there's some tweak to be done on the host system? In this case I wouild like to hear about it.
Removing Pulse Audio didn't fix the issue (maybe it improved a little bit, but definitely didn't fix), not to mention that not having a sound server on Ubuntu has quite a big impact on general usability (just to make an example, you don't have a global volume control! But I guess there are alternatives to PulseAudio)

thanks
m.

P.S. or maybe this should be moved to a fresh new thread with a different subject line?

[tjm]

Yes, my bad: This is effective for x86 only.

For x64, nobody saw fit to do a signed driver, so no update from WHQL/WU online.

As posted elsewhere, for x64, you will need:

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downlo ... Down=false
... Click through the legal, then select "AC'97 Audio Codecs (Software)"
... and get
"Vista/Win7 (32/64 bits) Driver only (ZIP file)", which is at Version 6305 now.

Extract all files, then do NOT run any of the installer exe stuff.
In Device Manager, right-click on the yellow-marked audio controller, select 'Update Driver Software'.
Select 'Browse my computer for driver software'.
Select folder <extracted folder>\6305_Vista_Win7_PG537\6305_Vista_PG537\Vista64.
You will get the alarming warning about the unsigned driver; continue.
Next.....
And it completes, enabling audio immediately.

There might be an easier way to let Windows find the extracted driver directly from the
inoperative taskbar audio device; this is the old-school method.

Some have reported clicking and erratic audio; I do get some slight aberrations from Flash 10.1. Not bad, just like vinyl.
(VBox 3.2.4, Win7 HomePrem x64 guest, 768MB guest RAM, 1 core of PhenomIIx3 710)

Not as easy as Windows Update: agreed. But it's Friday: Jam on!

This worked! Thanks

EDIT: Seems to be a problem with VirtualBox itself... I just reinstalled to 3.1.6 and I'm getting crystal clear audio for both XP 64 and Win 7 64! Good news

Tim

[brandonkirsch]

Then you need to check your software how they use ALSA. Make sure they have '[default]' selected as device, not the hardware directly. ALSA is perfectly capable of playing multiple streams.

Random comment on an old thread, I know... but THANK YOU for this!!

I could never understand why some software would happily share my soundcard (including VirtualBox guest + Amarok playing on the host) and then other times it wouldn't. Turns out I screwed with my sound settings and told Amarok to use the hardware instead of [default]. Switching to default works perfectly!

Thanks again!!