play aRts sound and pure alsa/oss sound - at the same time?

danzvash · n00b Joined: 01 May 2002 Posts: 62 Location: London, UK

Has anybody tried the following tip given in the Tips n Tricks section?

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=15110

It basically involves configuring aRts to use a different device from /dev/dsp (which is the default), thereby freeing /dev/dsp for use by "legacy" applications which don't like aRts.
(Sidenote: I find that it is best anyway to suspend arts and just use the alsa output drivers when watching films and stuff with xine/mplayer - less CPU usage, better sync, less dropouts etc)

I tried the tip with my setup. So aRts is apparently using /dev/dsp1 (I didn't receive any error message when I restarted the sound server). But using arts programs produces NO SOUND, and when I look at the devices themselves...

www root # ll /dev/dsp*
lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 9 Sep 18 01:44 /dev/dsp -> sound/dsp
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 3 Sep 18 01:44 /dev/dsp-
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 19 Sep 18 01:44 /dev/dsp1-

there is no /dev/dsp1, but rather a /dev/dsp1- as seen above.

Do I need to configure devfs or create /dev/dsp1 by hand? How should I do this?

If yes, can I then expect to be able to play sound through aRts-enabled programs at the same time as using an alsa-only prog to play through /dev/dsp?

Malakin · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2002 5:55 pm Post subject:

What people use will usually depend on their hardware. In one box I use just alsa for an emu10k since it supports hardware sound mixing but for an es1370 I use arts on top of alsa since it needs the software mixing.

pilla · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2002 8:04 pm Post subject:

I think you need hardware with multiple channels (is it?) to have a /dev/dsp1

danzvash · n00b Joined: 01 May 2002 Posts: 62 Location: London, UK

..does anybody know how to check if a particular sound chipset can support hardware mixing?

I have a Labway Xwave, which uses the Fortemedia FM801 chipset (I believe)

Bus 0, device 16, function 0:
Multimedia audio controller: Fortemedia, Inc Xwave QS3000A [FM801] (rev 178).
IRQ 11.
Master Capable. Latency=32. Min Gnt=4.Max Lat=40.
I/O at 0xd800 [0xd87f].

The websites for Labway and Fortemedia are very unhelpful.
Does anybody know a reliable way to test if the soundcard supports hardware mixing?
If the alsa mixer module registers more than one PCM channel, does that suggest hardware mixing capabililty?

me confused...

sven · Apprentice Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 274

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
Look for your card. If it has a (4) listed in Notes then it supports hardware mixing. I have a SoundBlaster Audigy and am glad that it does support hw mixing. I always used arts till I figured out that it does support hw mixing! Doh! :roll: