Audacity - /dev/dsp is an invalid device
 

hello.
when i go into file > preferences in audacity and try to change anything, i get this:

"Error - invalid playback device" whenever i try to change anything and then click OK to exit.
the playback device is set to /dev/dsp which is the only valid playback device on my system.

this stops me from changing any of the other prefs, specifically bitrates etc.

i googled for this but only found people saying "don't change the preferences", which is no help to me.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance...

maybe check the permissions for /dev/dsp. is it accessible to everyone?

permissions are 777 on /dev/dsp
the default permissions on /dev/dsp in slack 9 are pretty strict so i generally change them to 777 out of habit.

incidentally, i read your signature and thought of this, from a book i am reading:

>when i go into file > preferences in audacity and try to change anything, i get this:
> "Error - invalid playback device" whenever i try to change anything and then click OK > to exit.

I have the very same problem, except that /dev/dsp is just a link to /dev/sound/dsp, but anyway, it wouldn't work either with that one.
NB: My distro is Mandrake 9.2

the best advice ive heard so far is to upgrade to a newer beta version of audacity, or to edit the config files by hand.