[gobolinux-users] /dev/dsp disappeared after upgrade

[Michael Homer]

On 6/21/07, Hi There <goboster at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Michael Homer <gobo-users-dufus <at> wotfun.com>
> writes:
>
> >
> > On 6/21/07, Hi There <goboster <at> yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > > Got sound working even a little better now. In
> case
> *snip*
> > > Some old
> > > Ubuntu forums state this is due to artsd hogging
> > > /dev/dsp at startup. So I
> > > killed artsd, got sound back in all my apps but
> KDE.
> > > Disabled "enable sound
> > > system" in the control panel, no errors at startup
> > > (and no sound from KDE).
> > KDE routes all its sound through artsd; if you're
> using OSS, you have
> > to choose whether you want sound there or in exactly
> one other place
> > at a time. You can try running everything via
> artsdsp, but some
> > programs don't play well with it (artsdsp -m will
> help for some of
> > those).
> >
> > You really would be better off trying to get ALSA
> going properly. If
> > you have an Ubuntu or Knoppix CD around, use it and
> see which modules
> > they load for sound. You may want to save the output
> of lsmod to disk
> > and go through one by one to see which section of
> the kernel config
> > they're in if you don't recognise which it is. Or
> enable the lot and
> > modprobe them one at a time until it works. To be
> clear though, the
> > absence of /dev/dsp after that is expected behaviour
> unless you've
> > enabled legacy emulation, and programs should be
> using the ALSA
> > interface instead.
> >
> > I wouldn't recommend using OSS to anybody (it's
> deprecated for a
> > reason). Any program that really needs /dev/dsp is
> something you
> > should look at replacing, since it clearly hasn't
> been updated in a
> > while.
> > -Michael
> >
>
> I know OSS is supposed to be a bad idea, originally
> when I upgraded to the
> latest kernel I left it out entirely to "force" a
> switch over. KDE complained
> about no /dev/dsp, and ALSA wasn't being used by the
> Sound System (not even
> listed) though the modules appeared to be loaded. Any
> idea if there's some
> config setting to make KDE recognize ALSA exists, and
> force KDE to use it?
It should pick it up automatically - if it doesn't, ALSA isn't
enabled, isn't there, or isn't working. You may need to recompile ARTS
if ALSA support wasn't enabled in it, and if ALSA works elsewhere
(mplayer is a good testbed, because it prints out debugging
information). I don't know whether you've done that or not.

If you can only get OSS working, though, run artsd and then run other
programs you want sound from using artsdsp (e.g. `artsdsp firefox`).
It works with most programs, and artsdsp -m will work with some
others.
-Michael