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xaff

Member

Registered: 2009-02-26

Posts: 64

Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

I can't get flash and pidgin to work with alsa. I have no problem with mplayer or mpd. I've already stopped other sound devices from loading its kernel modules since some applications tend to send signal only to first sound card, but it didn't help.

Here's my aplay -l and -L output:

mateusz@saturn ~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: DX [Xonar DX], device 0: Multichannel [Multichannel]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: DX [Xonar DX], device 1: Digital [Digital]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

mateusz@saturn ~ $ aplay -L
front:CARD=DX,DEV=0
    Xonar DX, Multichannel
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=DX,DEV=0
    Xonar DX, Multichannel
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=DX,DEV=0
    Xonar DX, Multichannel
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=DX,DEV=0
    Xonar DX, Multichannel
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=DX,DEV=0
    Xonar DX, Multichannel
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=DX,DEV=0
    Xonar DX, Multichannel
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=DX,DEV=0
    Xonar DX, Multichannel
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

Here's my asound.conf:

pcm.!default pcm.ossmix
pcm.ossmix {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1024
    ipc_key_add_uid false
    ipc_perm 0666
    slave {
        pcm "hw:DX,1"
        period_time 0
        period_size 1024
        buffer_size 8192
       
    }
    bindings {
        0 0
        1 1
    }
}

I'm using digital output only, but I've tried connecting the speakers to analog output and didn't hear any sound either. Do you guys have any idea what to do next?

Square

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 435

Re: Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

I've never been able to get pidgin working with anything as of late, so I change the output to use 'aplay -q %s' (ossplay %s for oss users) and it works just fine. For flash, perhaps installing alsa-utils would help? I'm not sure about that one.

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xaff

Member

Registered: 2009-02-26

Posts: 64

Re: Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

I have alsa-utils installed, so it must be something else. It's been bugging me for weeks actually and I can't figure it out.

R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

Do you have pulse installed? Those apps may not know how to use pulse.

What does 'lsmod | grep oss' say? I think I've seen somewhere that It might be a good idea to blacklist any alsa module related to oss to make sure things like flashplugin don't try to use the oss emulation before trying to use alsa.

I don't have much experience with this though, just giving some ideas based on what I've seen around here.

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R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

xaff

Member

Registered: 2009-02-26

Posts: 64

Re: Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

I don't have pulse installed. Here's a list of modules:

mateusz@saturn ~ $ lsmod | grep oss
snd_seq_oss            36320  0
snd_seq_midi_event      8640  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                64768  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            47360  0
snd_mixer_oss          21024  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                91784  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_oxygen_lib
snd_seq_device          8372  4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd                    77224  13 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_virtuoso,snd_oxygen_lib,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device

I've tried running a browser with aoss, but the effect was the same.

R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

I would try disabling snd_seq_oss, snd_pcm_oss and snd_mixer_oss. I believe this makes it so there is no oss emulation, therefore all programs will be forced to use alsa. If it doesn't work then no more ideas here.

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R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

xaff

Member

Registered: 2009-02-26

Posts: 64

Re: Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

Unfortunately that didn't help.

xaff

Member

Registered: 2009-02-26

Posts: 64

Re: Alsa issue with certain applications (firefox, pidgin)

Here's an update:

I didn't manage to get sound from flash working in alsa, so I'm using pulse as a workaround.