Two or more processes using the sound device?

shadin · 07-15-2006, 11:45 PM

I've been searching on here and Google, but apparently the right wording to look for is eluding me. Basically, I'm having issues allowing more than one program to use my sound device. For instance, when listening to music and using GAIM, I get no sound from GAIM until I close the music player, at which point all the GAIM sounds come through at once.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Even if it's simply helping me with a search phrase!

cs-cam · 07-16-2006, 12:10 AM

The search phrase is 'alsa dmix slackware'

There are also various sound servers out there that do software mixing etc for you as well but I use dmix with good results.

Tinkster · 07-16-2006, 12:11 AM

What sound-drivers are you using? ALSA? What desktop?

The question about whether you can use several apps with
audio-output at the same time depends on several factors;
to gain a quick overview this is a good starting point.
http://alsa.opensrc.org/FAQ018

Cheers,
Tink

shadin · 07-17-2006, 07:52 AM

'alsa dmix slackware' was indeed just the phrase! I created the .asoundrc file to enable the dmix plugin, and everything worked great after restarting X.

Here's the contents of the file, just put it in the user home directory:

Code:


pcm.sndmix  {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1024
    slave {
        pcm "hw:0,0"
        period_time 0
        period_size 1024
        buffer_size 8192
        #periods 128
        rate 44100
    }
    bindings {
        0 0
        1 1
    }
}

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

pcm.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "sndmix"
}

ctl.mixer0 {
    type hw
    card 0
}

Thanks everyone for the help!

cs-cam · 07-17-2006, 05:59 PM

Nice to hear you've had a win