Only one program can use alsa at a time...

ap viper · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Feb 2004 Posts: 95

I'm having a problem with alsa. I'm running a stock 2.6.5 kernel, with the modules built into the kernel. However only one program can output sound at a time. For example, I'm playing music in xmms, and chatting on gaim. I'll hear the music, but not the sound notifications from gaim. However, when I stop xmms, the sound notifications play one after another until finished. On another note, my sound quality is horrible when playing wavs and mp3's, but decent when playing ogg's. Any suggestions?
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why the heck are you reading this?

thechris · Veteran Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 1203

look into alsa-jacks or such. from my understanding most built in audio doesn't support "hardware mixing" and thus multiple sounds must be added together by software before being played. jacks is ALSA's preffered sound daemon for this.

ap viper · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Feb 2004 Posts: 95

thanks, I merged the alsa-jack, restarted alsa, and now everything's great! Sound quality's fixed too. Thanks.
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why the heck are you reading this?

Woody · Guru Joined: 30 Nov 2002 Posts: 592 Location: Milwaukee

In no way whatsoever did emerging alsa-jack solve your problem.
It was something else.