[wplug] SOUND!

[Michael E Uhl]

I noticed the tip at the end of this message about killing esd if you
get "device busy" errors.  Here's another solution:

esd has a command line option "-as X" where X is an integer.  This
option tells esd to release the sound hardware if esd hasn't been used
for X seconds.  I use this option so that I can play games without
having to kill esd.  Just stop all programs that send their sound
through esd, wait X seconds, and then start your non-esd program.  You
shouldn't have any "device busy" errors.

I don't use the gnome desktop (only esd and Evolution), so I don't know
if gnome's panel or other accessories would mess up this scheme (i.e. if
they access esd constantly).  Anyway, your mileage may vary, but you
might want to give it a try.  I find it more convenient than stopping
and starting esd all the time.

hope it helps,

-michael

On Sun, 2004-09-19 at 15:48, Bryon Gill wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Sep 2004, Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
> 
> >> ALSA on 2.6 has 'just worked' on every sound card I've tried to use in the last
> >> year or so, using Fedora Core 1 and 2.  I even have a professional M-Audio card
> >> hooked into one of my PC's and it runs beautifully.
> >>
> >
> > Okay, so by 'just worked,' you mean you removed the OSS drivers, installed
> > Alsa, and configured it to load the alsa drivers, and then pointed all
> > your programs at alsa?  Pretty much it's just the first step that I don't
> > think I understand there, though I have (seemed to) run into problems on
> > my system.  Perhaps I will try again.
> 
> No, on FC1 I installed the 2.6 kernel that has ALSA built in, on FC2 it comes 
> that way.  There's still an emulated OSS interface through ALSA so your OSS apps 
> will still work normally.
> 
> 
> 
> >
> >> The ESD thing is tricky- ESD is a broker for your /dev/dsp and tries to
> >> intercept stuff, but some times latency is really bad or programs think the
> >> device is occupied.  For games you sometimes have to turn it off- otherwise it
> >> should be transparent to most of your sound applications; ditto for artsd in KDE
> >> apps.
> >
> > So, in your 'just working' systems, do you have a facility for that
> > behavior?
> 
> I haven't had to think about it for a while- if i get a "device busy" error I do 
> a
> 
> ps ax | grep esd
> 
> and if esd is running I kill it
> 
> killall esd
> 
> then try my application again.
> 
> Good luck,
> Bryon
> 
> 
> >
> > And, of course, there is the perennial "flash player in mozilla won't play
> > sound" problem, for which I still haven't found a solution that works for
> > me (web has suggested a few that are either non-applicable, insufficiently
> > detailed, or unsuccessful)
> >
> >>
> >> I have only one real gripe, and it's not Linux's fault- mp3 can't work out of
> >> the box for a truly free distribution because of patent concerns with
> >> Fraunhofer.
> >>
> >
> > Agreed.  And I suppose I need to look at Fedora for my desktop
> > 'windows-replacer.'
> >
> > -Brandon
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > wplug at wplug.org
> > http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug
> >
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-- 
Michael Edward Uhl
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