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#1 2009-04-10 20:14:52

Wilco
Member
Registered: 2008-11-09
Posts: 440

Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

After having some troubles with alsa I managed to fix this once and for all. The problem was I could not run flash+firefox and some other application that uses sound, like xmms or mplayer.
After investigating this problem on my old laptop, searching this forum and the wiki I finally found the final solution which was not described in the other topics, so here it is:

Add to /etc/rc.conf:
MODULES=(... !snd-pcm-oss)

(don't add the dots ofcourse)
The problem with flash is that it defaults to oss if it can find oss. So no matter if you have alsa, flash will prefer oss and oss will block /dev/dsp and no other program can play any sound. If there is no oss device available, flash will use alsa and all problems are gone. No need for a dmix setup or configuring other programs, just disable the old oss system.

Hope this helps someone!

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#2 2009-04-10 20:19:41

Procyon
Member
Registered: 2008-05-07
Posts: 1,819

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Thanks, I will try this. I have dmix setup right and can play from multiple sources, but sometimes something goes wrong anyway and mpd will halt and not start again until everything is closed and I even have some applications with no sound unless everything else is off even with aoss.

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#3 2009-04-10 22:47:09

vau
Member
From: Adelaide, Australia
Registered: 2008-08-23
Posts: 24

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Thanks for that!

I also was having some minor issues with Tuxpaint (painting for kids) blocking all other sounds, so we could not paint and listen to the music at the same time smile So, will give this a try.

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#4 2009-04-10 23:05:03

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Funny there are so many threads going on for sound..or maybe i am noticing them more because I just changed over from ALSA to OSS. OSSv4 allows multiple apps to use the soundcard. Also, the quality is much better than ALSA, IMHO.

You might also want to consider OSS and give it a whirl.


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#5 2009-04-10 23:36:03

Procyon
Member
Registered: 2008-05-07
Posts: 1,819

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

@Inxsible: OSS doesn't work with AC'97 and HDAudio right? Isn't that pretty much all sound cards built in the motherboard? All I got from it was thuds when toggling mute, and that is when I did see green lights in the volume of the config.

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#6 2009-04-11 01:11:56

KRTac
Member
From: Croatia
Registered: 2008-07-01
Posts: 99

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Procyon wrote:

@Inxsible: OSS doesn't work with AC'97 and HDAudio right? Isn't that pretty much all sound cards built in the motherboard? All I got from it was thuds when toggling mute, and that is when I did see green lights in the volume of the config.

Yeah...I too have a stupid HDAudio integrated sound card, and when I used oss sound goes only to the front speakers. I'll wait until the situation with oss stabilizes and more support is added, and then I'll try it. Anyway, I need a new sound card. Can anyone recomend any good sound cards that would work good with oss and aren't so expensive?

Edit: I dont record stuff, so i dont need a sound card with lots of input options.

Last edited by KRTac (2009-04-11 01:17:07)

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#7 2009-04-11 02:29:27

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Procyon wrote:

@Inxsible: OSS doesn't work with AC'97 and HDAudio right? Isn't that pretty much all sound cards built in the motherboard? All I got from it was thuds when toggling mute, and that is when I did see green lights in the volume of the config.

Yes it doesn't. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) -- i have a 9 yr old laptop which doesn't have HDAudio.

How would I check if mine is AC'97?


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#8 2009-04-11 14:44:35

R00KIE
Forum Fellow
From: Between a computer and a chair
Registered: 2008-09-14
Posts: 4,734

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

OSS should work with AC97 and surelly does work with HDAudio codecs, my notebook has such a codec and it works perfectly and with a lot more quality than with alsa.
As for multichannel I don't know, never tried it myself, when I have time I may give it a go on my desktop pc.


R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

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#9 2009-04-11 15:56:14

ralvez
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2005-12-06
Posts: 1,694
Website

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Inxsible wrote:

Funny there are so many threads going on for sound..or maybe i am noticing them more because I just changed over from ALSA to OSS. OSSv4 allows multiple apps to use the soundcard. Also, the quality is much better than ALSA, IMHO.

You might also want to consider OSS and give it a whirl.

I think this link http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.ph … /06/179255 provides some very interesting insight into the OSS/ALSA matter

R.

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#10 2009-04-11 19:47:37

brebs
Member
Registered: 2007-04-03
Posts: 3,742

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

R00KIE wrote:

OSS should work with AC97 and surely does work with HDAudio codecs

Hah. What people ALWAYS forget is that every soundcard is *different*. HDA isn't a "standard". If it were, there wouldn't be a zillion sound threads where people moan about some weird sound issue, and don't even bother to state which of the thousands of different soundcards they have.

While I'm on the subject, people should be directing ALSA bugs to the ALSA bugzilla.

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#11 2009-04-11 20:19:17

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

ralvez wrote:
Inxsible wrote:

Funny there are so many threads going on for sound..or maybe i am noticing them more because I just changed over from ALSA to OSS. OSSv4 allows multiple apps to use the soundcard. Also, the quality is much better than ALSA, IMHO.

You might also want to consider OSS and give it a whirl.

I think this link http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.ph … /06/179255 provides some very interesting insight into the OSS/ALSA matter

R.

That artilce was posted in 2001...lots of changes since then smile


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#12 2009-04-11 22:55:30

R00KIE
Forum Fellow
From: Between a computer and a chair
Registered: 2008-09-14
Posts: 4,734

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

brebs wrote:
R00KIE wrote:

OSS should work with AC97 and surely does work with HDAudio codecs

Hah. What people ALWAYS forget is that every soundcard is *different*. HDA isn't a "standard". If it were, there wouldn't be a zillion sound threads where people moan about some weird sound issue, and don't even bother to state which of the thousands of different soundcards they have.

While I'm on the subject, people should be directing ALSA bugs to the ALSA bugzilla.

Actually it is a standard, the problem is that it is too flexible. What happens is that each manufacturer decides how to connect things to the chip's inputs/outputs. Because the jacks are retaskable, this is, an input can become an output and vice-versa and each manufacturer connects things the way it sees fit this causes problems.
Then to sort it all out proprietary drivers are used that know exactly what connects where and how to configure the codec to make it all work.

Just search the web and the forums and you will see that. That's why you can pass so many models to the intel-hda driver and why some people have no sound at all when using the default config and others just don't have jack sensing working properly.

Edit: corrected some typos.

Last edited by R00KIE (2009-04-11 22:56:17)


R00KIE
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#13 2009-04-11 23:41:12

Slack
Member
From: Chile
Registered: 2008-10-27
Posts: 52

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Thanks, I will try this later


Excuse my poor english

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#14 2009-04-12 18:33:32

Procyon
Member
Registered: 2008-05-07
Posts: 1,819

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

About OSS sound cards, my HDA card doesn't work, but I have an old emu10k1 Sound Blaster Live 5.1, is it worth trying OSS out? Do you think an old Live 5.1 with OSS would be better than a present HDA builtin with ALSA?

Last edited by Procyon (2009-04-12 18:33:58)

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#15 2009-04-12 19:36:11

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Procyon wrote:

About OSS sound cards, my HDA card doesn't work, but I have an old emu10k1 Sound Blaster Live 5.1, is it worth trying OSS out? Do you think an old Live 5.1 with OSS would be better than a present HDA builtin with ALSA?

Try it out. if you don't like it, you could always change it back.


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There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

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#16 2009-04-12 21:01:31

Procyon
Member
Registered: 2008-05-07
Posts: 1,819

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Inxsible wrote:
Procyon wrote:

About OSS sound cards, my HDA card doesn't work, but I have an old emu10k1 Sound Blaster Live 5.1, is it worth trying OSS out? Do you think an old Live 5.1 with OSS would be better than a present HDA builtin with ALSA?

Try it out. if you don't like it, you could always change it back.

Turned out it was broken, the computer wouldn't even boot with something plugged into it. It was scary. Everything is working fine again now using ALSA.

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#17 2009-04-12 21:18:48

buttons
Member
From: NJ, USA
Registered: 2007-08-04
Posts: 620

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

This thread inspired me to try OSS with my HDA card.  However, none of my usb headsets worked, which means it's useless to me.

On topic: Thanks for the tip about flash!  I'll definitely use this.


Cthulhu For President!

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#18 2009-04-13 00:24:40

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

buttons wrote:

This thread inspired me to try OSS with my HDA card.  However, none of my usb headsets worked, which means it's useless to me.

On topic: Thanks for the tip about flash!  I'll definitely use this.

Yup, usb sound devices do not work on oss yet.

Last edited by Inxsible (2009-04-13 00:25:24)


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There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

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#19 2009-04-13 02:25:51

k_f
Member
Registered: 2008-06-05
Posts: 6

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

Just to confirm

MODULES=(... !snd-pcm-oss)

or

MODULES=(... !snd_pcm_oss)

?

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#20 2009-04-13 08:57:12

Wilco
Member
Registered: 2008-11-09
Posts: 440

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

k_f wrote:

Just to confirm

MODULES=(... !snd-pcm-oss)

?

This one
lsmod reports snd_pcm_oss but the module is actually called snd-pcm-oss

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#21 2009-04-19 06:14:57

tek
Member
Registered: 2009-04-19
Posts: 13

Re: Finally the solution for dmix, alsa, flash and only 1 sound

I try with MODULES=(!snd-pcm-oss) and reboot my pc, but still it doesn't work. In fact, i have been follow the instruction from  http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/All … ng_system.:

If you are still having problems: I see a lot of posts about flash + other programs that use sound. This happens because flash uses the alsa oss emulation instead of real alsa. The fix is easy, just disable oss (almost all programs are converted to alsa these days) by blacklisting the oss module in /etc/rc.conf in the MODULES section: !snd-pcm-oss

I can only listen or flash or amarok (it depends of what program i run first).

here my .asoundrc, thanks.

pcm.!dmix {
  type plug
  slave {
  pcm surround71
  channels 8
  }
}

pcm.!default {
  type plug
  slave.pcm "dmix"
  slave.channels 8
  route_policy duplicate
}

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