[wplug] State of Linux Sound

[Joshua Solomon]

Something else you can do is upgrade to one of the more recent
2.6.15-2x kernels.

On 10/21/06, Robert E. Coutch <robert.coutch at verizon.net> wrote:
> Here's a few things you might want to look into.
>
> 1 - If any of the programs using sound were designed for OSS and not ALSA, I
> could see where you would have the problems.
>
> 2 - The dmix plugin for ALSA might be helpful. Do a google on it.
>
> On Saturday 21 October 2006 07:51 pm, Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
> > Hello list.  I am writing to ask a question about a nuisance that has been
> > troubling me for awhile regarding sound on Linux.  I'm using Debian with a
> > modern kernel (2.6.11) and Gnome for my desktop.
> >
> > The problem is with sound: specifically, only one program may make sound
> > at a time; one program having control over sound causes others to fail
> > silently (in multiple senses).  My understanding is that, due to /dev/dsp
> > being but a single file, only one process is allowed write access to the
> > file and so only one process may make sound.
> >
> > The solution to this is to run a dsp broker program like Esound or aRts.
> > The problem is, esound is stalled at version 0.2 and has not undergone
> > development in some integer number of years.  It is buggy, has huge
> > delays, and many programs don't interact well with it.  Because of that, I
> > have it disabled.  I don't know if aRts works with Gnome.
> >
> > However, it wouldn't help me anyway since I often have multiple users
> > logged into the computer, using various window managers, any one of which
> > may want to make sounds periodically.
> >
> > So right now I have given various users sudo privileges to kill processes
> > that might be using sound, so that they can 'steal' it on demand. But this
> > is obviously not a permanent solution.
> >
> > Is there any chance of this being fixed in the future?  Is it a
> > deeply-seated deficiency in linux?  Some unavoidable consequence of some
> > aspect of POSIX architecture?  Could it be repaired inside the kernel?
> > Is that contrary to dogma?
> >
> > Or, perhaps, am I misinformed about the state of the art?  Do the BSDs
> > have similar problems? etc.
> >
> > Thanks for info,
> > Brandon
> >
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