KDE audio with ALSA and Arts, how?

Tue May 4 16:21:18 BST 2004

Thank you JRT for that really thorough and helpful overview of how it all 
works together.  Unfortunately, I'm still no closer to being able to listen 
to clean music while I work :-(

FYI, in Debian at least, the ownership of the /dev/<sound devices> is set to:
root:audio (not root:sound).

Any other ideas about how to approach troubleshooting this?  I'm running out 
of hope... I might just have to plug the audio back into my Mac for music.

If some kind soul would walk me through troubleshooting this, I'd be most 
grateful :-)

If you're up to the challenge, here a summary:  My system sounded very good 
before I upgraded to a 2.6 kernel with alsa.  Now I think that arts and alsa 
are competing for my sound card.  Here's a layout of what's happening:
1) JuK sounds sort of garbled when set to arts (like an old slightly 
demagnetized audio tape)
2) JuK sounds listenable but with occasional pops when set to GStreamer (like 
a vinyl record that pops occasionally).
3) [newly discovered] KDE (which uses arts) and JuK (which is set to use 
GStreamer) don't seem to be able to share the sound card.  If I reboot, I can 
hear KDE sounds (startup, new mail, etc), UNTIL I use JuK, then from that 
point on, I hear no KDE sounds unless I quit JuK and do: 
/etc/init.d/alsa restart

Any clues in there?

Sean

On Monday 03 May 2004 02:21 am, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> Sean Schertell wrote:
> > On Sunday 02 May 2004 02:32 pm, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> >>Sean Schertell wrote:
> >>>On Sunday 02 May 2004 01:09 am, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> >>>>kde at schertell.com wrote:
> >>>>>Can someone please explain how to get KDE 3.2.2 to use alsa?  I've got
> >>>>> a 2.6.5 kernel and alsa is running but doesn't really work with KDE. 
> >>>>> Here are some clues:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>1) The test sound works well from the control center, but I don't hear
> >>>>>the KDE startup sound or any other KDE sounds.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>2) JuK sounds a bit "garbled" when set to use arts output
> >>>>>(unlistenable).
> >>>>>
> >>>>>3) JuK produces no sound and skips to the next track when set to use
> >>>>>GStreamer output.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>Help please!  I don't understand how KDE and arts and oss and
> >>>>> gstreamer and alsa are supposed to all work together ?!  Mostly, I
> >>>>> just want to get JuK sounding okay again.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>If you have any clues at all, please enlighten me!
> >>>>
> >>>>I'm not sure of your problem.
> >>>>
> >>>>IIUC, you must have the latest version of ALSA to use with the new
> >>>>Kernel. Do you have ALSA 1.0.4?  If not, upgrading ALSA is the first
> >>>>thing that I would suggest.
> >>>>
> >>>>There was a bug in KDE that you had to select ALSA in the Sound System
> >>>>KCM. I don't know if that is still necessary, but I would then try that
> >>>>as well.
> >>>
> >>>Thanks for your help... but actually, I do have the latest 1.04 ALSA and
> >>>I've tried selecting ALSA or Threaded Open Sound System in Control
> >>> Center -- same results.  I think maybe I've got too many sound modules
> >>> loaded or something. Any other ideas?
> >>
> >>You must have: "/etc/modules.conf" setup correctly for it to work.
> >>
> >>There are copy and paste level instructions for most sound cards at:
> >>
> >>	http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
> >>
> >>--
> >>JRT
> >
> > Thanks JRT,
> >
> > Actually, I think I read somewhere that that file is no longer relevant
> > under a 2.6 kernel.  Can't remember what you're supposed to do instead --
> > I worked on this for about 10 hours so I read a *lot* of stuff... but I
> > still don't understand how all of these things are supposed to work
> > together:
> >
> > * arts
> > * arstd
> > * oss
> > * alsa
> > * alsa with oss compatibility
> > * gstreamer
> >
> > Crikey, could they possibly make sound any more confusing on Linux even
> > if they tried?!  :-(
>
> *Some* of this is simple.  OSS is the old system that is being replaced by
> ALSA.  So, if you are using ALSA, you don't use OSS, but ALSA has OSS
> compatibility so that it will work with older programs that don't support
> ALSA output yet.  It that was all, we wouldn't have any issues.
>
> Then on top of that, KDE uses the aRts sound system.  This provides a
> higher level API to KDE applications using sound.  Like many UNIX things,
> aRts runs a daemon -- that wound be: "artsd".  You don't have to worry
> about the daemons, they are created by the aRts system when needed.
>
> There are problems with aRts.  It doesn't seem to want to work with
> everything.  I find that to run the ALSAPlayer that I must first kill all
> of the instances of: "artsd".  I consider this to be a serious bug.
>
> Then you are also using GStreamer program which I haven't tried yet (this
> is odd since I tend to try everything but I have been busy helping my
> Father move so that will probably have to wait two weeks or so).
>
> It appears that GStreamer fits in the same place that aRts does.  It is a
> layer between the actual sound system and the applications using sound to
> provide a higher level API.  It is possible that GStreamer isn't getting
> along with aRts.
>
> These two sound API systems: GStreamer and aRts both need to access the
> proper Linux device.  aRts will probably use: "/dev/dsp" although ALSA is
> supposed to use: "/dev/snd/*" and the current method refers to them by
> their "major number" rather than device name.  Device (psudo) files have a
> major and minor number to identify them to the system.  In any case, you
> should check the permissions of:
>
> 	/dev/dsp*
> 	/dev/audio*
> 	/dev/midi*
> 	/dev/mixer*
> 	/dev/sequencer
> 	/dev/sound/*
> 	/dev/beep
>
> There seems to be a disagreement on whether the ALSA device directory
> should be named: "snd" or "sound".  I made a link:
>
> 	sound -> snd
>
> in the: "/dev/" directory to eliminate this issue.
>
> These devices all need to have the correct ownership and permissions for
> sound to work.  The orthodox UNIX method is to have them: root:sound:660.
> You then must have a group: "sound" and all user accounts that are
> permitted to use the sound system must be members of the group: "sound".
> Alternately, they can be: root:root:666, but this is considered to be bad
> security.  If you have PAM installed and running, you will find that the
> ownership and permissions of these devices might be changing and that this
> is screwing things up.  If you are using PAM and want those permissions
> with the group: "sound", you need to edit [as root]:
> "/etc/security/console.perms".  Change this line to read:
>
> 	<console>  0660 <sound>      0660 root.sound
>
> Then use: "KUser" to set up the: "sound" group.  Restart KDE to see if this
> helps.  If not, IIWU, I would install ALSAPlayer and kill all: "artsd" and
> anything that is GStreamer and see if it works.
>
> There is also Jack which I installed but have no idea how to use.  But, it
> might let you use more than one sound system at the same time.
>
> --
> JRT
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