Re: Some ALSA apps stopped working

On Thursday 28 June 2007 12:08, Chris Lale wrote:
> Some of my Etch sound apps have stopped working: Audacity, RealPlayer 10,
> XMMS. Others continue to work OK: gxine, mplayer, VLC Media Player.

Hi Chris. Is this a new install of Etch on this machine, and some sound apps just arn't working, or is it an existing install, and some have just stopped working? It looks like the latter from what you say above.

> The error messages are:
> Audacity: There was an error initializing the audio i/o layer
> RealPlayer 10: Cannot open the audio device. Another application may be
> using it. XMMS: Couldn't open audio. Please check that: Your sound card is
> configured properly. You have the correct output plugin selected. No other
> program is blocking the soundcard.

Seems like something has grabbed the soundcard, and won't let go. You could try disabling ESD, Gnomes sound daemon, if you're using Gnome, or aRTs sound server if you're using KDE. They are often responsible for this sort of problem.

>
> I can fix XMMS by changing the output plugin from OSS to ALSA (right-click
> -> Options -> Preferences -> Output Plugin. This should not be necessary -
> my Etch laptop works perfectly through ALSA with the Output Plugin set to
> OSS.
>
> I can fix RealPlayer and Audacity by installing alsa-oss and running them
> from a terminal using "aoss realplay" and "aoss audacity". I am sure that
> this should not be necessary either.

I always install alsa-oss as a matter of course, and didn't think that RealPlayer would work without it, as it's an OSS app. Same goes for Audacity IIRC.
>
> Can anyone please suggest where to look for the cause of the problem?
>
> --
> Chris.

Does running ps auxw show anything using the sound. Some daemon or other?

Over to you.

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Nigel.

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