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would you really like fries with that?

Hardy's Bugs - apps prevent each other from using audio.

I have no idea how to file this bug (which package?), so I'll post it here and ask on #ubuntu+1.

There are two groups of apps:
  1. flashplugin-nonfree (in firefox, tested on youtube) and rhythmbox
  2. gmplayer, gnome-mplayer, Totem, VLC, Skype

When either app from one group is using audio (please see a note below, marked "Note 1"), none of the apps from the other group can use audio.

Examples:
  • music is playing in rhythmbox, I try to open some movie in gmplayer. I get an error: "Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound."
  • movie is playing in gmplayer, I try to start a song in rhythmbox - it doesn't start (nothing happens).
  • a song is paused in rhythmbox, I initiate a call on Skype. Neither side hears anything.

Please not that sound works perfectly fine as long as apps from only one group are being used. So for example Skype won't have a problem if VLC is playing at the same time.

Note 1. I don't really know when an app actually "uses audio", so my description might be erratic. Rhythmbox prevents apps from the second group from using audio only when music is playing or it's paused. When I stop music with a "stop" button via my laptop's multimedia keys (I can't see a "stop" button anywhere in Rhythmbox), I can make calls or watch videos. In gmplayer, simply opening a video file prevents Rhythmbox from being operational. It doesn't matter if the movie is playing/paused/stopped.

I've dist-upgraded to Hardy the next morning after Alpha 5 came out (so I think it was Feb. 23, 2008). I'm using Dell Inspiron 1720.

Same problem for me =/

Same problem for me =/

Very same prob, post solution

Very same prob, post solution if ever you find one!

Same problem here. Could you

Same problem here. Could you solve problem? Please let me know. Thank you very much in advance.

Sound problems are changing

Sound problems are changing quite rapidly for me. Not only have there been a lot of movement related to pulse audio, I also physically broke my lappy's audio-out jack (it fell inside) and am using an external sound card (sound blaster mp3+) which is behaving weirdly.

Many of my apps have been working on a on-and-off basis. For example, VLC has been working with default settings (whatever they were), but at some point stopped. I made it to use ALSA and it works. Flash didn't work at all for a long time... a few weeks ago an update to flashplugin-nonfree fixed it.
Another problem started a few days ago. After boot, my sound card works only with some programs (VLC using ALSA), but not with others (Rhythmbox, totem - I guess they're using pulse). I unplug and re-plug the usb card a few times and I get three types of results: VLC works but others don't; everything works; nothing works...
Gnome-mplayer stopped outputting sound some day. Then (later) regular mplayer joined the club. At one point, gnome-mplayer did output sound (when using ALSA), but also spawned a zillion error windows per second.

As you can see, my problems are probably atypical. External USB sound card introduces its own set of problems and I just don't want to dive into all this.

Me too! Did you ever find a

Me too! Did you ever find a solution to this?

The easiest solution is to to

The easiest solution is to to disable PulseAudio and use ALSA as the default. PulseAudio is more robust, but many programs are hardcoded to use hardware rendering and won't route through it.

Follow these instructions (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio) to remove PulseAudio. Edit the configuration file and remove all the installed packages in that first line. Also run this command to check if you have alsa installed (you should): sudo apt-get install alsa

Then just go to Prefs -> Sound and change all devices to ALSA. After you restart X (Log in and out) all your sound should work perfectly.

 

My favorite bands

Pixies
Manu Chao
Bonobo
Massive Attack
Antonio Vivaldi
The White Stripes
Archive
T.Love
Noir Désir
Kult
 

My favorite albums

Doolittle by Pixies
Surfer Rosa / Come on Pilgrim by Pixies
White Blood Cells by The White Stripes
Classical Masterworks CD39 by Vivaldi, Antonio
Animal Magic by Bonobo
666.667 Club by Noir Désir
Prymityw by T.Love
Mezzanine by Massive Attack
Classical Masterworks CD 6 by Albinoni, Tomaso
Pressure Drop, The Best Of ... by Toots & The Maytals
 

My favorite tracks

Wave of Mutilation by Pixies
Hey by Pixies
Here Comes Your Man by Pixies
Debaser by Pixies
I Bleed by Pixies
Dead by Pixies
Intro by Bonobo
Tame by Pixies
Monkey Gone to Heaven by Pixies
Lazy by Noir Désir
 

Tabbos

Free and open source software
Ubuntu
Debian
Geany
Last.fm
Digg
Slashdot
Wikipedia
Drupal
CakePHP
KS Cracovia Kraków
Free Tibet
Pixies
Massive Attack
The Clash
Air
Röyksopp
Thievery Corporation
Bonobo
Manu Chao
5'nizza
 

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