Just one audio stream? Arrgh!

Mutant_Fruit

I just did a fresh install of debian, manually installed Xfree86 4.4.0, manually installed intels drivers for the i855 graphics chipset, and manually installed intels drivers for the wireless 2200 chipset. And it all works, except for one annoying thing.

I can only have one audio stream playing at any one time. I either play an MP3, OR i play a video. How do i allow linux to play several streams at once? It seems like a stupid limit to have, so unless someone can give me a good reason to leave it like that, how do i fix it?

SkepticOne

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

I can only have one audio stream playing at any one time. I either play an MP3, OR i play a video. How do i allow linux to play several streams at once? It seems like a stupid limit to have, so unless someone can give me a good reason to leave it like that, how do i fix it?

Are the audio apps pointing to directly to the audio device or are they configured to output to a sound daemon like esd? Is there a sound daemon running?

Mutant_Fruit

How do i check for a sound deamon? And how would i install one if i needed it? Afaik, they are outputting to OSS (i'll double check that later).

SkepticOne

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

How do i check for a sound deamon? And how would i install one if i needed it? Afaik, they are outputting to OSS (i'll double check that later).

If you have gnome or kde installed then most likely there is one installed.

Check for arts (aRts soundserver) or esd (Enlightened Sound Daemon) in your list of installed programmes.

Install one of them if not installed. Then set a couple of audio apps to output to them. XMMS has an option for esd in preferences, for example.

I don't know too much about aRts (the KDE daemon) but esd should start up automatically when a program tries to access it. Then other apps make use of that instance provided they have been set to use it.

You can check to see if it's running by:

ps -ax | grep esd

for esd. It should work out of the box once the apps are set to use it.

Mutant_Fruit

the command: "ps -ax | grep esd" gives bad syntax when i try and run it. Also, programs refuse to work when i set them to use ESD, but synamptic tells me that i have it installed.

I tried a reinstall, but that hasn't helped. Tis a puzzler alright.

SkepticOne

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

the command: "ps -ax | grep esd" gives bad syntax when i try and run it. Also, programs refuse to work when i set them to use ESD, but synamptic tells me that i have it installed.


I tried a reinstall, but that hasn't helped. Tis a puzzler alright.

Try "ps ax | grep esd". The "-" should not have been there. My mistake.

"ps ax" gives a listing of all running processes and "| grep esd" cuts it down to just those lines containing "esd". If you get no output, then esd isn't running. It should either be running or start up when a program needs it.

Also try running esd directly from the command line "esd &" and then one of the programs set to use it. It may not be spawning automatically.

Finally, check the config file esd.conf.

Mine says:

auto_spawn=1
spawn_options=-terminate -nobeeps -as 2
spawn_wait_ms=100

You will need to check where this is located as it varies according to distro. Probably /etc/esd.conf.

Mutant_Fruit

perfect!

I used "esd & xmms" to test esd support, and i was able to use esd output when i ran that command. I then checked the conf file like you suggested, and saw it was set to not autostart, so i made it autostart, and everything is hunky dorey now.

Thanks a lot. Couldn't find a solution anywhere on the net.

nadir

omfg ESD Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I dont have hardware mixing either, so I use alsa with dmix, it works perfectly except for some games that whore /dev/dsp

set up an ~/.asoundrc something like this

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dsp {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:0"
period_time 0
period_size 512
buffer_size 32768 #modify this to match your card's buffer size
rate 48000
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}

ctl.mixer {
type hw
card 0
}

if you use mplayer use ao = alsa1x:default

happy software mixing
untill I pick up an SB Live