[luau] Sound Problems (Mandrake 8.1)

[Warren Togami]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alvin Murphy" <amurphy at hawaii.rr.com>
To: <luau at videl.ics.hawaii.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 7:55 AM
Subject: Re: [luau] Sound Problems (Mandrake 8.1)


> I think the command for real player is "realplayer &" or something
> similar. As far as sound goes, it may be worthwhile to buy the OSS
> driver. Good luck.
>
> Ralph Miranda wrote:
>
> >
> > Sound problem... has anyone found the solution to my problem involving
> > sound on my system?  I'm running Mandrake 8.1 )don't like 8.2 too many
> > problems)
> > My "Netscape Radio" and CD works just fine.  But the regular sounds
> > for the computer doesn't even come up at all...
> >
> > Also, I installed RealPlayer 8.0 for Linux and I know it works.  I
> > can't seem to find it to activate it, but when something needs
> > RealPlayer, it pops up out of nowhere.  Please advise?

Are you aware of the "sound servers" esd (for Gnome) and artsd (in KDE)?
These programs grab full control of the sound device, meaning other programs
that expect sound card access do not get it.  This also means that if the
device is already grabbed by a program, esd or artsd is unable to start and
Gnome or KDE programs cannot play their sounds.

The best solution is to run artsd, then esd with "artsdsp esd &" which runs
esd with an emulated OSS device for output (via arts).  Then most programs
on your system should be able to output sound through either esd or artsd,
or directly to the hardware if you are using ALSA rather than OSS.

Real Player for Linux has a preference option to use esd for sound output,
so set that.  XMMS can use either OSS, artsd or esd (and ALSA directly if
you compile it in) so configure that appropriately too.

As for your Mandrake 8.2 difficulties, can you bring your computer to our
next installfest?  We should find the cause of your Mandrake 8.2 problems in
order to not only make it possible for you to run the latest software, but
to report and fix bugs upstream in Mandrake itself.  I hope to schedule
another InstallFest late May or early June.