[FreeNX-kNX] FreeNX and Sound

[Joseph Jamieson]

Greetings,

> No, however there is a proxy module in FreeNX SVN with compression.

Sounds interesting, I'll check it out once I get this sorted.

> nxesd is started on client on say port 6000. (automatically via
commercial > client)

Okay, so nxesd is the client piece, and sets up to listen on a port
that's based on the display number port. 

> So environment has to have:
> 
> ESPEAKER=127.0.0.1:8000

So the "ESPEAKER" env is what any "esound" clients will look for to send
the sound.   I've done a little reading on esd now, so I'm more familiar
with it at least.

The environment variable doesn't seem to get set on my YDL install when
I login with Windows NX Client 2.1.0-17.   (What script/executable is
supposed to set it?) 

When I connect though, nxesd does run on the client and listens on port
6000/tcp and 2766/udp:

TCP    127.0.0.1:6000         0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING
4132
  [nxesd.exe]

UDP    127.0.0.1:2766         *:*
4132
  [nxesd.exe]

> Then using any esd capable program "just" works. Sorry, but it is like
that.

I don't think it's all that simple.  You need nxesd running properly on
the client, you need the environment variable set correctly each time
you connect, the ssh port needs to get forwarded, and you need esd aware
applications.  Apparently, there's something else, too, or it would be
working.

> mplayer -ao esd test.mp3

Okay since I had no ESPEAKER env set, I tried setting one to see if esd
was even working.  I first tried 127.0.0.1:6000.

Tail end of mplayer output:

========================================================================
==
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16be, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
========================================================================
==
[AO ESD] esd_open_sound failed: Address family not supported by protocol
Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound.
Audio: no sound
Video: no video

Exiting... (End of file)

I did some quick searching on that error and Google finds no results in
quotes, and a lot of non-esd specific pages if not in quotes.   I'll dig
a little deeper for this one.

So, then I tried pointing directly to the workstation,
192.168.5.166:6000 (it's on the same subnet) and connection refused.
(perhaps it only accepts connections from localhost.) I also tried 2766
on both.  No dice.

I am going to try to find a windows app that can use esd to test nxesd
locally and see if there's a problem on the client.  I don't think it's
this particular workstation, because it happens on two different ones.  

Perhaps there's a problem with the ssh port forwarding.

> And yes it works like that for many people.

I understand that, but it didn't for me, thus the problem finding any
useful troubleshooting information.

> So, please for a start, start explaining where your problem really
lies. :-)

Now- I could be mistaken- but I thought I did try to explain on my
original posting the problem I had.  I wasn't able to provide exactly
what the problem was (how could I know where the problem "really" lies
if I didn't know how nx did sound) and so I asked for someplace where I
could read up on the subject.  Obviously, in the general sense the
problem is "sound isn't working."

So, if we could just assume for a moment that I'm not dense, and move
on, that would be great.

>>> In KDE, when I try to enable Arts, it complains that /dev/dsp can't
be 
>>> opened - on the CentOS machine, it has no sound card.  On the PS3,
it 
>>> appears to be trying to use the built-in sound card.

I have since instructed aRTS to use the "networked sound" but
unfortunately I now get "Couldn't connect to server." (see above)

>That is because it is "click it and it works". Sorry, but it can't be
>simpler.

Now that I know a little bit more about how this is supposed to work, it
does in fact appear as if it should be easy.   Of course, it's still not
working.  At least I have some things to go on now.

Once I get this running, I'll add to the wiki.  I have to believe that
I'm not the only one that doesn't automatically know how esd and nx
sound works.  Even if it is easy, it wouldn't hurt to be documented.

Thanks for the help so far,

Joe