arts and alsa -> happy together?

bobbens · 02-14-2005, 08:11 AM

How can i happily marry arts and alsa together so i can get sound with everything and make everything happy? Right now i don't get sound with kde, and i have to killall artsd to get sound in ut2004 with alsa. Yet alsa works fine and xmms and everything is just happy. How can i get around to getting sound in kde, making arts happy, while not loosing my alsa and everything? I know there are a thousand posts like this, but i've read through alot and most haven't helped me. Thanks.

Haiyadragon · 03-11-2005, 09:55 AM

I'd like an answer to this too. KDE forces you to use arts, but arts needs "exclusive control". Thank you very much. A lot of apps can't use arts yet, and some have problems with it. So what's the deal here?

bobbens · 03-11-2005, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Haiyadragon
I'd like an answer to this too. KDE forces you to use arts, but arts needs "exclusive control". Thank you very much. A lot of apps can't use arts yet, and some have problems with it. So what's the deal here?

What i found to be the best solution is to get rid of kde. I've done a complete system reinstall without installed kde and it's working out really well. I'm having alot better support with everything from printers to sound. The only thing i miss from the kde days is k3b. But i'll just wait till GnomeBaker comes out and enjoy that.

Haiyadragon · 03-11-2005, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bobbens
What i found to be the best solution is to get rid of kde. I've done a complete system reinstall without installed kde and it's working out really well. I'm having alot better support with everything from printers to sound. The only thing i miss from the kde days is k3b. But i'll just wait till GnomeBaker comes out and enjoy that.

So what do you run now? Gnome? I found that anything that uses gtk is slow and uses that horrible file dialog (especially Gnome). Anything else can't manage themes so every app looks different. I'm having a hard time choosing. Whatever I choose it means sacrifice.

Haiyadragon · 03-11-2005, 11:28 AM

I found a solution to the original problem though. Make sure that on the configuration screen Sound & Multimedia -> Sound System -> Hardware -> Select audio device is set to Advanced Linux Audio Architecture (alsa). I think autodetect chooses alsa but I'm not sure. Then put the following script in /etc/asound.conf:

Code:

pcm.dmix0 {
  type                  dmix
  ipc_key               673138

  slave {
    pcm                 "hw:0,0"

    rate                48000

    period_time         80000
    buffer_time         320000

    period_size         4096
    buffer_size         16384
  }

  bindings {
    0                   0
    1                   1
  }
}

# 'dsp0' is espected by OSS emulation etc.
pcm.dsp0 {
  type                  plug
  slave.pcm             "dmix0"
}

ctl.dsp0 {
    type                hw
    card                0
}

pcm.!default {
  type                  plug
  slave.pcm             "dmix0"
}

ctl.!default {
    type                hw
    card                0
}

ctl.mixer {
    type hw
    card 0
}

Now alsa and arts can play sound at the same time.

bobbens · 03-11-2005, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Haiyadragon
So what do you run now? Gnome? I found that anything that uses gtk is slow and uses that horrible file dialog (especially Gnome). Anything else can't manage themes so every app looks different. I'm having a hard time choosing. Whatever I choose it means sacrifice.

Fluxbox with gdesklets for the starter. It’s really nice. I'm getting alot better speed and it's really comfortable, it just takes quite a bit more configuration. I've even dropped kdm/gdm for startx so i can get some startup scripts running. I've never been happier :P. I'm starting to get good at using the console too.

Quote:

I found a solution to the original problem though. Make sure that on the configuration screen Sound & Multimedia -> Sound System -> Hardware -> Select audio device is set to Advanced Linux Audio Architecture (alsa). I think autodetect chooses alsa but I'm not sure. Then put the following script in /etc/asound.conf:

I tried configuring the Sound & Multimedia with my asoundrc file and i never got it to work fully and perfectly. xmms always sounded flaky while ut2004 always said "do killall artsd to get sound while playing". Now i have no problems, no competition and i mainly use gtk programs except some gnome things, but no kde whatsoever. The important thing is to feel at home in your system and i feel completely at home in my new system.

madluther · 03-11-2005, 03:17 PM

My method for 'fixing' this is to set the suid bit on the artswrapper script in the KDE bin directory, arts will then run with realtime scheduling and auto suspend when other apps wish to use the sound devices via alsa. works just fine with Q3-Arena, ut2004, doom3, NWN etc. If you run the KDE 'Sound Server Control' tool in the multimedia menu, it will tell you that the suid bit needs to be set on artswrapper for arts to schedule correctly

HTH

Mad.

foo_bar_foo · 03-11-2005, 05:41 PM

you can turn off arts (not enable it) and set mplayer as the KDE external player and set mplayer and everything else to use alsa.
and force software mixing in ~/.asoundrc (very similar to Haiyadragon's solution)

Code:

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

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

# this makes native ALSA apps default to using dmix
pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmix"
   
}

yes it's really that simple

Haiyadragon · 03-11-2005, 05:48 PM

But kde apps need arts for their notification sounds. Most important for me is Kopete. There seems to be no way to have kde apps use alsa.

vharishankar · 03-11-2005, 10:01 PM

Just use the "auto suspend" option in KDE Sound System and set it to a low value like 10 seconds.

So if idle for 10 secs, KDE will give up control of your sound system and ALSA programs will work fine.

Or disable the KDE sound system altogether.

foo_bar_foo · 03-12-2005, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Haiyadragon
But kde apps need arts for their notification sounds. Most important for me is Kopete. There seems to be no way to have kde apps use alsa.

i think i just told you how
by setting mplayer as external player in Control center -> sound and mm -> system notification -> Player settings -> use external player -> mplayer -> apply -> ok

i must admit i never use this though does it not work for things like kopete ?
i made it make all those horrid KDE sounds once -- oooh that was bad
but it was certainly kde apps making noise without arts

Haiyadragon · 03-12-2005, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by foo_bar_foo
i think i just told you how
by setting mplayer as external player in Control center -> sound and mm -> system notification -> Player settings -> use external player -> mplayer -> apply -> ok

i must admit i never use this though does it not work for things like kopete ?
i made it make all those horrid KDE sounds once -- oooh that was bad
but it was certainly kde apps making noise without arts

Ok, sorry, I didn't know about that option. I will try it. Arts sucks