Help about multiple display/sound device configuration
 

Hi

I'm trying to build a multimedia machine with display and two sound cards. The goal is to have the DVD display and sound directed to one output, and having the system sounds and display directed to another output, not interfeering with the first one.

who knows :

- what is the impact of having two displays... does it creates new devices (whith the dev filesystem) ?
- same question about having two sound devices...
- how do I configure this ?
- how do I interact with OSS ?
- how do I redirect the system sound to one devices, while the DVD & MP3 players are directed to the other one ?
- Is there anything special to do to play DVD to 5.1 channels ?
- how do I redirect my display to one one device or to the other one ?
- is it possible to have X started in two different display ?
- is it possible to have the same X server using two different displays at the same time ?
- is it possible to start a DVD player with its display on one screen and the command on the other screen ?

OK, some generic answers:

Having 2 displays should not create any more devices, as far as X in concerned. There are loads of threads already about using multiple displays...just have a quick search, but be prepared to edit your XF86Config file manually, I don't think there are (m)any programs around that'll do it for you.

Having two sound devices...I tried it once, but didn't work...but then, they were both ISA devices, and only one was PNP. If they're both PCI cards, and you know that they both work fine alone (i.e. with only one in the machine at once), then you could be lucky. You'd probably get some new devices, [/i]/dev/dsp?[/i] being the one that springs to mind (if they're newish cards).

How do you redirect system sounds? I think, under KDE, you can select which output device (/dev/dsp or /dev/dsp2) to output system sounds...have a look, I can't remember.

I'm affraid that's all I can think of, at the moment. Most of your multiple display questions should already be answered (in one way, or another) on this site. Good luck, and have fun.