Only one sound source at the time works.

jpalan · 2011-09-18 11:56:06

Not that long ago things used to be good. Things used to work nice. I was happy. My desktop was happy. Then, at some point during the summer, something went wrong. I can't remember when exactly it happened, but at some point a poison pill came from the updates, my computer got a bad trip. No error messages, warnings or anything else to prepare me for what was coming.

My hotkeys in sawfish for changing the volume just stopped working. After a while of scratching my head, I noticed that the mixer device that used to be in /dev just isn't there anymore. Gone like a fart in the desert. No idea how to get it back.

And if that wasn't enough, the sound also got generally cranky. If I have a youtube or any other similar tab open in my browser, totem is mute. So, if I want to watch a movie or listen to a music and it's not working, I have to figure out which one of the damn browser tabs has decided to hijack my audio and close it. It's sort of a problem in modern multitasking environment.

Any useful ideas? And no, reinstalling the system is not one.

If I get this back working, I swear to god I will never ever run updates again.

graysky · 2011-09-18 11:59:00

What are you using for sound, alsa, pulse, oss?

karol · 2011-09-18 12:27:18

jpalan wrote:

If I get this back working, I swear to god I will never ever run updates again.

If this is your idea of useful ideas, Arch is not the distro for you.

1. Make sure that you are in the audio group.
2. Try removing ~/.asoundrc if it exists.
3. Run 'modprobe snd-pcm-oss' (as root) and check if it gets you /dev/mixer back. You shouldn't need it to just play audio from different sources.

jpalan · 2011-09-18 12:27:57

Alsa.

Hmm, apparently totem and mplayer have no beef playing audio and video simultaneously, it only seem to happen when flash is involved.

jpalan · 2011-09-18 12:37:11

karol wrote:

3. Run 'modprobe snd-pcm-oss' (as root) and check if it gets you /dev/mixer back. You shouldn't need it to just play audio from different sources.

A-ha! That was the mystery of the mixer device, a missing module, just one of those problems that are too simple. Thanks.

However, flash still seems to hijack everything.

karol · 2011-09-18 12:37:17

jpalan wrote:

Hmm, apparently totem and mplayer have no beef playing audio and video simultaneously, it only seem to happen when flash is involved.

Yes, this usually is the case, although I've never had this problem on any of my computers.

Where did you get this flash from - is it the stock Arch one or did you get it from AUR or ...? 32 or 64 bits?

jpalan · 2011-09-18 12:53:18

karol wrote:

jpalan wrote:
Hmm, apparently totem and mplayer have no beef playing audio and video simultaneously, it only seem to happen when flash is involved.
Yes, this usually is the case, although I've never had this problem on any of my computers.
Where did you get this flash from - is it the stock Arch one or did you get it from AUR or ...? 32 or 64 bits?

Stock flash, 64bit, so I guess the problems don't come as a surprise.

karol · 2011-09-18 12:53:23

jpalan wrote:

However, flash still seems to hijack everything.

Instead of guessing, start playing mplayer and some flash source (youtube or whatever) and post the output of 'fuser -v /dev/snd/*'.
Is your mplayer using alsa? 'cat ~/.mplayer/config' might have the answer (if you use the config) or just check mplayer output:

...
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mpg123] MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [mpg123] afm: mpg123 (MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
...

See that

AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)

- I have configured mplayer to use alsa.

Barafu Albino Cheetah · 2011-09-18 22:24:19

It seems you installed pulseaudio, but not the alsa emulation module. You have to be more attentive to such nuances. alsa emulation module is in another package.

Hiperi0n · 2011-10-02 22:38:03

I posted earlier here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=126536

I had the same problem and I resolved it at last, going through the wiki here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio#ALSA

So my problem was not having installed lib32-libpulse and lib32-alsa-plugins packages in my x86_64 system, as the recommended flash installation is 32 bit. I hope it works for you too.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-18 11:56:06

Only one sound source at the time works.

#2 2011-09-18 11:59:00

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#3 2011-09-18 12:27:18

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#4 2011-09-18 12:27:57

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#5 2011-09-18 12:37:11

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#6 2011-09-18 12:37:17

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#7 2011-09-18 12:53:18

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#8 2011-09-18 12:53:23

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#9 2011-09-18 22:24:19

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

#10 2011-10-02 22:38:03

Re: Only one sound source at the time works.

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