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#1 2005-06-20 15:57:31

viniosity
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From: New York, NY
Registered: 2005-01-22
Posts: 404
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sound from > 1 application (solved)

I've got sound working on my Arch install (intel_8x0 driver) but sound still only plays from one application at a time.  I'm up to date with Alsa 1.09 which I thought solved the issue.  Any ideas?

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#2 2005-06-20 17:18:47

holskoiff
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From: São Paulo
Registered: 2005-03-16
Posts: 38

Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

You can use a Sound Daemon, such as esd or artsd, or the mixer that comes with the new alsa, I believe it's called dmix, haven't used it thought.


[]'s

Felipe Weckx

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#3 2005-06-20 17:20:19

Dusty
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From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
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Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

There's info in the wiki on dmix. As you say, I thought it was automatic with the latest Alsa too, but maybe you should investigate the wiki. Something may not be enabled.

Dusty

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#4 2005-06-20 17:26:48

viniosity
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From: New York, NY
Registered: 2005-01-22
Posts: 404
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Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

Well, I checked out the wiki and it tells me to modify /etc/libao.conf and /etc/asound.conf.  Problem is I have neither of thoes files.  Could this be part of my problem? Did I forget to install something?  My sound *does* work, but only from one application at a time.  I did follow the wiki to get sound working initially so I don't know what I would have missed..

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#5 2005-06-20 18:34:53

glitz
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Registered: 2005-06-15
Posts: 19

Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

Do you use Gnome?  If so, check whether or not the "Multimedia Systems Selector" has ALSA as its output.  You can find this under Desktop > Preferences > Multimedia Sys...

I don't know if there is anything similar for KDE.

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#6 2005-06-20 19:32:49

mattux
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Registered: 2004-04-22
Posts: 81

Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

you can use closed source oss driver (nvidia nforce at example) they can organise more than one client

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#7 2005-06-20 23:11:02

viniosity
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From: New York, NY
Registered: 2005-01-22
Posts: 404
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Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

I'm using the i915 chipset and I don't think there's a closed source sound driver for it.  Still, the suggestion by Glitz worked with one exception.. Flash.  I can now listen to my music and get my IM sounds and Email alerts but can't get my strongbad email with any of the above.  I seem to recall hearing an issue existed about Flash specifically but don't recall if a solution exists..

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#8 2005-06-20 23:49:09

keevn7
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From: Lancaster, OH, US
Registered: 2005-06-09
Posts: 206
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Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

viniosity wrote:

I'm using the i915 chipset and I don't think there's a closed source sound driver for it.  Still, the suggestion by Glitz worked with one exception.. Flash.  I can now listen to my music and get my IM sounds and Email alerts but can't get my strongbad email with any of the above.  I seem to recall hearing an issue existed about Flash specifically but don't recall if a solution exists..

Flash uses OSS devices, so you need to run your browser with the "aoss" command before it in order to get Flash to work properly.

Example:

aoss firefox

aoss is in a package called alsa-oss. Cheers.

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#9 2005-06-21 00:19:51

viniosity
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From: New York, NY
Registered: 2005-01-22
Posts: 404
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Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

keevn7 wrote:

Example:

aoss firefox

aoss is in a package called alsa-oss. Cheers.

That did it!  Thanks everyone!

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#10 2005-06-21 02:01:47

Eugenia
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From: Bay Area, CA, USA
Registered: 2005-03-08
Posts: 74
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Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

BTW, the "aoss exec" is a *workaround*, not a solution. And it does NOT work with all OSS apps.

Currently, only the dmix thing is a "solution", but of course is a complex, hacky, ugly solution and again, not all OSS apps work again (not even all Alsa ones, no matter if you are using esd/arts/etc or not).

The problem is with Alsa itself, and until this is fixed there and provide software mixing *automatically* when a sound chipset does not do mixing in hardware, we will have to use hacky solutions like the above.

This was the reason why JWZ left Linux for OSX a week ago btw: sound mixing not being automatic by Alsa. This was *supposedly* worked on for Alsa 1.0.9, but apparently, it doesn't work.

Personally, I am very unhappy with the Alsa stuff, really poor experience. I have 3 PCs that are "hit" from this Alsa deficiency/poor-architecture and no, I am not happy about this. I use dmix on one of the 3 PCs, but as I said, it does NOT fix all apps, only the ones that support specifying special alsa "devices" or the ones that actually "listen" to esd/arts and they don't do their own thing. It's just poor experience, something that should be fixed in the Alsa-driver side and not by users or distros.

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#11 2005-06-21 05:35:00

FJ
Member
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: 2005-03-17
Posts: 75
Website

Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

viniosity wrote:

Well, I checked out the wiki and it tells me to modify /etc/libao.conf and /etc/asound.conf.  Problem is I have neither of thoes files.  Could this be part of my problem? Did I forget to install something?  My sound *does* work, but only from one application at a time.  I did follow the wiki to get sound working initially so I don't know what I would have missed..

I use the same driver as you and Alsa 109 didn't do dmix for me either.  I didn't have asound.conf but I simply created it, put the software mixing info that is found in the wiki and then mixing worked OK.

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#12 2005-06-21 06:13:16

keevn7
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From: Lancaster, OH, US
Registered: 2005-06-09
Posts: 206
Website

Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

Eugenia: Quite right, but the move to ALSA 1.0.9 was a step in the right direction, and I am sure they are working harder for better software mixing in the next release. This "dirty hack" could also be a place holder for something much better that will arrive in a later version, in which OSS emulation will even have software mixing. Unless you have information from the developers to which we are unaware, I do not think it is right to be making any judgements about where the ALSA development is headed. However, I will concur that at the current point it is not the best it could be as far as software mixing goes. Cheers.

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#13 2005-06-21 07:54:57

Eugenia
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From: Bay Area, CA, USA
Registered: 2005-03-08
Posts: 74
Website

Re: sound from > 1 application (solved)

> I do not think it is right to be making any judgements
> about where the ALSA development is headed

What do you mean? What such kind of judgement did I do? All I said is that software mixing does not work, it should have worked (sorry, but even half-assed old OSes like QNX, OS/2 and BeOS, Windows95 have automatic software mixing just fine) and that there was a talk that 1.0.9 WAS to bring automatic software mixing, but it didn't.

Last November there was a huge thread with me, Linus and the alsa guys discussing this very thing, with Linus pretty much asking for that same thing too. If Alsa guys want to be taken seriously (and they do want to, because they wanted to replace OSS in the kernel, which DOES have software mixing) they better get their act together. The lack of automatic software mixing  is simply unforgivable after all these years of Alsa development. We are talking about ~80% of linux laptop users today can't play more than one sound at a time and many cheaper PC systems can't either (all the AC97 cards for example)! This is pathetic. I am sorry, but it is! This is 2005, even the Amiga could  do automatic software mixing. (most of the users don't even know what's wrong, they think it's their distribution's fault!!!)

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