Arch Linux

Loser777

Member

Registered: 2011-05-12

Posts: 28

[Solved] MPD and Flash still in conflict

This issue bugs me basically on every install I do, regardless of distro. I'm currently working to resolve it on my Lenovo T420, (Xubuntu 12.04). I've tried most of the various fixes involving
changing /etc/mpd.conf to

audio_output{
type "alsa"
name "Sound Card"
options "dev=dmixer"
device "plug:dmix"
}

I've also tried:

audio_output{
type "alsa"
name "Sound Card"
}

And:

audio_output{
type "alsa"
name "Sound Card"
mixer_type "software"
}

It seems that regardless of the configuration, mpd needs to take over the sound hardware to play anything. What's going on?

Last edited by Loser777 (2012-07-18 19:45:08)

ZekeSulastin

Member

Registered: 2010-09-20

Posts: 266

Re: [Solved] MPD and Flash still in conflict

Xubuntu?  Wrong forums.  Having said that, your exact issue is mentioned on the Arch Wiki's ALSA page, assuming you're running MPD as its own user.

big_bum

Member

From: Bucharest,Romania,Europe,World

Registered: 2011-08-29

Posts: 47

Re: [Solved] MPD and Flash still in conflict

Make mpd output to Pulseaudio, not ALSA and it should work.

Loser777

Member

Registered: 2011-05-12

Posts: 28

Re: [Solved] MPD and Flash still in conflict

Xubuntu?  Wrong forums.  Having said that, your exact issue is mentioned on the Arch Wiki's ALSA page, assuming you're running MPD as its own user.

I think that Arch has a larger community of MPD users ... I've tried pretty much everything mentioned on the wiki page.

Simply switching the output to pulse did not change the situation at all, even though the behavior was identical to example @ http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/PulseAudio

EDIT: I noticed that mpd would spawn a pulseaudio process regardless of the audio_output option selected. Further investigation revealed that pulseaudio has issues with simultaneous sound, removing pulseaudio and forcing mpd + flash to use alsa seems to be a working fix.

Last edited by Loser777 (2012-07-18 10:35:01)

ZekeSulastin

Member

Registered: 2010-09-20

Posts: 266

Re: [Solved] MPD and Flash still in conflict

Further investigation revealed that pulseaudio has issues with simultaneous sound

Err, one of its specific features is to serve as a mixer - how did you miss that if you actually investigated?  That's why big_bum suggested making MPD use a pulse output: to prevent MPD from even trying to take control of the sound card, even though it should be picked up by PulseAudio's ALSA plugin otherwise.

... well, to be completely fair to you and for the benefit of anyone directed here by Googling "xubuntu mpd", there IS one simultaneity issue that comes up fairly regularly in this context: PA, by default, starts a separate server for each user, and in Arch (and likely Xubuntu) MPD, by default, runs as its own user.  PA also spawns itself by default (autospawn = 1 in daemon.conf) if anything asks for it, hence MPD showing an instance: your distro has likely has a proper asound.conf directing ALSA programs to PA.  The obvious problem of the pulse servers fighting over the soundcard causes one or the other to not play any sound. 

In the case of MPD. the two easy solutions are to a) run MPD as your primary user or b) make MPD send sound to your user's PA server, both of which are handily documented on the Arch Wiki's MPD page.  A third option is to run a systemwide pulse server, but that is rather strongly discouraged by upstream.

Don't forget to edit the first post's title to add [Solved] to the beginning, and good luck in Xubuntu land

Loser777

Member

Registered: 2011-05-12

Posts: 28

Re: [Solved] MPD and Flash still in conflict

Further investigation revealed that pulseaudio has issues with simultaneous sound

Err, one of its specific features is to serve as a mixer - how did you miss that if you actually investigated?  That's why big_bum suggested making MPD use a pulse output: to prevent MPD from even trying to take control of the sound card, even though it should be picked up by PulseAudio's ALSA plugin otherwise.

... well, to be completely fair to you and for the benefit of anyone directed here by Googling "xubuntu mpd", there IS one simultaneity issue that comes up fairly regularly in this context: PA, by default, starts a separate server for each user, and in Arch (and likely Xubuntu) MPD, by default, runs as its own user.  PA also spawns itself by default (autospawn = 1 in daemon.conf) if anything asks for it, hence MPD showing an instance: your distro has likely has a proper asound.conf directing ALSA programs to PA.  The obvious problem of the pulse servers fighting over the soundcard causes one or the other to not play any sound. 

In the case of MPD. the two easy solutions are to a) run MPD as your primary user or b) make MPD send sound to your user's PA server, both of which are handily documented on the Arch Wiki's MPD page.  A third option is to run a systemwide pulse server, but that is rather strongly discouraged by upstream.

Don't forget to edit the first post's title to add [Solved] to the beginning, and good luck in Xubuntu land

I did not have a /etc/asound.conf to begin with, and running MPD as the primary user does not alleviate the issue.

As for Xubuntu, it seems that I'm once again going to be distro-hopping; it doesn't make sense to use Ubuntu when removing pulseaudio also removes ubuntu-desktop. This doesn't affect Xubuntu, but I can figure out where this situation is eventually headed.

Last edited by Loser777 (2012-07-18 19:46:56)