I have been using Slackware 9.1 for about a week (LinuxFormat
coverdisc) and am enjoying the experience for the most part. After
having my hand held with Mandrake, and getting fed up with RedHat 9, I
decided to give Slack a go. Aside from not being able to print to a
remote CUPS server (config problems on the server I suspect, since
nothing else can print to it either....) mousewheel, NFS, and video
card problems it's been a lot more fun to use than the aforementioned
distros. Anyhow, to the point.

I mainly use KDE, and currently, it's using aRTs, but for some odd
reason I get a half-second delay in audio. This goes from XMMS
playback using aRTs, to in-game events in kbattleship, Vendetta, and
Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It also applies to the error bell,
basically anything that calls on the sound server. I tried reducing
the buffer size, but when the delay is virtually gone, the sould is
horrible. I tried switching to using ALSA, but I get the following

sound server informational message
error while initialising the sound driver
device: default can't be opened for playback (Permission denied)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device

ok, so what's the default device? I suspect what I need to do is
change it's file attributes, but I haven't a clue where to go from
here, which device it is... guess I'm more of a newb than I thought.

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Mr Galorin wrote:

> I mainly use KDE, and currently, it's using aRTs, but for some odd
> reason I get a half-second delay in audio. This goes from XMMS
> playback using aRTs, to in-game events in kbattleship, Vendetta, and
> Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It also applies to the error bell,
> basically anything that calls on the sound server. I tried reducing
> the buffer size, but when the delay is virtually gone, the sould is
> horrible.

try running 'artsshell status', it should tell you
on line 2,
'real-time status: real-time'
and on line 7
'audio method: alsa'
if not then you should try to:
chmod /opt/kde/bin/artswrapper SUID root
or
change the sound I/O method to alsa in kde control centre -> sound and
multimedia -> sound system -> sound I/O
respectively.
HTH
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> I mainly use KDE, and currently, it's using aRTs, but for some odd
> reason I get a half-second delay in audio. This goes from XMMS
> playback using aRTs, to in-game events in kbattleship, Vendetta, and
> Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It also applies to the error bell,
> basically anything that calls on the sound server. I tried reducing
> the buffer size, but when the delay is virtually gone, the sould is
> horrible. I tried switching to using ALSA, but I get the following
>
> sound server informational message
> error while initialising the sound driver
> device: default can't be opened for playback (Permission denied)
> The sound server will continue, using the null output device

Do you mean you're running an aRTs server using oss and want to switch it to
using alsa? I'd recommend disabling the aRTs server entirely on the sound
option, but anyway...
>
> ok, so what's the default device? I suspect what I need to do is
> change it's file attributes, but I haven't a clue where to go from
> here, which device it is... guess I'm more of a newb than I thought.

You should chmod 666 /dev/mixer and /dev/dsp. If they are simlinks, as is
likely, you should probably also chmod the devs they point to.

Minor update: I've successfully switched over to the 2.6.0 kernel,
and except for not being able to install the nvidia drivers, (already
getting hlp on this) I can notice definite improvements in operation.
I compiled in OS emulation, and XMMS can play back using OSS plugin,
but not ALSA plugin.


> Do you mean you're running an aRTs server using oss and want to switch it to
> using alsa? I'd recommend disabling the aRTs server entirely on the sound
> option, but anyway...

Done that, disabled aRTs on startup, seems senseless to run aRTs when
ALSA is good as-is.

> You should chmod 666 /dev/mixer and /dev/dsp. If they are simlinks, as is
> likely, you should probably also chmod the devs they point to.

Done that, still same problems with XMMS and ALSA plugin. under
preferences
>audio I/O>configure for ALSA, the default options are
audio device>greyed out. trident 4DWave and Trident 4DWave IEC958 are
available when user defined is unchecked
user defined>checked
text box>default
mixer card>0
Mixer device>PCM

So far, XMMS is the only app that I can get sound out of, and that's
when using the OSS output plugin... does that mean that OSS is
running, or that it's using OSS emulation, and I've got ALSA's
settings messed up? kbattleship can't connect to the aRTs server
(since I disabled it) and without the nvidia drivers, I can't test
out Wolfenstein or Vendetta. Any other ways to test that ALSA is
actually working?

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On 7 Jan 2004 04:53:09 -0800, Mr Galorin <thegalorin@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Any other ways to test that ALSA is
> actually working?

Didya try alsaplayer?

FWIW, I recently discovered Beep Media Player, a GTK+2 port of XMMS. It
seems to have fixed many of the XMMS bugs which forced me to hate XMMS.

It plays great through alsa via the dmix plugin, allowing me to hear my
IM chimes while streaming audio over http. :-)

--
Rob | If not safe,
Email and Jabber: | one can never be free.
athlonrob at axpr dot net |
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thegalorin@yahoo.com (Mr Galorin) wrote in message news:<f11995dc.0401070453.3becea76@posting.google. com>...
> Minor update: I've successfully switched over to the 2.6.0 kernel,
> and except for not being able to install the nvidia drivers, (already
> getting hlp on this) I can notice definite improvements in operation.
> I compiled in OS emulation, and XMMS can play back using OSS plugin,
> but not ALSA plugin.
>
>
> > Do you mean you're running an aRTs server using oss and want to switch it to
> > using alsa? I'd recommend disabling the aRTs server entirely on the sound
> > option, but anyway...
>
> Done that, disabled aRTs on startup, seems senseless to run aRTs when
> ALSA is good as-is.
>
> > You should chmod 666 /dev/mixer and /dev/dsp. If they are simlinks, as is
> > likely, you should probably also chmod the devs they point to.
>
> Done that, still same problems with XMMS and ALSA plugin. under
> preferences


> >audio I/O>configure for ALSA, the default options are
> audio device>greyed out. trident 4DWave and Trident 4DWave IEC958 are
> available when user defined is unchecked
> user defined>checked
> text box>default
> mixer card>0
> Mixer device>PCM
>
> So far, XMMS is the only app that I can get sound out of, and that's
> when using the OSS output plugin... does that mean that OSS is
> running, or that it's using OSS emulation, and I've got ALSA's
> settings messed up? kbattleship can't connect to the aRTs server
> (since I disabled it) and without the nvidia drivers, I can't test
> out Wolfenstein or Vendetta. Any other ways to test that ALSA is
> actually working?

I got the same message, "...default can't be opened for playback...".
I found advice stating to check permissions of these /dev files: midi,
sequencer, mixer, dsp, and music. I set all with the command "chmod
a+rw /dev/appropriate_device_here". Still got same message when using
ALSA. When shutting down the X window system, I noticed a message
about one of the pcm files in /dev/snd. I can't remember the exact
message, it was something about permissions in a certain pcm file.
I didn't remember which one, so I changed permissions with "chmod a+rw
/dev/snd/pcm*". After that sound worked fine. Sound device is an
onboard ac 97.

>> Any other ways to test that ALSA is
>> actually working?
>
> Didya try alsaplayer?
>
> FWIW, I recently discovered Beep Media Player, a GTK+2 port of XMMS. It
> seems to have fixed many of the XMMS bugs which forced me to hate XMMS.
>
> It plays great through alsa via the dmix plugin, allowing me to hear my
> IM chimes while streaming audio over http. :-)

And don't forget to disable mmap if you use the dmix alsa plugin.



--
Дамјан (jabberID:damjan@bagra.net.mk)

Loose bits sink chips.

>
> I got the same message, "...default can't be opened for playback...".
> I found advice stating to check permissions of these /dev files: midi,
> sequencer, mixer, dsp, and music. I set all with the command "chmod
> a+rw /dev/appropriate_device_here". Still got same message when using
> ALSA. When shutting down the X window system, I noticed a message
> about one of the pcm files in /dev/snd. I can't remember the exact
> message, it was something about permissions in a certain pcm file.
> I didn't remember which one, so I changed permissions with "chmod a+rw
> /dev/snd/pcm*". After that sound worked fine. Sound device is an
> onboard ac 97.

I checked all the above, all have the rw file attributes,including
those in /dev/snd. Onboard device is a Trident 4DWave. I've got a
troubleshooting kernel that I'm working on, so I can keep my mostly
functional 2.6 kernel, and keep working on the ALSA, and newly cropped
up loadable module support.. as it doesn't seem to compile in, doesn't
function right.. or causes some sort of error that keeps the
re-written nVidia install script from installing itself.