Command to restart sound server?
 

I'm trying to script something on my Slackware machine to restart the sound server. I've been doing it manually via the KDE Control Center sound screen, but is there a command line way of doing this that I could incorporate into a script?

I haven't had much luck in my searching the web and LQ for that.

Thanks. :)

Do you mean artsd?

Then take a look at artsshell

Nope, sorry I should have mentioned, I'm running alsa.

Why do you need to restart alsa? It's inside the kernel (afaik, kernel service) and I don't think it can be simply restarted.

How does KDE do it from the Control Center then, I wonder?

I'm wanting to script this so I don't have to do it manually before starting another app.

kde restarts arts, which is the kde sound mixer

Even if in the KDE Control Center I'm specifying ALSA?

That seems goofy to me. :scratch:

Ok, I'll try to explain a bit. There are several audio layers. OSS (deprecated) or/and alsa provides drivers for your audio chipsets and that's why you enable their drivers in the kernel. You run kernel and so you run alsa, which requires your audio chipset module modprobed. There is an interaction between userspace alsa (you can configure it, adjust sound levels) and kernelspace alsa server. As well, there are esd and arts. Esd is used by gnome and arts is used by kde. Those are software mixers provided by mentioned desktop environments. You may not use esd or arts and use alsa asoundrc instead. Those mixers just mix the sound and send combined digital soundwave to alsa, which works with your soundcard and lets your hear it.

Ahhhh, okay. Thanks for the explanation, I've always had a hard time grokking how this worked on different levels.

I'll give that a try. Thanks again! :D

There are more than this, especially if you work in sound production area. You could read those projects web pages too for better understanding.