Code:$ dpkg -l | grep pulse ii gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio:i386 0.10.31-3+nmu4+b2 i386 GStreamer plugin for PulseAudio ii gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:i386 1.8.3-1+b1 i386 GStreamer plugin for PulseAudio ii libpulse-mainloop-glib0:i386 9.0-3 i386 PulseAudio client libraries (glib support) ii libpulse0:i386 9.0-3 i386 PulseAudio client libraries ii libsox-fmt-pulse:i386 14.4.1-5+b1 i386 SoX PulseAudio format I/O library ~ http://www.knoppixforum.de/knoppix-forum-deutsch/sonstiges/thread4268/pulseaudio-verwenden-aber-wie.html suggests to start the pulseaudio demon a la: /etc/init.d/pulseaudio start However: $ which pulseaudio $ $ ls -l /etc/init.d/pulseaudio ls: cannot access '/etc/init.d/pulseaudio': No such file or directory $ sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio start sudo: /etc/init.d/pulseaudio: command not found $ ps aux | grep pulseaudio knoppix 4871 0.0 0.0 6352 832 pts/4 S+ 06:53 0:00 grep --colour=auto pulseaudio How can you start pulseaudio (or (re)install it?) if needed?