Is it possible to get OSS and ALSA working side-by-side?

[RaymondTracer]

Since I sometimes like to play games and listen to music at the same time, I'm wondering if I can install OSS and make VLC run through OSS and my games run through ALSA and still hear both at the same time.

[dibl]

It's probably possible, but it's a terrible idea. Both ALSA and PulseAudio are capable of mixing multiple streams, OSS is not. ALSA includes an OSS compatibility feature to handle the unlikely possibility that you run into a need for it. Here is a reasonable tutorial on Linux sound: http://tuxradar.com/content/how-it-w...udio-explained . Here is more on PulseAudio: http://userbase.kde.org/PulseAudio .

[RaymondTracer]

it's a terrible idea.

Ok smarty pants, what else do you suggest running aside ALSA that isn't PulseAudio?

[james147]

Ok smarty pants, what else do you suggest running aside ALSA that isn't PulseAudio?

You cannot run two applications that lock the sound card at once, you cannot even run two applications that use ALSA at the same time with out some pain. This is what pulseaudio is for, it grabs the sound car and lets everything run through it. ALSA has an oss plugin in it so applications that use oss can use alsa, I see no reason why you would want to use two different audio managing software like oss and alsa at the same time.

[RaymondTracer]

Because PulseAudio gives me trouble, so I've decided to see if an alternative is possible.

[dibl]

KDE games are famous for missing audio output. I don't play 'em -- google suggests there has been little or no development of their sound libraries for many years. So part of your problem may be the game software you are using. For example, try running ONLY the game -- does it have sound output?

As far as PulseAudio's ability to handle multiple input streams, it's working perfectly here on 12.10. Here are some pointers:

1. Install every gstreamer0.10 plugin you can find.



2. Install pavucontrol and set your output device to Analog Stereo.

3. In systemsettings > multimedia > phonon, make sure (a) the backend is set to GStreamer, and (b) you have a working device for both music and games. Highlight the device at the top of the list, and click "Test" at the bottom of the panel to confirm that it works.



4. If your output devices for both music and games test good, and your volume is set to an audible level, then PulseAudio is not the reason something doesn't provide sound. Some packages, like Skype, insist on "ownership" of the pulseaudio system and won't let another player work, although browser plugins still work. Here's a screenshot of both alsaplayer and chromium/youtube running simultaneously -- it's not attractive to hear, but they both are playing.

[james147]

Because PulseAudio gives me trouble, so I've decided to see if an alternative is possible.

Pulseaudio is a giant hack to merge all the other giant hacks that have previously been called sound systems together. There is no alternative to it but you do not have to use it.

However all the other sound systems are just going to give you more problems then pulseaudio if you decide to remove it so it is best to try and fix it first. (ie playing sound from more then one applications at a time was a pain before pulseaudio).

What problems you are having with pulseaudio?

[RaymondTracer]

What problems you are having with pulseaudio?

There's a game called Stepmania that I like to play and if I try to play it with any other application that uses ALSA I get these errors:

Couldn't load driver ALSA-sw: dsnd_pcm_open(default): Device or resource busy
Couldn't load driver pulse: pa_contect_connect(): Connection refused
Couldn't load driver OSS: RageSoundDriver_OSS: Couldn't open /dev/dsp: No such file or directory

OSS, ofc, isnt installed but Pulse doesnt seem to work, which is acturally why I wanted to try a ALSA/OSS hybrid setup in the first place.

[james147]

Did you build it from source? http://www.stepmania.com/forums/show...-Stepmania-ini suggests that the released binaries don;t have pulseaudio support.

[RaymondTracer]

Yeah, I build it from source, I keep up-to-date with its development.

[james147]

I would try their forums as it is more likely a problem with the application then kubuntu.

[RaymondTracer]

Alright, thank you.