No audio in GDM -- A severe a11y problem

[Janina Sajka]

've successfully upgraded two machines from F-8 to the F-9 beta. A diff
against my old /etc/gdm/custom.conf indicates Anaconda didn't touch that fil. Even after disabling pulseaudio, however, I am NOT getting audio out of GDM--snipet from custom.conf follows.

Please note this presents a serious a11y issue, as those of us unable to
use display screens now have no indication when we might login to the
desktop. The audio I dinciate doesn't play, and there is no beep when
backspacing in the Login and Password fields.,


[greeter]
# Always use 24 hour clock no matter what the locale.
Use24Clock=true
# If SoundOnLogin is true, then the greeter will beep when login is
# ready
# for user input.  If SoundOnLogin is a file and the greeter finds the
# 'play' executable (see daemon/SoundProgram) it will play that file
# instead of just beeping
SoundOnLogin=true
[ ..snip.. ]
SoundOnLoginFile=/boot/gdm.wav
 
Yes, the file exists and plays for [p]aplay.

PS: It's a corollary issue, but preventing all audio before completion
of gdm login presents a serious a11y issue. In addition to the above
noted problem with this approach, there are significant use cases for
console audio which may, or may not, be logged in before the gui.
Indeed, some may never login on the gui. In a11y that would include
users of speakup, emacspeak, and brltty among others.

I have yet to play with pulseaudio as a system daemon to see if that
resolves the problem of console audio, but having no audio until a login
is successful as the default circumstance doesn't make Fedora an a11y
friendly OS.

Janina

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.202.595.7777;	sip:janina at a11y.org
Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC	http://CapitalAccessibility.Com

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Chair, Open Accessibility	janina at a11y.org	
Linux Foundation		http://a11y.org