HOWTO: Hear multiple sounds using Both ESD & ALSA

[tseliot]

ohk thanks

Could you please tell me where to download Breezy, how to install it, what it is and if it would solve all of my sound problems?

Thanks

Ubuntu Breezy 5.10 is the next release of Ubuntu. Currently the stable version is Ubuntu Hoary 5.04 but tomorrow the stable version of Breezy is going to be released. You will be able to download it in the same way you did it for Hoary : http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download

AFAIK the problems with sound have been solved in Breezy (and my previous computer can prove that) but you might want to try a livecd first so as to be sure it really solves your problems.

[rgrig]

After following the steps in this howto in "Multimedia System Selector" I get an error when I test the ALSA input. With ESD input it does not give an error. However, mi mike seems not to work with either setting.

Any help?

[ameerirshad]

Thanks so much for posting this. I'd given up and was using polypaudio.
The method you presented worked great!

I read that polypaudio is the "new" ESD, so why turning back to the "old" ESD?

[j813]

Am I correct this is to enable multiple users of the sound?
Am using 5.10 and tried the instructions in page 1 but can't download the file.
Is there a new instruction for 5.10?

Thanks

[tedddee]

you might find that realplayer still doesn't work after switching to alsa. this is because it is looking for /dev/dsp which is the oss device. Fortunately, alsa includes oss emulation. to enable it, just type

modprobe -v snd-pcm-oss

this will create the /dev/dsp device, routed to alsa.

Realplayer (and other oss only apps, no doubt) then works.

If that works fine, then just add snd-pcm-oss to the file /etc/modules

it will be loaded automatically at boot.

how do i reverse modprobe -v snd-pcm-oss ?

i tried this and now quake4 wont start, tried rebooting and its still the same

[shreevatsa]

I'm probably not the first to wonder this, but is there any possibility of a good config like this getting into the default installation? And in the meantime, having it as a package that can be installed (via backports perhaps?)
It's a huge annoyance especially as it seems solutions are well known. Especially now when I'm converting people with my new Ubuntu CD:s this is one of the issues that makes even hardened commandline geeks roll their eyes...
Not to be too negative though, I'm happy there are solutions, just wondering if the solutions are generic enough to include from the start, and asking if it is possible.

well it's not in default installation because not all audio card support this and this topic proove this

Well then, can't we have a package that detects if our audio card supports it or not, before applying these changes? Or a package that when installed, will apply these configurations, and when removed, will restore our old ones?

[KlausPaiva]

Hello!

I've followed this tutorial and, now I can hear sounds from XMMS and GAIM but, not from XMMS and Skype.

I've put XMMS to use ESD and GAIM to use Alsa, everything worked fine.

(I don't know where I specify to Skype to use ESD or Alsa. I've found something that points to /dev/dsp, nothing more)

But, when I use XMMS (both in ESD or ALSA), Skype says that the device is busy... (my GAIM is closed and artsd or esd are not running when I'm doing this test)

Somente knows something to help me?

[dmvianna]

Works here as well.

[dmvianna]

Originally Posted by KlausPaiva:

(I don't know where I specify to Skype to use ESD or Alsa. I've found something that points to /dev/dsp, nothing more)

But, when I use XMMS (both in ESD or ALSA), Skype says that the device is busy... (my GAIM is closed and artsd or esd are not running when I'm doing this test)

/dev/dsp is ALSA's OSS emulation. I've heard that Skype highjacks /dev/dsp in many places before getting to this forum. So, either use one or another each time, or keep googlin'...

[EDIT] I reckon this is what you wanted? [http://juljas.net/linux/skype/ skype-dsp-hijacker]
There is also a deb package for Ubuntu, but it's not as up to date as the tar in that page.

[Shampyon]

Heyo. I used to use Xandros because of the Windows networking capability, but after trying out the Live CD for Ubuntu I had to switch. When the time came for me to get a new computer, I decided to dedicate this one to Ubuntu.

Thing is, I didn't check hard enough and didn't realise my Sound Blaster Audigy Value (comes up as "Creative Labs SB Audigy LS" in #lspci) wasn't out-of-the-box compatible. So I tried the tutorial in this thread:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...ighlight=sound

It worked, sort of. I could hear sounds, but they were crackly, distorted. Lots of white noise when performing simple tasks. So I tried out the advice at the start of this thread. No I have no sound again.

It's got me a little miffed, 'cause I just used Automatix for the first time and got just about every bit of extra software I wanted to use, but I can't hear a darned thing.