Problem with soundcard configuration...
 

Hi,

Recently installed MDK 9.2 on my IBM R40 Centrino laptop. MDK detected my sound card and everything is fine except that now I realised that unlike Windows XP, when I'm using Linux, the soundcard cannot play two files (multi-tasking) simultaneously. For eg, previously when running XP, I used to play MP3 files continuously, and I could still work with other applications which make use of the soundcard like a flash animation with sound, my instant messenger's sounds, etc.....Now, in linux, my soundcard does only one task...I get errors like "Soundcard being used by someother application".....

Whats wrong? I found the following information in HardDrake regarding the sound card.....

Vendor: ‎Intel Corporation

Alternative drivers: ‎ali5455:i810_audio:nvaudio

Bus: ‎PCI

Bus identification: ‎8086:24c5:1014:523

Location on the bus: ‎0:1f:5

Description: ‎ICH4 845G/GL Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller

Module: ‎snd-intel8x0

Media class: ‎MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO

Use a soundserver like eSound or Arts. A sound server is like a software mixer that takes audio input from different applications and mixes them to a single stereo soundstream. Windows has one built in, that's why you can have sound from different sources at the same time.


Håkan

Hi,

I tried installing esound 0.2.8...but I get the following error when I compile....

/bin/sh ./libtool --mode=compile gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I. -g -O2 -c esddsp.c
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I. -g -O2 -c -fPIC -DPIC esddsp.c -o esddsp.lo
esddsp.c: In function `open':
esddsp.c:172: error: `RTLD_NEXT' undeclared (first use in this function)
esddsp.c:172: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
esddsp.c:172: error: for each function it appears in.)
esddsp.c: In function `ioctl':
esddsp.c:373: error: `RTLD_NEXT' undeclared (first use in this function)
esddsp.c: In function `close':
esddsp.c:392: error: `RTLD_NEXT' undeclared (first use in this function)
make: *** [esddsp.lo] Error 1

I installed AudioFile 0.2.6 already....

Any idea why I'm getting this error?

Thanks,

Hi,

Just now found out that MDK's KDE by default runs arTs...infact true...mine also runs arTs by default!!! Found this in "SoundSystem - KDE Control Module". But, any idea why cannot I still play 2 sounds simultaneously?

Thanks,

You need to tell the applications you are using to use arTs as output. In xmms for example, go to output plugins and select arTs. This is at least true for eSound. I think Mandrake comes with eSound as well but it's not installed by default.

Also make sure your sound server is actually running!


Håkan

Thanx Hakan!

It works now...I can play my mp3 in XMMS and at the same time play a test sound in KDE Sound Control Panel which obviously didnt work earlier.

But, wondering if I have to do this manually to all apps? Is there no way to universally make all apps use arTs? If not, how to make my IMs use arTs to give sound alerts? I'm using aMSN and yahoo msngr.

I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm having a similar problem you had... except I had to turn arts off. It caused problems in games (ut2004). Now the games work, but I can't get xmms to work correctly w/ sound. arts was never an option for my xmms. my options were esounds (not installed, i think) alsa, oss i'm using alsa/oss for the system, but am unable to get it to work correctly for xmms. I can post more information if necessary...
Aras