Most programs can't initialize audio with snd-hda-intel

[Dr. Frankenbox]

I'm using the snd-hda-intel driver for the built-in sound in an Asus M2N-E motherboard, and I'm having the weirdest problem. Audacious starts up and plays audio reliably, and my system sounds (played through mplayer at the command line) work just fine. However, most apps (ut2004, mplayer with gui, xine, wine) have trouble initializing the sound device. Just initializing it, though: they have no trouble playing if it's already initialized. I dicsovered that they can't use sound (or in some cases, they crash) if I'm not using the sound device, but if I'm running audacious in the background they work just fine. Any ideas what may be causing this and what to do about it? For reference, I'm running linux 2.6.21-gentoo-r4 compiled for amd64 (not a pure 64 bit environment, though).

[djscribble]

do you have dmix setup?

try using this for you .asoundrc:

Code: Select all

pcm.dmixer { 
    type dmix 
    ipc_key 1024
    ipc_key_add_uid false
    ipc_perm 0666                       # mixing for all users
    slave { 
        pcm "hw:0,0" 
        period_time 0 
        period_size 1024 
        buffer_size 8192
        rate 44100
    }
    bindings { 
        0 0 
        1 1 
    } 
} 

pcm.dsp0 { 
    type plug 
    slave.pcm "dmixer" 
} 

pcm.dsp {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"  
}


pcm.!default { 
    type plug 
    slave.pcm "dmixer" 
} 

pcm.default { 
   type plug 
   slave.pcm "dmixer" 
} 

ctl.mixer0 { 
    type hw 
    card 0 
}

I had a similar problem -- also, then you have to make sure that everything is running through alsa. if you are still having problems you will want to try to emerge aoss and wrap the program you are having problems with in that

Code: Select all

aoss firefox

[Dr. Frankenbox]

Thanks, but where do I put this .asoundrc?

[djscribble]

you put it in your home directory

[Dr. Frankenbox]

Well, I put that file in my home directory and did an /etc/init.d/alsasound restart, but that didn't solve the problem. Do I need a more serious restart, or should I try something else?

[tarpman]

dmix has been enabled for a long time now; it's no longer necessary to enable it in ~/.asoundrc (you can delete that file btw, it won't make a difference).

What are your USE flags? Are the programs you're having trouble with configured to use OSS, or ALSA?

[Dr. Frankenbox]

One major program that's having problems is wine, and that does have oss support (as well as alsa support). UT2004 is also affected, and I don't think that uses oss. As to .asoundrc, I just discovered that adding that file with the contents above actually worsened the problem - with that in place, wine couldn't initialize the sound device even when I was playing music in the background.

[djscribble]

dmix has been enabled for a long time now; it's no longer necessary to enable it in ~/.asoundrc (you can delete that file btw, it won't make a difference).

What are your USE flags? Are the programs you're having trouble with configured to use OSS, or ALSA?

How did you get it enabled by default?? In fluxbox i could not get anything to play at the same time until i used .asoundrc.